Find Specialists
Found a find?
During any type of archaeological fieldwork, finds are often recovered, ranging from small assemblages from evaluations through to large quantities recovered from excavations. They are either classed as general bulk finds or if more significant, then they would be regarded as small finds. The most common types of finds are pottery, animal bone and CBM (ceramic building material).
All finds that are collected on site are placed in finds bags (unless very large) and clearly labelled with the relevant site name and context information. These finds are then returned to the finds department at Milton Keynes. All material arriving at the department is accompanied by a finds transfer sheet which confirms the associated information of each item. These are then checked into the finds department and entered onto the processing and tracking database and the details are updated as the material passes through each stage of processing.
The skilled staff within the department are responsible for the processing and cataloguing of the finds and preparing them for specialist analysis and ultimately for museum deposition.
What Happens Next?
We have a core team of in-house specialists and external specialists who can assess and analyse the material for inclusion within a site report or as a stand alone report or publication. We can also provide this service of ‘from ground to report’ to other companies, groups or organisations.
