Archaeological Laboratory
Artifacts inform us on aspects of the daily life of people in the past and help us understand how cultures change and develop. The staff of the AECOM Burlington laboratory routinely process and analyze prehistoric and historic-period artifact assemblages for reports and publications. Our fully equipped laboratory contains 6,500 square feet of space dedicated to areas for washing, labeling, cataloging, analysis, photography, and the basic conservation of artifact collections. The professional staff includes material culture specialists nationally recognized for their work in glass, ceramics, prehistoric artifacts, and faunal remains.
Within the last decade, the AECOM Burlington laboratory staff has processed over 2,000,000 artifacts. We have worked with numerous assemblages excavated from sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Maryland, in addition to collections from other parts of the eastern United States, the Midwest, and the Caribbean. Our clients include corporate entities and state and federal agencies—in particular, departments of transportation and the National Park Service. Our laboratory staff has extensive experience with prehistoric artifacts from sites spanning 12,000 years of human habitation in North America (Paleo–Contact period). Our work with historic-period assemblages recovered from small domestic sites, large urban areas, early industrial sites, military battlefields, and cemeteries has revealed aspects of everyday life and industrial operations dating from the late seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century. The poster series we developed, Telling Time for Archaeologists, is used in educational institutions and archaeological laboratories across the country.
Our archaeological laboratory services include:
- Processing and researching collections from the time they leave the ground until they are delivered to an authorized repository.
- Generation of computer catalogs of artifacts including information on identification, function, manufacturing technology, and date of manufacture.
- Analysis of the relationships between site contexts and documentary records.
- Providing a coherent report incorporating context and artifact information.
- Creation of public-outreach materials, temporary displays, museum exhibits, and interpretive signage using excavated artifacts.
Services
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