A Summer in the Arc Lab - Why it can be nice to work for yourself and others
By: Camila Grases ‘21
In the summer of 2017, someone on the third floor of The Ahmanson Center (ACB) pulled a chemical wash shower and left the building. As the building began to flood, many began to realize that USC’s priceless collection of artifacts contained in the Archeology Lab on the third floor of ACB was in danger. These artifacts, mostly ceramics, are highly sensitive to even the slightest change in humidity, let alone the gallons of water pouring out of the shower. This flood was threatening thousands of years of priceless objects. An emergency evacuation took place and the collection was moved to an external storage site for nearly two years. Finally, in March of 2019, the collection was returned home.
When I offered my time to the lab, I was not sure what I was getting into. I wasn’t even really sure what was being done in that little third floor, three-room section of ACB. But on my first day, I was told the story of the flooding and my first job became to ensure that the artifacts that had been moved so hastily were not damaged or misplaced. Immediately, my mind was blown. My natural first thought when Johnna Tyrell, the director of the Archeology Lab, presented me with a box full of ancient artifacts and explained that I would be taking them out one by one and examining them was: Should they really trust me, a lowly, inexperienced undergrad, with these items? They did, in fact, put a great deal of trust in me. I even made it on to their Instagram.
Every time I opened a new box, something new caught my eye and I would have one of three reactions:
I would open my mouth and look around as if Tom Cruise himself had just come out of that box.
I would take a picture of it because that is just an engraved instinct at this point.
I would, in my mind, talk to the artifact. Kind of like how I would talk to a puppy (this really brought out a weird side in me) and I would ask it things like “I wonder what kind of person made you?” or “Hey, so, where are you from?”
When it was particularly amazing to me, like the time I opened a box and a human skull was awaiting my examination, I would do all three in that order. The human skull amazed me the most for two reasons. One, I was not expecting to find any type of human remains. Two, I felt like this was the closest connection I had with anyone from the distant past. When you spend time with these objects, you slowly start to realize that there were people thousands of years ago, just like you and me, (who maybe had crazy parents or angsty teenage years or had friends they were close with) who had made whatever object you were looking at. This was the remains of a real person in my hand. All I could think about while looking at it was “I wonder what your name was?” and I was filled with a deep respect for them.
After my fellow lab workers and I finished checking in all the objects returned from the flood, I began making storage containers for a new collection waiting to be integrated. In this phase of my summer, I got the opportunity to work with large objects that were part of our collection. Large Chinese vases, a stone container that looked almost like an altar, and a seashell encrusted vase that was absolutely beautiful. I don’t have a picture of any of these because moving them required almost four hands every time.
My final day in the lab, I was taught how to label the artifacts. There are these little numbers they put directly on the objects that serve as codes you can search for in the database. Because it has to be placed on such sensitive objects, the adhesives and the paper have to be a very specific kind. Working with tweezers and applying tiny pieces of paper with them made me feel like I was working in a museum of miniatures.
All in all, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked in the lab. In the days following my last day there, someone told me something along the lines of, “I would never do any job where I wasn’t paid. My time is valuable and people need to understand that.” And, while they have a point, I did think they were looking at it all wrong.
You see, my time is valuable but I don’t weigh this value simply on money. I got to experience something very few people have and with a freedom that even less get to enjoy. Many of those artifacts are valuable enough to be put on display in a museum and there they were, sitting in my hand. This volunteer job opened endless doors for me in the future, one even that I will be writing about in the coming days. To me, knowledge and experience can be just as good an exchange, if not better, than money.
I am also proud that I was able to help in the lab at a time when they needed the help so badly. The evacuation and return of these artifacts must not have been easy, especially when the situation called for untrained movers to help. No doubt, this will be an experience I will remember fondly for a long time to come. Please know that it doesn’t (and didn’t) take an archeology expert to help out in the lab. Anyone can do it; if you’re interested in anything you’ve seen here and you have work-study or are willing to work for free, let me know!
All of the artifacts pictured above belong to the USC Dornsife Archaeology Research Center.
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