[MUSIC].

So you have architecture, you've got

pottery, you've got lithics.
where are, well the architecture still
there in situ.
Where's, where's everything else.
What do you do with what you find.
>> Well, we're lucky we have a strong
relationship with Montserrat's'
government.
But also with the Montserrat National
Trust.
>> Mm-hm.
>> The agency which is charged with
preserving and looking after the cultural
heritage of the island.
>> They must be having a rough time
right now.
>> They are having a rough time.
There, well, that said, they do have new
premises, a new museum opened.
>> Oh, really?
Huh.
>> In the new capital last summer.
So, so things are looking up.
But I think they're glad for our help,
and we're very grateful for their
cooperation.
Um, but because of that cooperation, we
can both store materials in the long term
on Montserrat.
>> That's wonderful.
>> So the island's cultural heritage
stays on the island.
>> Mm-hm.
>> But at the same time, we have an
agreement whereby, under a long-term to
medium-term loan basis, we can bring some
artifacts back to the States to conduct
types of analyses that we would not
otherwise be able to do.
>> Things like?
>> Things like, for example use-wear
analysis on lithics.
>> Mm-hm.
>> looking at them under a microscope
to see what they were used for, cutting
plant material and so, so forth.
>> The person doing that work will, has
been, we'll be talking in this class, or
has been talking in this class already
Clive Vella, so.
>> Looking in more detail, let the
ceramics, ceramic petrography, I've been
trying to tease out some issues there
that we're experiencing.
and also looking at the zoological
material.
 >> From excavation?
>> From excavation.
The, because we're digging trash pits, a
lot of the time, we have a lot of Fish
bones, essentially, and also bones of
small mammals and birds and so on and so
forth.
So, those are under study and those need
to come back to the States for that to
happen.
But then eventually all the material
returns and goes back to Montserrat.
>> Back in storage.
You've been doing some legacy
archaeology, haven't you?
going back into previously collected
material.
Tell, tell, tell me a little bit more
about that.
>> We have so again, the site at Trents
was dug by our colleague David Waters,
but also some excavations had taken place
elsewhere on the island.
The volcano going off in '95, disrupted
the processing of this of these data
essentially.
And they've been in storage ever since.
So it's helped our work but I think also
it's been of some use to the museum to go
back through this collection of material,
catalogue it, and let them know exactly
what it is they have in their archives.
>> Mm-hm.
>> It's also useful in that it
corresponds closely to material from
Levees and also from Antigua.
So again, these things start to lock
together into the grand scale.
>> So this, was this material in
Plymouth before and then it got, it was
saved when it, it, it's not buried under
30 meters of ash?
People were worried about the
archaeological finds when.
>> When.
>> The volcano blew?
>> When the volcano went off,
archaeology, I don't think, was the major
concern, the major concern was getting
out of the way of the pyroclastic flow.
But, so this stuff was relocated from the
national trust
>> What!
Shocking!
Ha!
>> Headquarters in Plymouth to their
new interim headquarters.
>> huh.
>> Is now moving to the new museum.
 >> Okay.
>> But during that time, some paperwork
was lost, system organization broke down
to some extent.
So we'rehelping trying to, to, to piece these
data back into a coherent whole.
>> Tom, I hope this won't hurt your
feelings but, that's not whole pots,
that's not gorgeous stuff.
This looks like surface material to me.
Yep.
>> It's not the prettiest material in
the world.
>> Mm-hm.
>> As you know, surface material tends
to be beaten up more than excavated
material.
>> Mm-hm.
>> For a variety of process, processes
particularly weathering, geomorphological
processes, being tumbled around in the
plow soil.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And so on and so forth.
>> Mm-hm.
>> So it isn't pretty.
But when we have lots of it and we have
numbers, and we can put these numbers in
space, we can really start to tease out
patterns in the data.
So it isn't pretty, but it is important
when it is in bulk.
>> And the stone tools on the other
side, are these all from various parts of
the island, or is this all from one side
or.
>> These, on the current side are from
one side.
I talked about how in the Archaic Period
the lithic technology is very different.
>> Uh-huh.
>> We tend to get these large blade and
blade flakes.
These sort of small, expedient flaking
technology is very characteristic of the,
what we call the, the Early Ceramic
Period.
The 500 BC, through to around 5, or 600 AD.
>> Expedient technology is very, very
interesting.
When I worked in Armenia, there was so
much obsidian around that people would,
were clearly just like, picking up a
cobble.
And whacking it, and they had a tool, and
they could use it, and if it didn't
they'd toss it, and so they didn't fuss
about their stone tool technology.
You see the result.
 >> This is actually what's happening
here.
The advantage of this, some of this
material is there are very few good
sources of chert and of flint in the
Caribbean.
>> Aha.
>> So, whilst this doesn't look great
we have reason to believe that some of
this stuff is coming from Antigua.
Which it leaves stuff starts to provide
>> Nice.
>> links between stories about contact
between the islands in prehistory.
>> Are you doing that on just visual
inspection, this is grey, this is grey,
so it comes from Antigua or could you
>> A little bit.
>> What sort of analyses are you using
to make that, because that's a trade,
that's a contact argument, that's
important.
>> It is, I mean.
>> Yeah.
>> The advantage of some of this stuff
is the Antigua material is so well known
that you can do some, some of it
visually.
>> Mm-hm.
>> It tends to range from sort of a
dark grey through to this rich honey buff
color.
But under a microscopic analysis.
>> Mm, hm.
>> Antigua chert is very
distinctive.
So that would confirm that this is indeed
Antiguan material.
>> And all from the surface.