Assignment 2: Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record

I noticed a few differences between the artifacts used in the activity area and those deposited as primary refuse, one difference I noticed was some items deposited as primary refuse were packaging for another item like a gum wrapper. Other items were either accidentally left behind or no longer functional, such an ink pen. An old water bottled which was left behind on the table where it was also consumed, had clearly served its purpose and was no longer needed. The male front desk attendant of the commuter lounge did eventually go grab the water bottle that was left on the table and tossed it into the plastics bin once it was clear that the woman would not be returning. A man enters and sits down at the table next to me and he pulls out Tupperware with pasta in it, he proceeded to heat it up in the microwave then returned to his seat to eat it. This man reaches into his book bag and pulls out a metal fork from home to eat his lunch with. The differences between the artifacts being used and those destined for secondary refuse appears to depend on quality of the materials the objects are made out of. The water bottles that were disposed of were a much thinner cheaper plastic than the refillable bottles several students had. I found it interesting to see the students take their empty refillable water bottles out to the refill station and were able to refill their bottles for free, as well as reduce the amount of refuse accumulated. It made me wonder why the thinner plastic bottles are not also saved and refilled. Was it because the refillable bottles cost more money? Possibly the refillable plastic bottles are more durable than the thin plastic bottles. I also noticed that plastic forks were thrown away after use, but then a young man brought in a Tupperware container filled with pasta and went and heated it up in the microwave. He returned to his table and proceeded to eat his homemade lunch with a metal fork, which I am assuming he brought from home. This young man did not dispose of the metal utensil once he had finished eating and instead wiped it off with his napkin and then returned it to his lunch bag. After witnessing this I concluded that metal is clearly more valuable than plastic. Obviously the material that an artifact is made out of plays a role in deciding whether it is to be disposed of, or retained. Another observation was that electronic devices are protected and are obviously highly valuable artifacts. These artifacts rarely leave these students’ hands or sight, I never saw any of them left behind or disposed of. They rarely even shared these devices with each other. I can conclude form my observations that electronic devices play some type of large role in their society, and the way they are treated and valued causes me to speculate that they may even possibly be sacred objects of great importance. Primary refuse in this activity area seems to be due to an object no longer being needed, functional or accidentally left behind. The items that were secondary refuse were primarily food or drink containers, utensils, or napkins. They were generally something that was too large, or messy to be left behind at the table without being considered rude. This is opposed to little things that are mostly primary refuse such as pens, bottled waters, candy wrappers etc., which are more commonly accepted items to be left behind. Another example I witnessed was a man alone at the table by the back doorway fumbling around with an aluminum gum wrapper as he texts on his smart phone. With his headphones on and his laptop open in front of him. He then receives a call, answers it and proceeds to talk to someone on the other end. As he’s blabbing away distractedly, still playing with the gum wrapper, in the heat of the conversation he flings the wrapper ball with his finger and it shoots across the room and lands on the floor next to a man who is attempting to take a quick cat nap with his hoodie pulled up, sunglasses on and headphones blaring. The cultural transformations would be loss of the pen; left on the table was still functional. Discard would also be an option if the pen was in fact no longer functional, and also when students discarded objects into the trashcan. The natural transformations in the activity area were limited, but I did observe the ice in the man at the front desk’s paper cup was melting. This paper cup will eventually change & deteriorate if the melted ice cube water is kept inside for too long, which will change the composition of the cup. All of this activity was witnessed on campus, by myself on a Monday at about 1:30 in the afternoon, in the commuter student lounge located in the Student Union.