Historic Artifacts

It all fits!!

By some semblance of “good luck” I was offered some archaeological tools up for grabs from a well-known, retiring archaeologist. I blame my grandmother that I have some innate inability to resist a good deal, so I jumped at the chance. The deal was that I could use it all but he wanted to make sure it would be available for the avocational archaeological societies to use as well. Since I’m the VP of the local chapter of that I said that’d be no problem at all.

No idea what these are for but there are dozens of them…

First obstacle: working remotely in central Alberta, discover said free tools are located 5 – 6 hours south, across the US/Canada border in Montana. Do survey of crew, 1  lucky crew member has her passport with her, she wins a long drive to the States and back, woohoo!

Dear god what is this thing??

Second obstacle: loading said equipment which was far more substantial (and heavy) than was indicated over the phone. But hey, more free stuff! Crew member rocks the Tetris world and makes it all fit in one truck.

Homemade scale bars – awesome and crafty!

Third obstacle: getting said equipment and crew member back through the border….this took several hours, some interrogation (and a quiz regarding identifying a bone) regarding her REALLY being an archaeologist, a couple phone calls, a rough price list for all the tools, a fax or two and a nice chunk of money (donation aren’t really donations apparently).

But why are there 3 spikes??

Fourth obstacle: where to store it all? Luckily a friend has a backyard that is a strong contender for least amount of grass, largest weeds award. Thus the bigger tools are safely entrapped in a cage of thistles, the little tools get an esteemed place in her garage.

So many measuring tapes!

Some very cool stuff though, some very terrifying looking tools too. I’m pretty sure the power screens are some of the first ones ever built, so that probably means they can be considered historical artifacts as well.

A historic Marshalltown trowel! Mine!

Bonus find: tipi stakes, tipi door, tipi set-up instructions, tipi design templates!

Missing: tipi  poles and rest of tipi cloth….

The power screen!! Well minus the power part at the moment.

It’s tipi time!