The Anthropology Department houses numerous lab spaces for student use and owns field equipment necessary for conducting archaeological field research. Additionally, students have use of various specialized lab spaces and equipment from other departments with the agreement of departmental faculty.
Archaeological Laboratory
The archaeological laboratory is housed on the main floor of the Anthropology Department and provides space for students to store and conduct analysis on collections gathered as part of their research. The space is equipped with basic lab equipment, including computers for cataloging, sorting equipment, and microscopes.
The CSUSB Archaeology Laboratory also offers specialized analysis equipment including, Olympus Digital Microscope, Mecmesin Stress Gauge, and a thin section machine.
Comparative collections for marine shell, lithic material, marine and terrestrial faunal, and pottery are available for student use.
Processing Laboratory
Facilities for wet screening and flotation processing archaeological samples is available for student use. This large warehouse type space is located on the CSUSB campus and is equipment with a double basin sink with sediment trap for wet screening archaeological samples and drying screens for laying out material to dry. Flotation processing can also be accomplished in this wet lab space with use of CSUSB flotation processing equipment.
Field Equipment
The Anthropology Department owns all basic field equipment necessary to conduct an archaeological excavation including field screens, tarps, buckets, shovels, trowels, 50-meter tapes, compasses, plumb bobs, etc. We also have a Trimble Geo 7 equipped with ArcMap used for training graduate students on mapping in the field and post processing in GIS.
Other Resources
The CSUSB community is dedicated to student learning. As such, many departments offer use of their resources with the approval of departmental faculty. For instance, the Applied Archaeology graduate students have used portable X-ray Fluorescence devices (pXRF), Trimble Junos, high-temperature kilns, and 3D printers in their research through agreements with other departments on campus.
ARCHAEOMETRY LABORATORY
The archaeometry laboratory is equipped to process archaeological materials for stable isotopes, geochemical, radiocarbon, and other analyses. Our lab houses a Sherline 5400 micromill, dremmels, dissecting microscopes, Mecmesin MultiTest 1, sonicator bath, several Ohaus microbalances, lapidary table saw, and other preparation, processing, and analyzing equipment.