Hello! 

 

My name is Alana Okonkwo and I am a Stanford Undergraduate studying Archaeology and African & African American Studies. I am a student researcher for the MSCAP project. I help support Kim Connor with re-categorizing glass tableware and containers and digitizing our artifact cataloging forms. 

I joined this project to learn more about artifact analysis and to understand the important role that glass played in the daily lives of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans at Market Street. I love thinking about the stories that each bottle holds, from its creation to its use to its deposition. One of my favorite parts of this project has been transcribing the embossed marks on bottles to determine what their original contents may have been. I would like to continue researching the contents of the bottles to understand consumption amongst the community members who used these bottles!

Though this is only my fifth week working on the MSCAP project, I have already learned so much about glass manufacturing techniques, typologies of glass finishes, and the conservation challenges that archaeologists face when working with glass. I hope to continue making blog posts that shed insight upon the new things that I learn! 

Until next time,

Alana