Our Lab
PLACE MATTERS
CHARG has recently moved to a new location on the bottom floor of Building 29, near the Sutton Sports Performance Center and Piccolo and Palmer Halls. We occupy an office space and lobby with a computer workstation. The bottom floor of building 29 is shared with a number of faculty from various departments, and the top floor is home to the Office of Sustainability. We are working to make this space an inviting, welcoming place for students to visit and work. The Lab is also where we store our equipment, software, computers, tablets – all the things we need to conduct our research. Unfortunately, we do not have the benefit of a full archaeology laboratory, but we are working towards that ultimate goal.
Our Lab
Office and Meeting Space
Room 016 is designed as both Dr. Brock’s office, and also a collaborative meeting space for CHARG team meetings. The room includes modular tables and chairs for meetings with groups of students, and includes a projector and pull down projector screen. The space is also equipped with an Owl Conferencing Tool to facilitate collaborative online meetings.
Room 016 also includes Dr. Brock’s library of books on historical archaeology and American History. Students are welcome to check out books if they are interested.
Student Workstation and Storage
In the lobby area of Building 29 is the CHARG Student workstation. This area is set up for students working with CHARG to have a space for focused work on digital heritage projects. The area includes a curved monitor connected to a high powered computer built for GIS, 3D modeling, and other high powered content.
This area also includes storage cabinets of field equipment.
Hardware
- MacBook Pro Desktop with Parallels
- Intel i7-11700K. 8-core 3.6GHz with MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB DDR6 PCIE 4,864 CUDA cores
- Synology DiskStation DS1821+ 8-Bay NAS Enclosure with 70TB of Hard Drive Space
- 4 iPad Pro 11 Apple Tablets with Apple Pencils
Software
- ESRI ArcGIS Professional Departmental License (50 seats) including Spatial Analysis Package
- Pix4Dmatic, Pix4Dsurvey, Pix4D Reach
- SketchUp
- Radan 7 Radar Data Analysis Software and Interactive 3D Model Software
Field Equipment
CHARG has a set of basic field equipment including shovels, rakes, photo poles, brushes, dust pans, buckets and trowels. Currently, we do not have enough equipment to support a field school or Phase II or III excavation, but can accommodate a small Phase I of a couple staff.
Survey Equipment
CHARG is fully outfitted to conduct mapping and survey, including aerial photography and 3D modeling.
- Skydio 2+ Aerial Drone with software
- Emlid Reach RS2+ Multi Band GNSS RTK Receivers (2)
- Emlid Reach RTK Rover
- Emlid 3D Scanning Kit
- Trimble C3 3″ Total Station
Photography Equipment
- Sony A 7 IV DSLR Camera with FE 2.5-5.6 and FE 1.8/55 Lenses
- Skydio 2+ Aerial Drone with software
- GoPro Hero 11 Black
- Matterport Axis
All of the equipment in our lab has been acquired through generous support from donors, grants, contracts, and companies. One of the ways we are able to support our community partners is by providing access and expertise to software, hardware, and other tools that are often beyond their financial capacity. In addition to the big ticket items we are hoping to fund in the future, the CHARG Lab is also in regular need of funds to maintain our current equipment, pay for license renewals, and purchase small items for fieldwork. If you are interested in supporting us, please make a contribution to the CHARG Fund or contact Dr. Brock directly.
LOOKING FORWARD
A Larger Space
While we are happy with the space that we have, CHARG knows that with a larger space that includes a functioning archaeological laboratory, we would be able to offer more services to our community partners. Currently, we do not have the space resources to carry out archaeological excavations. This type of work requires an archaeological lab where artifact samples can be collected, cleaned, catalogued, and stored. Laboratory space is not free, unfortunately, and Wake Forest University is currently undergoing a space utilization study. We are looking for funding and creative ideas to make this a reality.
Ground Penetrating Radar and Metal Detector Survey
Our recent NC Humanities Grant is going to help CHARG build the necessary skills in Ground Penetrating Radar, but will not provide the equipment to allow us to do this kind of survey independent of our colleagues at New South Associates. Acquiring a GPR machine will become increasingly essential to our efforts in documenting cemeteries. We are looking for funding to acquire such a machine.
Similarly, our work at The Montpelier Foundation has allowed CHARG to build experience in conducting archaeological metal detecting survey, however we do not have the necessary equipment to conduct these kinds of surveys. Funding is being sought to add a high powered metal detector to our arsenal.
