During the active field season, the movement and general management of samples is supervised by a Registrar. Other project members should not enter the depot to remove or replace samples without explicit permission; rather, project members should request sample movements through the Registrar, who will ensure that sample movements are tracked accurately.
Daily Intake #
Intake refers to the daily processing of new samples from the field. New samples should be placed in one of two locations when they arrive from the field: samples that need attention from Conservation (e.g., metal objects, protomes, lithics, small finds) should be placed in the Conservation inbox for each excavation area; all other samples can be placed on a table in the Pottery Yard.
Intake will happen either around 14:00 when the excavation team returns from the field, or at 16:30 when everyone returns from the afternoon break. Samples from contexts that have been closed (meaning that they have been given a close date in the database) will be consolidated and distributed to the appropriate specialty; analysis of these samples might begin the same afternoon. Samples from contexts that have not been closed will be registered in the database by having their location changed to “Intake,” but these samples should not be distributed or analyzed until the context is closed. This prevents a situation where parts of a single sample that were collected on different days become separated from each other. The exception to this rule is samples that are given directly to Conservation; these might be fragile or easily lost, so work on them may begin before the context is closed.
If a context is closed subsequently, during work in the afternoon—for example, if the excavator was waiting for confirmation of the closing photobatch—the excavator should alert the Registrar so that intake of those samples can be completed.
Inboxes and Outboxes #
Most project areas should have an inbox (where samples are deposited for specialist analysis) and an outbox (where samples are deposited following specialist analysis). This might be a physical box or a designated location within the lab. The Registrar manages the distribution of samples into project area inboxes and the collection of samples from outboxes, as well as updates to sample locations. Note that custody of a sample belongs to a project area while it is in that project area’s inbox/outbox.
Requesting a Sample #
Anyone who wants to work on a sample that is in the depot or in another project area should submit a request to the Registrar; in 2026, these requests are centralized in a Google Sheet found here. You can request either individual samples or whole boxes. Requests should be ranked by priority, with High priority requests being fulfilled before Low priority requests. Remember: the volume of requests and the speed at which they are fulfilled will increase during periods when more specialists are present, so plan accordingly.
Specialists who will be present for only a short period during the season should request an initial batch of samples before arriving. These samples will be waiting for the specialist upon arrival so that work can begin immediately while preparing further requests.
Exported Samples #
At the end of the season, boxes of samples may be exported either to the Manisa Museum for storage or for Koç University for specialist analysis. These boxes, as well as a list of what each box contains, are prepared under the supervision of project leadership. Prior to export, the box lists should be checked against the database to confirm that all sample numbers exist and are correct. This is most easily done through the backend database by a database specialist.
The location of exported samples consists of three parts: a location (e.g., Manisa Museum), a box year (e.g., 2026), and a box number (e.g., 1). Once a sample is exported, its box year and box number should not change in the database; this information is registered with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, so samples should never move between exported boxes. Exported samples might be temporarily placed in (unnamed) boxes to help researchers stay organized during processing and analysis, but they should be returned to their registered location as soon as possible. Whole boxes may also move from place to place (e.g., from KU ANAMED to KU ARHA for instrumental analysis).
Some exported boxes may eventually return to the KAP Depot, at which point they can be disassociated from their export year and export box numbers and moved to an appropriate location in the Depot.