Archaeological digs can tell us much about ancient civilizations, but what about more recent periods of human habitation? This fine collection from the USC Digital Library presents over 1,100 images of artifacts excavated from two sites in Southern California. The Chinatown section features 1,040 color images of artifacts from the original Los Angeles Chinatown. These items were recovered during the construction of the Metro Rail Red Line by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The online collection includes photos of wine bowls, ink stone boxes, and other fragments of items from daily household life. The second segment includes items excavated in 1992 from an old adobe structure in Santa Barbara that housed a Chinese laundry from the mid 1880s to 1905. The collection can be searched via keyword, and it is quite a resource for historians, archaeologists, and others.
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