Graduate Melanie Miller in Belize

This summer I participated in the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR). This project focuses on the research of Maya sites in the Belize Valley and it is presently working at three sites: Cahal Pech, Lower Dover, and Baking Pot. I had the opportunity to work at latter two sites.

 I spent the first couple days in San Ignacio, Belize learning the basics of excavation before I went with a group to the remote jungle site of Lower Dover for two weeks. We stayed in cabins in the jungle where we slept with mosquito nets, showered with rain water, and walked with flashlights at night to avoid stepping on tarantulas. The site was about a half mile hike in the jungle from the camp. Lower Dover is a Terminal Classic site where excavations only recently began in 2010. This field season focused on excavating a plaza structure to determine its architecture to establish a chronology of Lower Dover. I helped to excavate a ceramic cache, which also contained faunal remains and obsidian, and then painstakingly re-uncover it with a spray bottle and paintbrush after a torrential downpour covered it in mud. I also worked in another unit to establish the site’s chronology by uncovering as many stratigraphic levels as quickly as possible before the season ended. This involved recognizing when there was a level change and very reluctantly having to break through several plaster floors of the plaza with a pick.

The last two weeks I worked at the site of Baking Pot, which has been under excavation for about 20 years and dates back to the Preclassic Period. Baking Pot is covered by modern farms and we had to navigate through a maze of corn fields to reach the mound under excavation. The objective was to expose the architecture of one structure and determine the mound’s chronology with a test pit that measured around 20 feet at season’s end. Since it was the end of the field season, most of the work at the mound was last minute digging, endless screening, and backfilling. Most of the time I was washing and processing artifacts at the ‘lab’ located on a livestock farm. The lab was really just a barn for storage, the porch of the livestock veterinary office, and the outdoors. Thus, we had some curious four-legged visitors that would attempt to eat or play with our equipment and we periodically had to run for cover whenever a stampede of cattle ran through the lab area while we crossed our fingers that they would not trample our drying racks full of 

artifacts.

On the weekends I visited other Maya sites in Belize and Guatemala. I’m looking forward to participating in another field school next summer, whether it is with BVAR again or another program in Belize. Overall, I learned a lot from my experience in Belize and gained invaluable insight into archaeological fieldwork. Nothing in the classroom can ever completely prepare you for work in the field, but fieldwork offers invaluable experience and the best stories definitely come from the field.

Student Lauren Weingart reports on summer NSF REU program at Notre Dame

In the months of June and July, I participated in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) in Bioarchaeology at Notre Dame. This program was a perfect fit for me because it combined my interests in bioarchaeology and Near Eastern studies. The undergraduate research fellows involved worked with the human remains from three sites in the Levant: Bab edh-Dhra', Byzantine St. Stephens, and Tel Dothan. My team worked with the Early Bronze Age II and III (3000-2750 BCE; 2750-2300 BCE) remains from Bab edh-Dhra'. We were interested in determining whether or not the individuals buried at the site were locals or migrants. During Early Bronze I-III in the region, a transition from a more pastoral lifestyle to a more settled agricultural, and eventually urban lifestyle took place. While some scholars have theorized that this urbanization was an internal development, others have suggested that outside influences, perhaps from the already urbanized areas of Egypt and Mesopotamia, may have played a part in this transition. After examining the evidence for both theories, my group hypothesized that we would find individuals who appeared to be locals. In order to distinguish local from non-local individuals, we examined the radiogenic strontium isotope ratios of 25 tooth enamel samples taken from the remains unearthed at Bab edh-Dhra'. Our results are not yet available.

Lauren drills a tooth.

Participating in the program was an excellent experience. The first two weeks were spent learning human bone anatomy and biology, as well as learning to recognize some common pathologies that can affect bone. The remainder of the seven week program was spent conducting research in small groups. Throughout the program we were visited by scholars from a diverse range of fields, whose expertise all ultimately related to our research in some capacity. This was a great opportunity not only to network with eminent scholars, but to explore our interests in a wide range of fields and specialties. I learned that not only do I have a passion for research, but I have a great love and talent for drilling teeth, and I reaffirmed my active interests in bioarchaeology, Near Eastern studies, and public archaeology. The experience in conducting relatively independent research, and the opportunity to continue that research, were irreplacable experiences. Invaluable are the many connections forged with visiting and resident scholars and my fellow students. I am in tremendous debt to Dr. Sue Sheridan, Dr. Jaime Ullinger, Lesley Gregoricka, and Theresa Gilner for their hard work and guidance.

Student Summer Plans 2011

The Department of Archaeology and Art History is pleased to announce the summer plans of its majors, which include internships and employment at a variety of institutions and participation in archaeological projects in the US and in Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Hungary, Romania and Cyprus.

Lizzie B., PAST Foundation's Slobodna Underwater Field School, Key West, FL
Elizabeth B., Internship with the History of Prince William Forest Park’s 45 Cemeteries and Homesteads, National Park Service, VA
Josephine C., Internship with Palm Beach County archaeologist, FL
Elizabeth F., Excavations at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), Italy
Amber F., Excavation and Internship at James Madison’s Montpelier, VA
Chris G., Summer Program Coordinator, Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center, Fort Collins, CO
Kevin K., Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project, Turkey
Kaman L., Internship in the Department of Membership and Development and paid position in the museum, Evansville Museum of Art, History and Science, IN
Rachel L., Excavations at the Porolissum Forum Project, Romania
Stephanie L., Education Programs Assistant, Angel Mounds State Historic Site, IN
Samantha M., Excavations at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), Italy
Ben O., Internship at the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University, IN
Marley R., Excavations with Courson Archaeological Research near Perryton, TX
Alyssa R., Internship at Evelyn Lehman Culp Heritage Collection, IN
Anna S., Totah Archaeological Project Field School, NM
Katy S., SHUMLA Field Methods in Rock Art Field School and Internship, TX
Sara S., National Science Foundation – Research Experience for Undergraduates funded Koros Regional Archaeological Project, Hungary and Cyprus
Leah T., Internship at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon, VA
Lauren W., National Science Foundation – Research Experience for Undergraduates funded Fellowship in Bioarchaeology, University of Notre Dame, IN
Colleen W., Excavations at Tell Timai, Egypt
Porsche W., Facilitator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL

In addition, five Archaeology majors will participate in the Summer Session I trip to Jordan in May-June led by Professors Byrne, Ebeling and Milner: Nate B., Emma D., Emily M., Ashley M., and Marie M.

Alumna Profile: Ti M. ('07) at Fort Garland, CO and in Cincinnati



Ti at Fort Garland, CO.

In the summer of 2008 I participated in Adams State College’s archaeological field school at Fort Garland, CO. We lived at the Fort in our own little tent city (I went through two tents by the end of it as the zippers on the first one I bought broke and the tent leaked like crazy!). It excavation lasted 6 weeks. During the first part of the season, we dug in the garbage section of the Fort for practice, and after that we moved on to the area near the stables and into the cellar of one of the buildings that is no longer standing (the building had burned down, but there was still some food remains, including seeds, left in the cellar). The well I helped excavate was 25 feet deep (below). At the bottom we found literally hundreds of horse shoes, and we have no idea why they were thrown in the well. We had lots of other experiences including Civil War days where reenacters came to the Fort to live like they would have during the Civil War era, and also went to see some early Native sites. It was a wonderful experience overall.



Ti goes down the 25-foot well.

Since graduating from UE I have been working for my father’s company, Nightingale-Alan Medical, and at Old Navy. I've worked on and off for my father for years, and the current accountant is planning to retire, so the job was offered to me by my father and his business partner. I had trouble finding a job in Cincinnati using my degree, and I decided not to do CRM, so I was glad to take this job. In exchange the company is helping pay for my Masters of Science degree in accounting and financing (I am undecided on pursuing an MBA) online through the University of Maryland. My boyfriend Scott and I recently bought a house, and we are doing some major remodeling. Between the house, school and two jobs, I keep very busy.



Alumna Profile: Hillary C. ('07) at Florida State University

After graduating from UE in 2007, I was admitted to the Ph.D. program in Classics at Florida State University. I am currently in my fourth year of the program and intend to start on my dissertation on the Roman economy, trade goods, and cultural identity soon. Additionally, I hold a graduate assistantship which allows me to teach a course on Classical Mythology. Though challenging, this opportunity enables me to gain teaching experience at the college level while pursuing my degree. While at FSU, I have also been fortunate to intern at the National Park Service’s Southeast Archaeological Center where I have received further hands-on training in aspects of excavation as well as the care and storage of prehistoric and historic artifacts from the southeastern United States. This interest in local archaeology, as well as anthropological theory and methodology, was founded in my seminars at UE as well as the field experience I first gained working on Tin City. With the encouragement of the UE faculty, this interest was fostered in my experience with SUNY Geneseo’s excavation at a Hopewell settlement site, Brown’s Bottom (Chillicothe, OH) where in 2006 I received instruction in excavation practices. During the summer of 2007, I was admitted to IPFW’s Archaeological Survey, Research Experience for Undergraduates (Strawtown, IN) where I learned to use various methods of remote sensing and was also able to construct my own research project at a historical cemetery using resistivity and GPR.

In the summer of 2009, I married fellow UE alumn, Andrew M. (’06). This past summer (2010) I traveled to Rome and participated in The Howard Comfort, FAAR’29, Summer Program in Roman Pottery at the American Academy in Rome.  Under the guidance of former AAR Mellon Professor Archer Martin and his assistant Raffaele Palma, I (and eight other students) had the unique opportunity to actively engage with pottery from across the Mediterranean and meet various specialists in the field. By the end of the program we were able to apply our new skills to the pottery from the Domus Tiberiana on the Palatine Hill. Currently, we are collaborating on a publication about the pottery from the program.

I am truly thankful for the strong education in archaeology and classical studies offered by the faculty at UE. Their encouragement and support while at UE and even today, has been invaluable and laid a solid foundation from which I hope to continue my education.

Student Megan Anderson in Belize

There are two things I learned this summer while participating in the Rio Bravo Archaeological Survey Project Field School in Belize: howler monkeys are a lot less cute at 2 a.m., and doing archaeology in the jungle is one of the most amazing things to experience. For four weeks from the middle of June until the middle of July, I worked on the Maya site Chawak But'o'ob in the Programme for Belize Conservation and Management Area of Belize with a group of twelve other students. Staying in a base camp, we climbed into the back of trucks every morning for the 30-minute ride along the old logging road to our site. Snake guards and machetes in hand, we would march 25 minutes along a footpath into the jungle until we reached the ball court area where were working. The site itself is a commoner site built into an escarpment with residential terraces, water basins, and ritual space. Our team divided into small groups and we were able to open excavations in a basin and in front of two caves. It was neat to uncover pot sherds (and in one case a reptilian whistle) from the pre-classic period and hold a piece of history in your hand, and see the way the rock tumble would have been arranged as a wall. With archaeology, history is a tangible thing, something you can scrape up with a trowel and put into an artifact bag.

I was trained in archaeological survey at the site; I used a total mapping station, working its computer, holding prisms, and cutting down vines with my machete for a clear shot (after a day and a few good laughs at my over-enthusiasm, the native workmen taught me how to wield my tool the right way). The best part of this field school was the director's desire to instill in us the importance of using different disciplines to understand the past. For several days I crashed off-trail through the jungle with a pair of biologists and measured trees. The data they collected were used to understand what the forest would have looked like in pre-classic times.

Belize is a beautiful and interesting country, and the archaeologists who work there are passionate about what they are doing and ager to share that knowledge with students and the world. This field school allowed me to take archaeology out of the classroom and experience it in the real world.

Megan is a junior Archaeology major at UE.