Student Elizabeth Bostelman at New Harmony, IN

Elizabeth (top) writes in her own words about her experiences at New Harmony earlier this summer:

The five weeks I spent excavating with USI’s field school in New Harmony, IN were amazing. I wish the excavation could have lasted all summer! The field school reinforced skills I already had and introduced me to new types of sites. My favorite part of the excavation was undoubtedly the week I spent excavating with the Indiana State Museum archaeologist Bill Whepler. Under his supervision, I was able to work on a CRM project at the Harmonist Community House #2, as well as a restoration project at the Fauntleroy House. The pace, the time frame, and mandated limits for the extent of the excavation offered a glimpse into the life of a state archaeologist. Complex archaeology and a variety of artifacts meant you had to excavate with care and watch for changes in soil type and color, as compared to arbitrary levels in which excavation is done in 10 centimeter increments. As well as finding a variety of artifacts, I met a variety of people. I met traditional students like myself, non-traditional students, and professionals in the field; we started out as a group of strangers and, by the end of the five weeks, we were friends.

Student Alli Hayden and Dr. E in Haifa, Israel

This summer, senior Allison Hayden is using funds from an Undergraduate Research Grant from UE to finish work she started last year, when she spent a semester at the University of Haifa, Israel.  She and Dr. E are analyzing and publishing the ground stone artifact assemblage from the Middle Bronze Age phases at Tel Ifshar, which is a site on the coast in Israel.  This past Monday and Tuesday they went through several boxes of ground stone tools in an archaeology laboratory at the University of Haifa.  Although it doesn't sound so exciting, it was fun!

Student Kaman Law highlighted in Copia magazine

The winter/spring 2010 issue of Copia (a publication of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science) recently featured an article on junior Kaman Law's contributions to the museum since she first started working as an intern and volunteer in summer 2009.  Among other projects, she created virtual history exhibitions for the Museum's website and wrote most of the text panels and labels for the exhibition The Child Mummy (which opened October 30, 2009).  You can find the article on page 9 of this issue of Copia.

Student Lauren Weingart wins 2010 Shirley Schwarz Prize

We are pleased to announce that junior Lauren Weingart has won the 2010 Shirley Schwarz Prize for the best undergraduate research paper on an art historical topic.  The title of Lauren's winning paper is "German Art and the Holocaust: The Representation and Preservation of History in the Visual Arts."  Congratulations Lauren!  Here's a picture of her from this past semester building an earthen oven for her Food and Drink in Antiquity semester project (it is located in the campus garden behind North Hall).

Women's Lives in Biblical Times

Dr. Ebeling's book Women's Lives in Biblical Times was recently published; she signed copies at the Evansville Barnes and Noble last Saturday. 

The recent explosion of novels about female characters in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament proves that there is great interest in the lives of biblical women. But can we be sure that these highly dramatized reconstructions are based on actual evidence for the lives of women in ancient Israel? Women’s Lives in Biblical Times looks to recent biblical scholarship along with archaeological, iconographic and ethnographic data to reconstruct the life of a hypothetical woman living in an ancient Israelite village in the period of the Judges, ca. 1100 BCE. Each chapter begins with a narrative describing this woman’s life at various ages from her birth to her final illness and death, and continues with an academic discussion of the daily life activities and lifecycle events described in the narrative. Women’s Lives in Biblical Times is thus a uniquely engaging and accessible source for anyone interested in looking beyond the romanticized accounts of biblical women’s lives to a discussion of what we really know about them.

More information about the book can be found here.  Her interview with WNIN's Micah Schweizer can be heard here.

Student summer plans

Check out the summer plans of some of our Archaeology and Art History majors:

Megan Anderson, PAST Foundation's Underwater Field School, Key Largo, FL and Rio Bravo Archaeological Field School, Belize
Elizabeth Bostelman, USI’s Excavations in New Harmony, IN
Josephine Curtis, Customs House Internship, Clarksville, TN
Alexandra Cutler, Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Excavations at Kincaid Mounds, IL
Joanne DeMaio, USI’s Excavations in New Harmony, IN
Abigail DiGiorgi, ETSU Archaeological Field School, Upper Cumberland Plateau, TN
Kelly Goodner, Central Washington University’s Wenas Creek Mammoth Project, Ellensburg, WA
Allison Hayden, Tel Ifshar Ground Stone Analysis, Haifa University, Israel (funded by UExplore Undergraduate Research Grant)
Michael Koletsos, UC Berkeley Archaeological Field School in Nemea, Greece
Rachel Lawrence, Center for American Archeology Field School, Kampsville, IL
Amanda Lean, National Parks Service Employee, AZ
Stephanie Lee, Center for American Archeology Field School, Kampsville, IL
Kaitlin Lynch, Angel Mounds State Historic Site Employee, Evansville, IN
Daniel Mohorcic, Cultural Resources Analysts, Inc., Evansville, IN
Clare Pressimone, Reading Museum Internship, Reading, PA
Alyssa Richardson, Nappanee Public Library Internship, Nappanee, IN
Matthew Schueller, Balkan Heritage’s Excavations at Hyraclea Lyncestis, Macedonia
Leah Thomas, Sid Richardson Museum Internship, Fort Worth, TX

Tin City pics from the past

Since 2003, students in Al Kaiser's Field Techniques class have been excavating Tin City on the UE campus.  Here are some pictures through the years ....