As he ventured through the field towards the dig site, Seth Schneider had to be careful where he put his feet. To his left were rows of newly-planted tobacco, and to his right were the uncovered remains of an ancient village site.<\/p>\n
Nestled on a small strip of dirt at the edge of the tobacco field were Schneiders\u2019 students, a cohort of budding archaeologists carefully excavating a checkerboard of 2×2 meter squares. They dug in 10 centimeters deep levels and logged their findings in their field journals.<\/p>\n
In the squares, they found pottery sherds, stone tools called \u2018lithics,\u2019 and discolored earth representing storage pits and structures that once stood in the same spot the students stand today. It\u2019s all that remains of people archaeologists refer to as the Oneota, groupings of Native Americans who lived in Wisconsin roughly 1,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
Schneider led this summer\u2019s 51ÁÔÆæ Anthropology Field School, which ran through June and into July. It was his job to help students in the field school not only learn about this ancient village, but also learn to become archaeologists themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to give the students basically a practicum or hands-on approach,\u201d Schneider said as he watched a student examine a pottery sherd. \u201cThey are the researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider, a principal investigator in 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Archaeological Research Laboratory Center, continued the excavation at this, the Koshkonong Creek Village Site, that Rick Edwards, a principal investigator in 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Archaological Research Laboratory Center, began in 2012. Schneider collaborated with Edwards and together they\u2019re old pros; this is their fifth summer working together in the Field School on Lake Koshkonong.<\/p>\n
They learned their trade at the hands of 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Anthropology professor emeritus Bob Jeske, who, now retired, led 51ÁÔÆæ anthropology students on field school excavations for some 30 years. They\u2019ve been exploring the Oneota settlements around Lake Koshkonong and surrounding farmland. There are several sites scattered throughout the area and Schneider said the Field Schools have found evidence that the groups used to interact with each other.<\/p>\n
This year, the Field School returned to a farm in Edgerton, Wisconsin, where Edwards has previously run excavations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe farm family is very excited to have us out there. Just knowing and learning about what used to be here is a very cool thing,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n
The Field School runs for six weeks, during which students are expected to conduct surveys to identify archaeological sites and run excavations like a professional archaeological dig.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to give them the opportunity to excavate a unit using methods we would use on any other archaeology site,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cWe talk about the theories behind what we\u2019re doing, the methods \u2026 and material culture (pottery, stone tools, etc.).\u201d<\/p>\n
To begin, students started with a \u201cPhase 1\u201d survey, where they walked the field that they would later excavate. They were looking for material remains on the ground that might have been churned up during plowing, since the site is a working farm.<\/p>\n
Just how do you tell the difference between a stone tool and a regular rock?<\/p>\n
\u201cPractice is the answer,\u201d laughed Anastasia DeMaio.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re looking for evidence of percussion. You\u2019re looking to see a \u2018bulb\u2019 of percussion (on the stone),\u201d Jordan
\nPayne explained. \u201cThat\u2019s part of being an archaeologist \u2013 you have to train your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeMaio and Payne are both graduate students in the Anthropology Department. They spent their summer baking in the heat and shivering through the rain as they worked on the next Phase of the excavation: Digging out a checker-board of 2×2 meter squares to reach below the \u201cplow zone\u201d and sifting through the dirt to filter out lithics, pottery sherds, and other materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you bring it back to the surface, that\u2019s where it really hits you. These are cultural materials that have been here for hundreds and hundreds of years,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n
The students mapped out their squares, particularly noting the discolored dirt representing cultural features indicating that ancient people dug a pit or erected a structure on this spot. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not specifically wigwams, but they\u2019re about that size (5×5 meters),\u201d Schneider said. \u201cDepending on the size of the fetaure, we can tell this pit feature was used to process wild rice.\u201d<\/p>\n
They finished by digging out the untouched checkered squares so that the entire area was excavated, covering 16×4.5 meters. By doing so, they could determine the full extent of the structures that once stood in the area.<\/p>\n
In addition to the excavation, the students also learned other archaeological and survey skills, including technologically mapping sites and exploring using groundpenetrating radar.<\/p>\n
By the end of the Field School, students walked away with a better grasp of what it takes to perform cultural excavations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they go on to get their graduate degree, having the basics down and knowing where to find archaeology sites and how to handle survey work and excavation work \u2013 these are skills they can take anywhere,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of students will go on and get jobs in this kind of thing,\u201d Edwards added. \u201cYou get a better appreciation for what it is (you have in museum collections) when you\u2019re the one taking it out of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the excavation was complete, students headed back to 51ÁÔÆæ where they will spend the fall semester analyzing and reporting on the artifacts they found during the Field School. Schneider and Edwards are looking to publish their findings.<\/p>\n
DeMaio was excited to get back to the lab and examine the unearthed artifacts. She was initially drawn to anthropology because she enjoyed working with tangible connections to the past. Being part of the team to excavate this Oneota site gave her both an education and a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it\u2019s always about being the voice for people who can\u2019t speak for themselves anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were people here before us. \u2026 We owe it to them to explore this.”<\/p>\n
By Sarah Vickery<\/strong>, College of Letters & Science<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As he ventured through the field towards the dig site, Seth Schneider had to be careful where he put his feet. To his left were rows of newly-planted tobacco, and to his right were the uncovered remains of an ancient …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28112,"featured_media":16054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1715],"tags":[1858],"class_list":["post-16053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus-2021","tag-august"],"yoast_head":"\n