Archaeology
July 16 - 27, 2012 - $1,250
9th - 12th grade students
Experience Alaskan archaeology from the field to the museum. This module will immerse students in the world of professional archaeology through field and lab based activities, with the intention of introducing them to potential career paths in archaeology and museum studies. Investigations in 2012 will focus on the Big Lake Overlook site near the Delta River. This prehistoric site has the potential to provide a great amount of information regarding the ways humans lived during prehistoric times.
This module will involve a 6-day long field expedition to the Delta River area (south of Delta Junction). Students will travel by van and camp at the recently discovered archaeological site. We will use excavation tools such as trowels, total station, GPS technology, mapping techniques, and field computers to document our finds. The team will also work at the Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. There, we will employ a range of scientific methods to decipher clues from artifacts, animal bones, soils, and plant remains to understand the activities that occurred at the site and how people lived in the past. Students will also learn how museum professionals preserve and store artifacts and samples so that they are available for future research. Come and join the investigation and help make new discoveries!
This module is a partnership with Fort Wainwright (FWA), Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML), and the UA Museum of the North.
Module Settings/Conditions
Our field camp will consist of tents (ASRA can supply tents and sleeping bags or students may bring/use their own). A large tent with gas stove will serve as our mess hall, hangout, and logistical base. As a part of the field experience, students will be expected to help with camp duties, such as cooking and dishes. There is no electricity or running water at base camp, however water will be hauled from Delta Junction with trips into town. Students should be prepared for all types of weather conditions. It is advised to bring warm layers and good rain gear.
ASRA 2009 Archaeology module featured on the National Park Service website!
Here is the link:
http://www.nps.gov/yuch/historyculture/coal-creek-archaeology.htm
Instructors
Sam Coffman
Sam Coffman is a museum technician at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. He earned his MA in Anthropology from UAF and his BA from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Sam 's research interests include hunter-gatherer landscape-use/adaptation, the integrating of geographic information systems (GIS) analysis into archaeology, and lithic analysis. His main research interest is the late Pleistocene/early Holocene archaeology of sub-arctic Alaska and the Great Basin. Sam says, "Archaeology is a rewarding field, offering you a chance to explore and travel to new places while continuing in the quest to understand past human lifeways."
Chris Houlette
Chris Houlette is the Museum Curator for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley RIvers National Preserve. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
"Much of my research has focused on contact and interaction between cultures, a topic which I find particularly interesting. I have an equal fascination with both historic and prehistoric archaeology and enjoy collections based on research as much as doing field work. I especially appreciate sharing these interests with others and look forward to my third year with ASRA."
Jim Whitney
Jim Whitney is the Archaeology Collection Manager at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. "I went to Cornell University, where I first discovered that I could actually be paid to do archaeology. I earned my MA in Anthropology from UAF and my MA in Museology from the University of Washington. My research interests focus on historical archaeology of the American west, particularly the gold rush period in Alaska. I love to travel and explore new places and cultures, especially those in the past."
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Lori Hansen
Lori has been a Research Assistant at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in the Archaeology Lab since 2010. Prior to being hired, she volunteered in the lab working on many different projects under the direction of the Archaeology Collections Manager. Lori also volunteers at the Bureau of Land Management’s Archaeology Lab in Fairbanks. Her undergraduate focus was on Physical and Forensic Anthropology and has now broadened out to include Archaeology. She is presently preparing to attend graduate school in the fall of 2012.
Julie Esdale
Julie Esdale is an archaeologist for Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military lands. She works on Fort Wainwright and all of its associated training lands in central Alaska. She received a PhD in Anthropology from Brown University.
My first excavation was at a Roman site in Tunisia. That experience got me excited about archaeology, but more interested in the dirt than in the pottery artifacts! I returned to school to do a master’s degree in Quaternary Geology and learned all about the sediments and soils encompassing sites and all the ways in which landscapes and archaeology sites are formed and transformed through time. I began my research in northern Alaska and Canada in 1997 and started deciphering how people formed and transformed archaeology sites by reading clues from small pieces of stone tools. I enjoy the challenge of piecing together small events in the lives of ancient people. I particularly like getting into the field with my whole family. My boys (including my dog) all love participating in excavations!
Dr. Jeff Rasic
Jeff is an archaeologist for the National Park Service and the acting Curator of Archaeology for the University of Alaska Museum. He received a PhD in Anthropology from Washington State University.
He says, "One of my primary research interests is learning about the first poeple who settled Alaska and how they made a living in northern latitudes at the end of the last ice age. I'm also interested in rediscovering the ingenious ways people made and used the stone tools that would have been so essential to survival. My work has taken me to the Caribbean, and throughout the US, and since 1995 I have worked primarily in northern Alaska. It has been a great ride so far. In addition to being outdoors and having a chance to explore interesting places, I really enjoy the intellectual challenge of archaeology. It is a field in which for every puzzle solved, two new mysteries come into view. This means the work will never be completed, and always remains interesting."