Tag: education

Outreach through Archaeology…

Outreach through Archaeology…

This past Saturday was a cold and rainy day.  We celebrated Michigan State football as our team beat Wisconsin in a great Big Ten battle.  But while some were celebrating in the rain and cold, others celebrated different aspect of Michigan State, at the Michigan 

Be a Part of Our Summer Field School!

Be a Part of Our Summer Field School!

In one week, the 2010 Campus Archaeology Field School will begin, and we’d like you to be a part of it. 16 students have enrolled in our Field School, and they will be doing the dirty work: digging, screening, and cleaning artifacts. However, we want 

Archaeology 101: Shovel Test Pit Survey

Archaeology 101: Shovel Test Pit Survey

Chris digs an STP.

Whenever Campus Archaeology is alerted of a construction project on campus,  we typically conduct what is called an archaeological survey to determine if there are any potential archaeological sites in the area. This is important because it gives us the opportunity to quickly examine a large area, and then do more detailed archaeological excavations if we are able to determine that possible sites exist. There are a number of different types of survey that are used, each depending on what equipment is available and what the type of environment being surveyed. We are using two survey techniques while we search for the location of the Weather Bureau: Geophysical Survey and Shovel Test Pit Survey. This post will discuss the latter.

Shovel Test Pits, or STPs, are a way for archaeologists to cover a large area quickly. STPs are minimally invasive, meaning that they do not disturb a lot of ground, yet provide enough data for us to determine how viable an area is for further archaeological testing. The STP is a shovel-by-shovel width hole dug straight into the ground. The dirt is sifted, and artifacts are collected and their type and quantity is recorded on a map. We then examine the map for areas where their are significant artifact clusters, and identify those areas as potential archaeological sites that need to be further examined.

Let’s use our survey at the Weather Bureau as an example. Our first step was to establish a grid and pace off the location of where the STPs would go. Because we are in a small area, and were hoping to identify a building location, we decided to put STPs every 5 meters. In larger areas, these STPs would have been spaced at 10 or 15 meters. After this was settled, the STPs were excavated, artifact counts were recorded, and plotted on the map. STPs with significant concentrations are referred to as “positive” while ones with no or few artifacts are “negative”.

When we were finished, definite clusters of positive STPs began to emerge on the map near the north west corner. At this point, it is customary to excavate “radials”. These are additional STPs that are dug to the north, south, east, and west of each positive STPs, giving us a more refined picture of how these clusters are delineated. If a positive STP is surrounded by negative radials, than it is typically assumed there is no site there. In this case, these radials ended up being positive, indicating that there was significant human activity occurring in this space. Because these items were primarily bricks and nails, it is assumed that this was most likely the location of a building, probably the Weather Bureau.

The next step would be to do further testing to determine how much of the building is still intact. It is quite possible that this was just brick rubble and fill from the building’s demolition, not intact features or foundations. Without STP survey, however, we would not have been able to identify where to begin these excavations, making this a critical piece of archaeological methodology to understand.

Author: Terry Brock

Campus Archaeology is on Foursquare!

Campus Archaeology is on Foursquare!

  The Campus Archaeology Program has been considering using location based mobile software for a while now. One of our interns, Jamie Henry, has been working on a research project discussing the possible applications for this platform for public engagement. Our director, Lynne Goldstein, and 

New Posts by a New Person

New Posts by a New Person

The Campus Archaeology Program has had the good fortune of being able to work with a number of different undergraduate and graduate student researchers. This has provided us with the opportunity to carry out research beyond the basic information we gather from our excavations sites, 

Campus Archaeology Program Internship!

Campus Archaeology Program Internship!

CAP workers/interns excavate on campus
CAP workers/interns excavate on campus

The Campus Archaeology Program is looking for applicants to become the Campus Archaeology Program Summer Intern. The successful applicant will have a completed an archaeological field school, and be available for the entire summer. Duties will include working with the Campus Archaeology Program on historical and archaeological research, excavations and survey, interactions with the public through the intern blog, and developing and researching their own archaeological research project. They will present their research project at the Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum in April, 2011.  This is a fantastic opportunity to gain unique archaeological experience on Michigan State’s own campus.

Applications are available at this link: https://campusarch.msu.edu/?page_id=73

They are due no later than Friday, April 23rd.

Visit the intern blog at http://capintern.wordpress.com

Archaeology 101: Reading Stratigraphy

Archaeology 101: Reading Stratigraphy

This week on Facebook and Twitter we are showcasing a number of photos of profile walls from our excavations, in a section called “Stratigraphy Week!” I thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss one of the more important elements of archaeological excavation: reading 

2010 Summer Field School Announcement!

2010 Summer Field School Announcement!

  The MSU Campus Archaeology Program and the Department of Anthropology are pleased and excited to announce that there will be a summer archaeological field school on MSU’s historic campus. An archaeological field school provides formal training for students, teaching them the fundamental methods of archaeological 

SHA Poster on Digital Social Media

SHA Poster on Digital Social Media

Terry Brock, Campus Archaeologist, and Lynne Goldstein, the director of Campus Archaeology, will be presenting a poster at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference in January about Campus Archaeology’s use of digital social media as a means of community engagement. We consider the way we use web-based technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr to be unique to more traditional forms of engagement, such as site-visits or newsletters. This poster highlights three important and unique elements of this type of engagement: real-time engagement with all elements of the research project, the ability to connect with different communities, and opening the possibility for two-way communication between and among archaeologists and the public.

Since this poster is about you and our interactions, we thought we would share it with you before we even get to the conference!! You can view it below. It is much easier to see if you view it in Full Screen. Let us know what you think: what part of our use of digital social media have you enjoyed the most? What could we do better?

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Campus Archaeology Internship for Spring 2010

Campus Archaeology Internship for Spring 2010

The MSU Campus Archaeology Program is looking for one undergraduate intern for the spring of 2010. The intern will have numerous responsibilities, including working in the lab, excavations, public engagement about findings, and engaging in a special research project. The intern will be responsible for