Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
Blog posts from members of the Campus Archaeology Program; including the director, the campus archaeologist, graduate students, and undergraduate interns.
By Madelyn McKinney and Jerielle Cartales The Island School site, excavated by CAP in the summer of 2025, was filled to the brim with architectural debris from the schoolhouse’s destruction in the 1960s. Most of this was fairly generic: shards of plain window pane glass, …
By Alex Wesorick I’m a junior student at MSU, and I have been working for Dr. Stacey Camp this semester, looking for information about some of our school’s oldest students. The original goal of the semester was to identify individuals found in a photo of …
By Madelyn McKinney During the hectic summer of 2020, CAP Crew had the opportunity to excavate sections of a mid-twentieth century midden uncovered by water main replacement construction along Service Road, a thoroughfare running east to west through the southern half of campus. Landfills, of …
By Rylee LaLonde Got Milk? Students at the Island School certainly did, delivered fresh daily in glass bottles! During the summer of 2025, Michigan State University’s (MSU) Campus Archaeology Program (CAP) excavated what was once the Island School, now a farm field. Among the artifacts …
By Madelyn McKinney and Andrew Kracinski The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory (MAC Lab) has, for many years now, explored the uses of radiography (the imaging technique that produces x-rays) in archaeological artifact curation, conservation, and research. Available online, Sarah Rivers Cofield and Nichole Doub’s An …
Well, it’s been a long summer, but we’re going to get in the spirit of Spooky Season with the follow-up everyone has been waiting for: what is the CAPacabra? If you missed Part 1, the CAPacabra is a mummified animal discovered in the ceiling of …
Happy Fall everyone! We are excited to announce that we will hosting Apparitions & Archaeology a Haunted Tour event this October! This event has been a long standing collaboration between the Campus Archaeology Program and the undergraduate Paranormal Society at MSU. Come join us to …
Hi! My name is Jerielle and I’m a first year CAP fellow, working on my PhD in forensic anthropology. I have an undergraduate degree in biology and a masters degree in forensic anthropology. Unlike many other CAP fellows, my interests lean more towards (human) skeletal …
By Aubree Marshall and Benjamin Akey Sometimes, when archaeologists are lucky, we run into botanical remains. In my personal research, I look at microbotanicals (like pollen, starches, and phytoliths) from dental calculus (the stuff your dental hygienist scrapes off of your teeth!) to understand diet. …
Happy October y’all! We are happy to announce that we will be once again hosting our Haunted Tour event following last year’s hiatus. While we may have missed last year, 2024 represents the tenth anniversary of Apparitions & Archaeology, a long lasting collaboration between the …