Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
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 …
One of the most exciting things about archaeology is that you never know what you’ll find until you start digging, and sometimes you don’t know what you find when you find it, and that is exactly the case with this discovery. While digging the shovel test …
Hello, my name is Josie Cowles and I am a junior here at MSU currently working with the MSU Campus Archaeology Program (CAP) to excavate the old MSU observatory. The foundation was found by the CAP crew in May of 2023, and has been the focus of this year’s field school. In the lead up to this field season the CAP crew began researching the old observatory in an effort to find out more about what might have been inside the observatory, as well as what happened to it. In this research they managed to find an old map which shows the observatory, along with a privy (outhouse) nearby. The prospect of finding a privy is very exciting for an archaeologist as people used to throw their trash and unwanted items into them, and as the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
When I began this field school I only knew a little bit about archaeology by way of the intro to archaeology class I took freshman year. I had no hands-on experience and honestly did not know what to expect. The first few days we spent learning about the site and practicing pedestrian surveys. We then got to the good stuff, shovel testing. Before we could open up the excavation units around the observatory foundation Dr. Camp wanted to conduct shovel tests in the area where the privy was thought to have been in hopes of finding some evidence that would justify opening up a whole excavation unit in the suspected area. It also gave us a chance to practice with our trowels and learn to dig in 10 cm intervals which we call stratas.
A shovel test is an approximately 40 cm in diameter hole that is dug into the ground along a grid spaced evenly apart from other holes, the goal being to hopefully dig down to around one meter. I was assigned to STP M-4. The first couple hours were tedious and slow going as none of us had any experience doing this before. We found nothing the first few centimeters, then we began to find some old nails, and even some pieces of glass! When we combined our findings with those of the other test pits around us our TA Gabrielle Moran decided to let us dig a radial off of STP M-4. A radial is a shovel test pit that is dug halfway between two other test pits. We named this one STP RM-4. When we began digging it felt like we hit the jackpot. We ended up uncovering a substantial amount of glass, lots of old nails, and a formica washer which we later found out is used for electrical insulation.
I really enjoyed shovel testing as we had absolutely no expectation of finding anything, so everytime we uncovered a new piece of glass or a nail it was like finding buried treasure. Overall this has been a very fun and exciting experience that has taught me new skills that will be very helpful to me in the future.
Above are artifacts from stratum two and below are artifacts from strata three and four.
Hi, my name is Katie Simonson and I am one of the students taking part in the 2024 field school, where we are working on the site of the original observatory here on MSU’s campus. Part of the foundations were found earlier in May of …
The importance of archaeological excavations revolve around the drive to uncover forgotten, and missing pieces of history; my time with Michigan State’s Campus Archaeology Program aided in doing just that. I worked alongside Dr. Stacey Camp and 12 other CAP crew members to dig up …
This academic year has allowed me to explore several digital methods I had little to no knowledge about. This is partially due to my teaching position at MSU in the Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research (LEADR). While in this position, I was a LEADR TA for Dr. Gillian Macdonald’s ISS 325: War and Revolution course. The topics covered in the course were international security and borderlessness. One of the class projects involved creating a story map encompassing these concepts.
You may be asking, what is a story map? A story map is a method that utilizes time, space, and media to tell a story and showcase research. As a public-facing tool, this method is a great way to get ideas across to your audience.
The tricky thing was that, while I understood the concepts behind story maps and why they are an important tool for disseminating research, I did not know how to make a story map myself. This meant that I needed to create one so that I understood the process and could help students work through any potential hiccups or roadblocks that they would encounter. But I was facing my own mental roadblock in that I had no idea what to make a story map about! So, after discussing potential ideas with Ben, our Campus Archaeologist, we thought that making a CAP-themed story map would be a great CAP project.
My project is not the first CAP story map (for example, if you’re interested in a story map about past campus cuisine, you can find that here), so I was able to scroll through past projects and learn more about what had already been presented by CAP Fellows. For the ISS course, I created a story map focusing on significant excavations conducted by MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program. Due to the substantial volume of archaeological fieldwork CAP has performed, and the constant turnover of Campus Archaeology fellows, the function of this storymap was meant to be two-fold: 1) create a public-facing description of some of CAP’s
Like many CAP Fellows before me, I utilized Knightlab StoryMapJS to create my project. Knightlab is an open-source project created and hosted by Northwestern University, which you can learn more about here. This particular tool has a lot of published instructions and how-to’s, making the tool more accessible for people to learn.
While I enjoyed this project, much of the information has been presented by a previous CAP Fellow (you can visit that story map here). We will also be working to update the existing project with some of the excavations we’ve done since the map was made. With that skillset in had, the real work can begin!
The story map that I am creating will be called “To MSU and Beyond: How our campus fits in the world.” I will be exploring where MSU artifacts come from, and when they could have made their way to our campus. Most of the artifacts come from around the United States, but there have been a few international finds as well. When working with Knightlab StoryMapJS in particular, each new slide will move to a new space on the map; to the right side, there will be a panel with a picture and information about the artifact(s) that came from the area pinpointed on the map. The goal is for this story map to be utilized by CAP in the future to show the general public how we are connected to other states and other countries, and when those connections were occurring.
Stay tuned to see the final product launch in a few months!
This past summer has been one of the busiest, if not the busiest, summers of my time as director of the MSU Campus Archaeology Program. While we did not have a field school as we generally run them every other year, a remarkable discovery was …
by Juan Carlos Rico Noguera Michigan State University (MSU) CAP “is a program that works to mitigate and protect the archaeological resources on Michigan State University’s beautiful and historic campus.”[1] CAP is also an initiative that contributes to the public understanding of MSU’s history, enabling …
Holly Long
I love tea; I drink it every single day. It is warm, hydrating, and is known for healing properties. But the tea leaves most drink today are imported and are not indigenous to North America and are rarely grown here. Tea leaves, not including herbal blends, all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, a tropical flora not suitable to the drastic climatic changes found in Michigan. This plant grows at many altitudes and can be dried or roasted to produce the variety of “colors” we can purchase today. It has been utilized for medicinal and social consumption for centuries, depending on preparation and its caffeinated properties. Though it does contain caffeine, it has lower levels than coffee beans once it is brewed, making it a less popular drink among the caffeine addicted populations in North America.
But if we cannot grow this plant in Michigan, how could people have been drinking tea (dried leaves in water) for ages? While tea comes from Camellia sinensis, dried leaves, herbs, and berries steeped in water were consumed long before commercial tea plantations came to fruition. Other plants were used, depending on the local flora, to create ritual or nutritional drinks. The Yaupon, a relative in the Holly family, is the only native plant in Michigan to contain caffeine, allowing for its medicinal use. Caffeine is a toxin produced by plants to ward off insects and to stop them from eating the leaves but such low levels are almost harmless to humans (not including the caffeine addicted today). However, the effects can be felt and can provide short term energy and the feeling of being wide awake which made it ideal for rituals or being included in fasting periods. One example of archaeological evidence for the consumption of holly comes from outside of Michigan at the site of Cahokia, near modern-day St. Louis, Missouri. Known as a site where many individuals converge for ceremonial purposes (bringing a variety of trade goods with them), the ceramic pots left at the site were scraped and analyzed by archaeologists to determine their former contents. Substances such as caffeine and methylxanthines were detected and the ratios of these chemicals corroborates the use of the holly plant in these vessels. This confirms that people have been utilizing the plant life around them for hot and cold drinks for thousands of years for a variety of purposes.
But not all teas were used for its caffeine in rituals and fasting. Some teas were utilized for the nutrients they provided. In the harsh winters here in the north, food becomes scarcer and less various which means certain nutrient deficiencies might set in. Using the abundant pine needles in the area made tea that added much needed vitamin C back in the diet and provided a warm drink during cold times. Many plants in this area were known for their medicinal properties and were utilized by the native people to cure ailments of the stomach, throats, skin, and joints. Edible plants such as the yarrow, mullein, blackberries, wild rose, and honeysuckle and herbs like sage, mint, and rosemary can be dried and steeped or mashed into liquids to help ease different pains and issues. Many of these plants were not found during the winter and were dried to preserve them much like the leaves of Camellia sinensis are dried and oxidized for tea-drinking purposes.
Not only could these plants be consumed but they were used to heal wounds on the body as well through poultices. Autumn is the time of harvest, the perfect time to finish foraging for these plants and drying them in preparation of Winter. In the final few days of sunny weather, you can embrace the Michigander’s love of the outdoors and learn to drink these nourishing and healing plants that may grow in your own backyard.
References
(n.d.). Camellia sinensis. PLANTS RESCUE. https://www.plantsrescue.com/posts/camellia-sinensis
Bowers, C. (2020, March 6). Wild thing: Pine Needle Tea. Edible Communities. https://www.ediblecommunities.com/featured/wild-thing-pine-needle-tea/
Ching, T. (2021, November 9). How to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day with tea. https://tching.com/2021/10/how-to-celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-with-tea/
Crown, P. L., Emerson, T. E., Gu, J., Hurst, W. J., Pauketat, T. R., & Ward, T. (2012). Ritual black drink consumption at Cahokia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(35), 13944–13949. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1208404109
Real Green Digital. (2018, July 2). 10 Michigan plants Native Americans used every day. PPM Tree Service & Arbor Care, LLC. https://ppmtree.com/2018/07/02/michigan-homeopathic-plants/
Wendell, M. T. (n.d.). The origins and history of tea: Where did tea originate? https://marktwendell.com/historyoftea
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, October 24). Ilex vomitoria. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria
Construction along Service Road in 2020 found a mid-20th-century midden. The artifacts found were associated with the history of temporary post-World War II student housing on Michigan State’s campus. After the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, or the GI Bill, became law, college enrollment increased …
