Greetings from Graduate School

Me speaking at the 2014 VCU School of World Studies graduation ceremony.

My goodness, it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything on this blog!  Life has been absolutely crazy since my last update, which I wrote during my final semester at Virginia Commonwealth University.  In that post I described how it felt to submit the last of my graduate school applications, and that it seemed as though I was approaching a finish line of sorts as my senior year of college came to a close.  Reading that now, I can’t help but shake my head and smile.

In that last semester I completed my undergraduate thesis on prehistory at Ferry Farm (available here), wrapped up my work in the Virtual Curation Laboratory, and accepted admission to the archaeology graduate program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  Before leaving VCU, I was given the great honor of speaking at my college graduation.  It was an amazing experience, and a perfect close to one incredible chapter of my life.

It was not, however, the finish line.

The next chapter began after taking the summer off to travel across Europe with my best friend and fellow archaeologist, Mariana Zechini.  Shortly after we returned, she headed south to attend graduate school in Florida, and I made my way north to begin my new life as a graduate student at IUP.

I will not lie, the first year of this program was harder than I ever imagined, and it tested me in ways I never thought it would.  The knowledge and experience I have taken from it, however, have been more than worth the struggle.  I took courses in zooarchaeology, historic preservation, laws and ethics, and cultural resource management.  I also worked as a graduate assistant in the historical archaeology laboratory, which led me to apply for a job as a field school supervisor at Historic Hanna’s Town this summer.  I got the job, and began work in July.

Me during my field school at Ferry Farm in 2012.

Before I go any further, want to first explain why getting this job was so exciting for me.  When I first started this blog, I was a sophomore anthropology major who was just about to begin a six week field school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I had taken a total of two classes in archaeology, and thought that field school sounded like an interesting way to learn more about the subject.  May 21^st, 2012 was my first day in the field, and from that morning on, I was sold.  I fell in love with archaeology the moment my shovel first hit the soil, and I have always looked back on my decision to attend field school that summer as one of the best and most influential choices I have ever made.

Field school opened up a whole new world to me, and with the help of a truly remarkable advisor at VCU, I was provided with numerous opportunities to succeed and grow as a student and a professional in the field.  I have always been grateful for the guidance and support I received throughout my undergraduate education, so when I was hired to supervise the field school at Hanna’s Town this summer, I viewed it as an opportunity to pay it forward.  This was a chance to pass on some of my knowledge and experience to undergraduate students like me, who had an interest in archaeology and who might find they have a passion for the field as well.  I also hoped that, as a graduate student, I might be in a position to help them pursue their interests beyond field school by helping them find further opportunities in the field and lab.

Historic Hanna’s Town in Western Pennsylvania.

The field school began on July 13^th, 2015 at Historic Hanna’s Town, an 18^th Century village and fort site in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  This site was first established in 1769, and is best known for having been the first British county seat west of the Allegheny Mountains.  The site is also known for the signing of the Hanna’s Town Resolves, which openly opposed British tyranny during the Revolutionary War.  The resolves were signed on May 16^th, 1775, over a year before the Declaration of Independence.  Sadly, the town was destroyed in 1782 by a group of Seneca Indians and their British allies, leaving the once thriving community in ruins.  In the years that followed, Hanna’s Town was converted to farmland, and remained that way until the 20^th Century.  Archaeological excavations at Hanna’s Town have been conducted since the 1970’s, and have resulted in the identification of a number of buildings and thousands of artifacts.  IUP began conducting a bi-annual field school at the site in 2011, and the results of their efforts have continued to aid in developing a better understanding of the overall organization of Hanna’s Town.

This year’s excavation was aimed at finding structures that once stood at the site.  No maps of Hanna’s Town during the 18^th Century exist, so finding evidence of buildings is of great interest to researchers.  The location of our excavation was based on a ground-penetrating radar survey that was conducted two years ago, and appeared to have identified some square-shaped anomalies below the ground surface.  Our field school had 16 students who were all paired up to work on eight test units.  My professor and advisor, Dr. Ben Ford, directed the field school, while my friend and fellow graduate student, Cheryl, and I worked as the graduate student supervisors.  Our responsibilities were to oversee and instruct the students as they went through the excavation process.  I supervised the eight students working on the northern half of the site, and Cheryl supervised the students on the southern half.

Me and undergraduate student Eden excavating a unit at Hanna’s Town this summer.

The field school lasted five weeks, and I am certain I took away just as much from the experience as the students did.  I was very impressed by how quickly they all learned, and by the care and thoughtfulness they exhibited throughout the process.  I really enjoyed working with them, and I loved being able to teach them and answer questions they had about the various methods and the artifacts they were finding.

Unfortunately, we did not find the structural remains we were looking for this time, but it was a valuable learning experience nonetheless!

Field school has since ended and the school year has now begun.  It is incredible to think I am now in my second and FINAL year of graduate school, and so far I have managed to stay busy with work in the field and in the lab.  I started my assistantship again, and have been working on processing the artifacts found during the field school excavation.  Helping with these efforts are a few of my former students, who decided to volunteer with me this semester.  This made me very happy, and I am excited to continue working with them as the year progresses!  I also just began research for my thesis, and am currently working on a small archaeological project here in Indiana County, which I will post more about as our efforts continue this week.

All in all, it has been a crazy, busy, and wonderful year since I last posted, and I am looking forward to sharing more with you as this new semester continues!

Approaching the Finish Line

After an unreasonably long absence, I feel I should begin this post with an apology for my lack of updates!  Between the end of the field season at Ferry Farm and the start of my final year at VCU, I have had very little time to sit down and write anything but papers.  Now that things have started to settle down, however, I hope to have a great deal more time to post.  I’ll begin by picking up where I left off, in the final weeks of last field season.

Though I had only one job last summer, I had more titles and responsibilities than I ever imagined I would in my first year as an archaeologist.  By the end of July, I was an excavation intern, crew chief, and teaching assistant for the 2013 VCU Field School, and all only a year after having participated in the field school myself.  I can honestly say my experience this summer was the most challenging, but rewarding I have had in my years as a college student.  I think I was most surprised by how much I loved the teaching aspect of my job, both in terms of public outreach and the field school.  I truly enjoyed being able to share my knowledge of the site and promote a better understanding of archaeology and our role as archaeologists at Ferry Farm to the various guests that would visit throughout the season, but I was most inspired by my work with the field school students.  Being able to share the methods and skills I have developed through my studies and experience was exciting, but I was particularly impressed by how well this group of students responded to my guidance and how incredibly hard they worked throughout their five weeks at the site.  Having the opportunity to share my love of this field and the work I do with students and the public is something I very highly value, and it is something I hope to continue doing for many years to come.

Following the conclusion of the field season, and a bittersweet farewell to the many friends I made at the site this year, I returned to Richmond to begin my last year as a student at Virginia Commonwealth University.  I also returned to my post in the Virtual Curation Laboratory, which recently received funding from a new Department of Defense Legacy Program grant.  I am now the Digital Curation Supervisor in the lab, which means that in addition to the usual scanning and editing of digital models, I now have the added responsibility of overseeing the work being done by other employees and interns, which has been a good experience thus far.

The most significant development in my academic and professional life, however, has been the long and strenuous process of applying to graduate schools – a process that ended today.  I plan to write a separate post going into greater detail about all I have done to reach this milestone, but for now I will keep it brief.  Last semester I began by taking the dreaded GRE, approaching my mentors to ask for their recommendations, refining my Curriculum Vitae, sending inquiry emails, and writing my first letter of intent – which is truly the most intimidating document I have ever written.  Then, on December 1^st, I submitted my first application.

Today, I submitted the last.  After clicking that final “submit” button I was very quickly overcome with a flurry of emotions.  On one hand, a huge amount of stress has been lifted, and this great task that has occupied an enormous amount of my time for the past semester is finally complete…  But on the other hand, it is an utterly terrifying sensation to know that my future as a student and an archaeologist is now completely out of my hands.  I have been planning on going to graduate school since my first semester at VCU, and I have wanted to study archaeology since my first post on this blog – following my first day of field school at Ferry Farm.  I feel as though I have been running a marathon since that day, doing all I can to stay immersed and active in this field that I love, and now, in the final 14 weeks of my undergraduate education, and with no further obstacles, I am starting to see the finish line.  This is a tremendously frightening and unbelievably exciting time in my life, and I can’t wait to see what the next chapter of this journey holds…  I plan to keep you all much more updated from here on out, so stay tuned!

Week One is Done

Giving a tour to the new students at Ferry Farm!

Last week was my first week as the 2013 VCU field school teaching assistant, and what a week it was!  On Monday I met the new students at Ferry Farm and gave them a tour of the site, discussing the history of the land and the archaeology that has been done there.  After that, we all headed out to the field and met Laura, Eric, and fellow intern and VCU student Allen Huber.  Allen and I will be working together with the students as Crew Chiefs, teaching them the basics of excavation, answering their questions, and supervising their work for the next month.

We got them started by having them split into four groups and gather all of the equipment they needed to open a new unit.  Allen and I walked them through each step – from starting their paperwork to shoveling up topsoil.  Each group managed to remove the majority of their topsoil layer before the day was over, and I was very impressed by how well everyone worked together to get it done!

Mariana Zechini (left) and Lauren Volkers (right) skillfully excavate an STP in their unit.

On Tuesday two of the groups completely excavated the 20^th Century layer of their units, while another group – Lauren and Mariana – spotted a circular feature in the southeast corner of their unit.  The feature was characterized by bright orange soil and a high concentration of rocks.  Having come across several similar features in the past, Allen and I immediately checked a map we have that shows the location of the shovel test pits that were dug in the 1990’s.  Shovel test pits – or STPs – are small, round holes that are dug at a set distance from one another across a landscape to determine what the ground may hold before fully excavating it.  Sure enough, this circular feature appeared on the map, and we had them stop excavating the unit at that point so that they could remove the soil within the STP separately.

Allen and I work on our new unit!

The next day began like any other.  The students continued excavating, and half of them reached the top of the antebellum layer.  Allen and I decided to open our own unit in the same area as the students, which was very exciting as neither one of us has worked on a full unit from top to bottom so far this season!  We started by setting up string around our unit, taking elevations, and getting the paperwork ready.  We then cut the topsoil into squares using our shovels and scooped them up into the wheelbarrow.  We managed to get to the base of the topsoil layer a few hours before closing time, but as everyone was screening and I was helping one of the students with their unit, a dark cloud started to make its way over the trees toward us.  Before we even had a chance to react, the winds picked up and dirt and debris began flying across the site.  We rushed to put away the equipment and pull the tarps over the open excavation area, but the wind got stronger and stronger, and thunder and lightning quickly followed.  The tarps began flying into the air before we could weigh them down, so a few of us threw ourselves across them just to keep them in place long enough for the others to grab the cinder blocks.  The wind became so loud that we had to yell over it just to hear each other, but within minutes we had everything safely stored, the site covered, and were able to get safely indoors just before the rain started to pour.  It was an incredibly chaotic, intense, and somewhat thrilling end to a fairly average day, and I was very impressed with how well everyone – especially the new students – reacted to the situation and worked together to make sure we all made it through safely!

The George Washington Birthplace National Monument

On Thursday we had a field trip to the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, where museum curator Amy Muraca very graciously took us on a tour of the site and the lab.  It was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit about the Washington family and their lives before they made their way to Ferry Farm.  We were also able to surprise her with some plastic replicas of artifacts that we scanned there last August (see the blog here), which was very fun!  Friday went smoothly, as each of the students worked through their units and Allen and I made it about halfway through the 20^th Century layer of ours.  All in all, it was a very eventful and exciting first week for the field school students, and I can’t wait to get back in the field for week two!

You can read more about their experiences at Ferry Farm on the official field school blog, vcu2013ferryfarm.wordpress.com!

A New Chapter

The southwest quarter of our feature, partially excavated!

Katie and I completed the second quarter of our unit last week, and were left with just about as many questions as we began with.  We started by scraping the unit and outlining the feature, which was significantly darker than the soil that surrounded it.  As we began excavating, however, we quickly noticed the darker soil start to disappear along the bottom edge of the feature.  This was frustrating at first, as it left us with a shape that was completely different than the one we found in the first quadrant, and was not consistent with the feature being culturally formed.

Artifacts recovered from our feature last week.

As we continued excavating, we began finding some interesting artifacts along the top portion of the unit, where the feature dipped down much lower than the rest.  Among our discoveries were the base of a wine bottle, a pipe stem, a wrought nail, and two pieces of tin-glazed ceramics which appeared to be from the same vessel as the two we found in the first quarter.  All of the artifacts we found dated to the 18^th Century or earlier, so despite its many mysteries, we know for certain that this feature dates to the 1700’s.

Once the quarter was completely excavated, it was time for Katie and I to come up with some possible interpretations for it.  This quarter was partially excavated in 2008, so the top layer of it was missing, which may explain why the shape was not exactly the same as the first quarter, which was fully intact.  This quarter dipped in at the center in the same way that the first quarter did though, so we were able to confirm that it was, in fact, culturally formed.  Other than that, we were not able to come to a solid conclusion about this perplexing feature.

Our feature after excavating two quarters!

After a great deal of discussion and thought, our field directors decided that it would be best to close the feature for now and hold off further excavation until we have a firmer grasp on what it may be.  We agreed with this decision, and on Friday we wrapped up our paperwork and very carefully covered up the remaining quarters of our feature.  We spent the rest of the day helping our fellow interns work on a series of units in the middle section of our excavation area that needed to be taken down to subsoil from the colonial layer.  It was a nice, relaxing day, and an excellent way to end the first chapter of my summer at Ferry Farm…

The next chapter began today, as I took on the responsibilities of the Teaching Assistant for VCU’s field school, which runs from now until the end of July.  I am very excited about this new task, and I hope I can pass on to the students all of the knowledge that I have gained, as well as a bit of my love and enthusiasm for the field!  It’s the beginning of a new and exciting adventure at Ferry Farm, and I look forward to sharing it with this year’s field school students!

The 2013 VCU field school crew!

Features, Features, Features…

Leg of a cast iron pot found in our shell feature

We returned to the field after a long weekend on Tuesday and immediately got to work excavating the shell feature that we started working on last week.  We started by removing the top layer of shell on the southern half of the feature, then started a second context for the rest of it.  Our expectations were not high for this mysterious pit, as the northern half did not have much in the way of artifacts, but this half very quickly proved us wrong as we began screening the soil.  In the first load of dirt I found a small piece of ceramic that is most likely prehistoric, and if that is the case it would be my first piece of prehistoric pottery!  Upon removing the top layer we made another discovery – a very large piece of metal sticking out of the ground.  We were very excited about this object and made several guesses as to what it might be, but due to its size we had to excavate nearly half of the feature before it finally came out!  When it did, we quickly brought it to our Site Director, Laura, who identified it as one leg of a very large cast-iron pot.  We also found some small pieces of bone, charcoal, flakes from stone tool making, a straight pin, a pipe stem, and the heel of a pipe bowl with the letters “T” and “D” on either side!

On Wednesday we continued to work on the feature, taking it all the way down to the bottom where the soil was significantly different and no more artifacts could be found.  We were about halfway there when we closed up the previous day, so it did not take long to get through the rest in the morning.  In this half we found a large tooth with a clear cavity in it, a very neat black button most likely made of jet, and the tip of a skillfully crafted stone tool – another exciting first for me!  We officially wrapped up the feature shortly after lunch, and upon looking at the odd, uneven shape we came to the conclusion that the hole was likely caused by a plant, which was removed from the ground and filled in by someone a very long time ago.  Based on the artifacts we found, it is plausible to say that the hole was filled sometime in the 18^th Century, as all of the artifacts we recovered from it date to that period or earlier!

Yesterday we excavated a much smaller feature that was situated right next to our last one.  This feature was a clearly visible dark circle that was about a foot in diameter.  We began by excavating the southern half, drawing a profile view, and then excavating the northern half.  It did not take long, and when we finished the hole was a perfect circle with a flat bottom, indicating that it was likely a post mold.  A post mold is created when a post of some kind is removed from the ground and the hole is filled with soil.  Most of the artifacts that we found were small pieces of brick, charcoal and bone, as well as a couple tiny bits of ceramic.  We closed this feature fairly quickly, and I spent the rest of the day helping fellow interns Katie and Courtney clean up their unit.  I’m not sure what my next assignment will be, but I am excited to get to work on some new units as the week winds down!

A Chilly Monday

Burned seen from our first unit

Today was a great day in the field!  We were joined by two new interns – Courtney and Courtney, one of whom is also a VCL team member and a recent VCU graduate (congratulations, Courtney!).  Dr. Means arrived with some doughnuts and coffee early in the morning as a surprise for her, which was quite warmly welcomed by everyone in the field, as today was rather chilly!  Allen and I continued to work on the same unit from Friday, using our shovels and trowels to take it all the way down to the subsoil on both sides of the trench.  We did not find much on the southwestern side, but the northeast corner yielded some neat artifacts, including some 19^th Century ceramics, pipe stems, nails, shell, and brick.  The most exciting and unique find, however, was a small burned seed that Allen found while we were screening!

Allen taking elevations from our second unit

After we finished digging and wrapped up the paperwork for the first unit, we quickly moved on to our second one.  This unit is directly next to the first one and has no obvious disturbances running through it, which is a welcomed change!  There is also a pipe and some kind of associated feature just above the northwest corner.  My friend Victoria and I initially opened up the unit with the pipe in it last summer, which you can read about here!  We started digging with our shovels, but as we scraped up the soil we noticed a large concentration of shell coming up in the middle of the unit.  We decided to stop and use our trowels so that we would not miss anything as we carefully worked around it.  The time came to pack up before we got very far along, but we will be back to continue working tomorrow morning!

Day One … Year Two

Last May I posted on this blog for the third time after my first day as a field school student at Ferry Farm (see Day One).  It was the first time I had ever been to an archaeological site, let alone dug at one.  I wrote about arriving at the site and learning of its history, and I described my first time in the field.  I remember how overwhelming it all was, and though I did my best to remain cool and confident throughout the day, I was a nervous wreck on the inside.  I had no idea what to expect from the experience, and I was terrified that I would be terrible, or that I would mess something up.  As the weeks went by, however, I started to become more and more comfortable in the field, and found myself falling ever more in love with archaeology.  Everything was new and exciting, and each day felt like an adventure.  I truly feel that I found myself at Ferry Farm, and though I did not know where I would be or what I would be writing about a year from then, I knew that all would be well as long as I was doing archaeology.

Little did I know, less than a year from my first day at Ferry Farm, I would be returning to the site for yet another first day – this time as an intern.  This marks my first post in a brand new set of adventures at George Washington’s Boyhood Home.

This has been an incredibly eventful year for me.  In the fall I joined the Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL) at VCU and traveled to numerous sites around Virginia and Pennsylvania, scanning artifacts from a myriad of collections and creating 3D digital models of them.  In March, I attended my first conference and presented a paper that won the undergraduate student paper contest, and I volunteered at my second excavation in Gloucester, VA.  Around February of this year, I applied for a job at Ferry Farm as an excavation intern for the 2013 field season.  Shortly thereafter, I was offered the position, and have been eagerly waiting for the start of the season ever since!  Earlier this week I officially completed my junior year at VCU and took a short trip to the Virginia Museum of Natural History with the VCL.  Then, on Friday, I finally began my first day as an intern at Ferry Farm!

I arrived promptly at 8:30 AM and made my way to our morning meeting space, where I met the other four interns who have reported for duty – Ryan, Cate, Katie, and fellow VCU student and VCL team member Allen Huber.  After a brief discussion I was given a tour of the building by our Site Director Laura Galke, and then sat down to complete my employment paperwork.  Once that was done, I headed out to the field to join the other interns at work!

As I approached the dig site, which is in the same area that we dug last year, I couldn’t help but feel like I was coming home.  We are starting the season by taking down the remaining portion of the northern half of last year’s excavation area.  I was initially paired up with Cate and Ryan, who were working on taking their unit down to the next level.  While we were digging, we were visited by a group of preschool students, who needed one of us to talk to them about what we were doing.  I volunteered and met the students under the tree next to the dig site.  I told them about our excavation and showed them plastic replicas of artifacts (printed by the VCL) that have been recovered from the site.  The kids loved the replicas, and seemed to enjoy my brief talk before they ran to the screening area to get their hands dirty!  I enjoyed talking to them, and I really liked being able to use our replicas in the field!

Me (left) and Allen (right) take elevations as our Site Director, Laura (center) takes photos

Shortly after that, Katie had to leave to train for her position as our designated public archaeology person, so I took her place as Allen’s digging partner for the day.  Their unit was between contexts when I arrived, meaning that paperwork had to be done before we could move on to the next layer.  The unit had a utility trench running through it, and a large shovel test pit in one corner.  Allen and I took the elevations, mapped the unit, and recorded the color and texture of the soil.  While he was wrapping up the paperwork, I started giving the unit a fresh scrape with my trowel before we took a photo and moved on to the next context.  Katie rejoined us shortly after we started digging, and when we screened the soil from that context we made quite a few interesting finds.  There were a surprising amount of prehistoric stone flakes in this layer, as well as some nails, shell and ceramics.  We continued working on our unit until the end of the day, and before I knew it, it was time to pack up and go home.

Overall, my first day as an intern at Ferry Farm was wonderful, and I am so excited to spend the rest of the summer at the site!  I feel extremely fortunate to have this opportunity, and I can’t wait to see what this field season has in store…

Stone flakes found at Ferry Farm

Old Friends and Familiar Faces

The Surveyor’s Shed at Ferry Farm

Earlier this month I made my way back up to Ferry Farm with fellow VCU students Crystal and Aaron.  We arrived at the archaeology lab bright and early in the morning, where Dr. Means and our trusty 3D scanner were already waiting.  We were there to scan some prehistoric stone tools that have been found during excavations at the site, which I will be using in a research project concerning the applications of 3D technology in lithics analysis.  I was extremely excited to be back at the site, and found myself very quickly overwhelmed by a strong sense of nostalgia.

Scanning a quartz projectile point.

We began setting everything up right away, but realized that we had accidentally left the powder, which we use to coat artifacts that our scanner has difficulty reading, back at the lab in Richmond.  Given that projectile points rarely scan well without it, we had to improvise and purchase some baby powder and paint brushes from a local drug store.  After the brief delay, we returned to the lab and began scanning!  I set up the first artifact- a stone projectile point- and powdered it with our newly purchased supplies, then started the scanner and hoped for the best.  Within the first few rotations we could tell that it was coming along surprisingly well, so we decided to take a walk around the site while it continued to work.

Our excavation area.

The walk through the gardens and across the field was a familiar one, and the fervor and enthusiasm I felt as we discussed the history of Ferry Farm on our way to the old excavation area was something I have missed terribly.  The dig site, now roped off and covered with black tarps and cinder blocks, lacked the vibrant energy that radiated from it during the summer, but I could still make out the five by five squares that I worked on over the course of the season, and it still made me smile when I thought about my adventures there.

After our walk, we returned to the lab to check on the progress of our scan.  It came out beautifully, so we quickly moved on to the next one.  We managed to scan four more projectile points and a stone engraver before the day was done, all without any problems at all.  Shortly after I began the engraver, however, Laura Galke called me into her office.

Me holding the aluminum foil pouch that contained a groundhog we recovered this summer.

I walked over to find a small group of lab technicians gathered at her door, and two small aluminum foil pouches inside.  “Does this look familiar?” she asked, pointing to the pouches.  My heart jumped as I got a closer look and recognized Victoria Garcia’s handwriting on the top of each one.  Inside were the remains of the groundhog that Victoria, Allison, Jason and I excavated during our third week of field school (see “An Unexpected Burial” for the original post)!  Laura explained how the animal was found and the significance of it to the group, and I got to briefly explain my part in the excavation.  This was a great treat for me, as the day we found this groundhog was one of the best days of my summer.

After the last scan was finished, we packed everything up and headed back to Richmond.  As always, I thoroughly enjoyed my day at Ferry Farm.  I am so glad that I was able to return and see so many familiar faces, including the groundhog, and I hope to return again soon!

The weeks since this trip have been extremely hectic back at the Virtual Curation Laboratory at VCU, but I’ve made a great deal of progress in my efforts there recently.  I will be posting more about those endeavors soon, as well as a new page with more information about the Virtual Curation Laboratory and my part there, so stay tuned!

Back to School

Me, scanning a one million year old Acheulean Hand Axe!

Field school has ended, summer has passed, and a new semester at VCU has just begun!  It seems ridiculous to assume that anything I do this fall will compare to the excitement I experienced at Ferry Farm and the fun I had traveling with the Virtual Curation Unit all summer, but I have done my best to ensure that I will not undergo a moment of boredom this semester, and that I will have plenty to blog about throughout the year!  Nearly all of my classes this semester are anthropology courses, and I am also doing an internship with Dr. Means in the Virtual Curation Laboratory.

My internship involves scanning and processing artifacts, much like I was doing over the summer but far more in depth and with less traveling.  We kicked off the internship and the fall semester the day before it began, when Dr. Amy Rector Verrelli, a professor at VCU and a biological anthropologist, loaned us a beautiful one million year old Acheulean Hand Axe that was found near Cape Town, South Africa.  Acheulean Hand Axes are stone tools that were the product of Homo Erectus.

This was, by far, the oldest artifact I had ever held, and the oldest thing the Virtual Curation Lab has ever scanned.  Dr. Means, Mariana Zechini, and I were all working in the lab at the time and we were very eager to get this artifact scanned and create a digital model of it.  The scan was successful and the results looked good, but when it came time to process the file I discovered that there was quite a bit of data missing and I was unable to finalize the process.  We concluded that we needed to try the scan again and obtain a better image, so that is exactly what I did on Friday.  The new scan looks fantastic, so hopefully this week I will be able to successfully process the file!  In any case, this was a very exciting way to start the semester!

In addition to classes and my internship, I have just become the president of a new student organization at VCU called the Virtual Archaeology Scanning Team (VAST).  I am very excited about this organization, as many of the founding members are students I went to field school with, so this will give us the opportunity to connect with other anthropology students at our university and remain active and engaged in archaeology and 3d scanning during the school year.

In all, I this semester is off to a fantastic start, and although I am sad that this extraordinary summer has come to an end, I can’t wait to see what opportunities and adventures I will stumble across this year, and where I might end up when the next field season begins!

A Day at Poplar Forest

Earlier this month I took a trip to Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest in Forest, Virginia with fellow VCU students Caitlyn, Crystal, Mariana, and Rachel.  Dr. Means was scanning some artifacts for the archaeology department there, and was kind enough to invite us to join him.  When Caitlyn, Crystal, and I arrived, he, Rachel, and Mariana were in the process of scanning a finial from the top of a clock that may have belonged to Thomas Jefferson.  This was just one of many fascinating artifacts that Dr. Means had been working on during his visit there.  The rest were laid out on the table next to the scanner and included some stone pipes, a pipe with the words “Good Pipe” etched onto the side, a small metal WWI soldier, and a griffin-shaped tea spout.  Once we were all settled and the finial was scanning, Mr. Gary took us on a tour of the grounds, which was my favorite part of the day!

Poplar Forest was Thomas Jefferson’s private retreat, and features a fairly large octagonal house, which shares many architectural features with his home at Monticello.  What is very unique about this house and the land at Poplar Forest is that Jefferson designed it solely for himself, so studying this site gives archaeologists and researchers a unique perspective into the personal mind of Thomas Jefferson.  The way this home has been restored is also unique, as it is not set up like a traditional house museum.  Instead, the only furniture found is that which was recorded in the probate inventory, and one portion of the house has been left partially unfinished to display the complex layers of the home’s architecture.

After seeing the house, Mr. Gary showed us around outside, where we discussed the archaeology that has been taking place there and the restorations that have been made based on their excavations.  I was extremely impressed by the work that they have done at Poplar Forest, especially by the landscape archaeology that they have been doing recently.  Using a variety of archaeological methods and a fair amount of research they are able to determine where certain plants where located at the time that Jefferson lived there, and then use that information to restore the landscape.  I was also impressed by the amount of effort and thought that Jefferson put into the landscape in the first place, especially by the two mounds on either side of the house, which featured three different types of trees going down them to represent a natural rotunda.

We were also taken to a particularly fascinating excavation site away from the house that has been open for over a decade and has yielded thousands of incredible artifacts and even some features.  They have gathered so much information from this one small corner of the grounds that they now have to close the site until they can process it all.  I was very impressed by this excavation, and I am very excited to learn about what they determine from their findings!

After the tour of the grounds, we headed back to the lab to check on the scanner.  Everything was going well, and before long our day at Poplar Forest was done.  Before we left, we stopped at the small museum that is located in the lower floor of the house.  I was extremely impressed to find a great deal of information about the archaeology that has been done there.  Most museums focus on what has been found at a site and who has been there, but usually do not concentrate on who recovered the information and how.  It was really nice to visit a place with such a unique focus and perspective, and I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area!  I had a fantastic time during our visit, and I want to thank Jack Gary and all of the archaeologists in the lab for being so welcoming!

If you’d like to learn more about Poplar Forest, please visit their website at poplarforest.org, and check out their blog at poplarforestarchaeology.wordpress.com!