David Rapson doesn't hold back his feelings about the dig site
at the Memorial Union.
"This project is really great," the affiliate professor of anthropology
and dig project coordinator said. "Not only is the prospect of field
experience a wonderful opportunity for our undergraduates, but this project
will provide support for two of our graduate students."
One of those graduate students is Erik Otarola-Castillo. The graduate student
and GMAP Scholar (Graduate Minority Assistant Program) from Long Island,
N.Y., has been at the Memorial Union site since the project started last
Saturday. While he will remain at the site until work is completed this
coming weekend, Otarola-Castillo's work is just beginning.
Once the specimens have been collected, Otarola-Castillo will start cataloguing
and analyzing the data back at the lab. He will input the information into
a GIS (Geographical Information Systems) program.
"The program will allow us to closely resemble what the site actually
looked like, not only two-dimensionally but turn them into 3-D pictures
as well," he said. "We'll be able to rotate the site and get a
better picture of what the site looked like than we could in the field.
"The computer program will allow us to analyze how the remains got
here."
Otarola-Castillo says working with the data in the field will give him a
degree of familiarity when it comes time to start working in the lab.
"Being here when we are excavating the site will allow me some nuances
on how the data was collected that I couldn't have if I was just working
on the data in the lab," he said. "While I think we're collecting
quality data sets, we can't begin to record every data."
Working in both the field and in the lab is appealing to Otarola-Castillo.
"I like working with my hands," he said. "I really like collecting
the data in the field but I also enjoy spending time in the lab afterwards
when I can analysis and see what happened at a particular time and location."
Although this is the first historic site that he has worked on, Otarola-Castillo
says he is fascinated with the results that the dig site is yielding.
"I get to see a small picture of what life was like on campus 100 to
150 years ago," he said, "and how things have changed over that
period of time. The chance to see what life was like here in Ames in the
1880s is a pretty cool opportunity.
"I think this is a really good project. It shows that Iowa State University
does care about its roots and the historical events that have led up to
this point in time."
