Through cold and damp weather. Through brilliant sunshine.
From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the past week.
And as the nine-day archaeology dig at the Memorial Union construction site
nears the end, the nine Iowa State anthropology students are back, painstakingly
recovering items from a pit that was used by the College of Veterinary Medicine
to dispose of animal carcasses and other trash in the 1880s. The vet med
school was located on the Memorial Union site during that time period.
According to David Rapson, affiliate professor with the Department of Anthropology
and the project's director, the students have proved to be invaluable.
"It's been extremely helpful to have trained students on this project,"
he said. "We would have been much less productive if we didn't have
a solid crew of experienced excavators. We have been able to accomplish
much more because these students have the experience necessary to be on
a dig such as this."
Many of the students have worked with Rapson and Matt Hill, assistant professor
of anthropology, on a pre-historic bison site in western Nebraska. That
experience has allowed the team to collect quality data from the Memorial
Union site.
"The data you collect from the field will always be cleaner with a
professional crew," Rapson said. "It's a real headache when you
make mistakes with the data in the field. It takes a lot of time afterwards
(in the lab) if you have to backtrack."
Iowa State anthropology graduate and undergraduate students working on the
Memorial Union site include Andrew Boehm, Wadena; Scott Sinnott, Albia;
Jared Avelar, Northwood; Valerie Mayer, Ankeny; Matthew Wisniewski, Moville;
Larry Van Gorden, Des Moines; Adam Holven, Waterloo; Erik Otarola-Castillo,
Long Island, NY; and Jeremy Hall, Ames.
