College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• April 8, 2006

  Well-trained students an advantage on Memorial Union dig site
  

• Editor's Note: Check back daily for updates on the progress and new photos of the Department of Anthropology's team's dig at the Memorial Union.
  
  Original release
  Saturday, April 1
  Sunday, April 2
  Monday, April 3
  Tuesday, April 4
  Wednesday, April 5
  Thursday, April 6
  Friday, April 7
  
  Saturday, April 8
  
  Day in and day out they've been there.
  
  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.
  

Day 8 - Saturday, April 8

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