USU Archaeology Field School 1996
Coombs Cave, Garfield County, Utah
Student Perspectives:

Moab, Coombs Cave
by Celeste Clegg and Kristine Curry

The last day at Coombs cave was just as much work as the previous days combined. In one afternoon we had to refill the pit which had taken us eight days to excavate. Our group resembled a chain gang with two people filling screened dirt into buckets while the others lugged them up the hill to the pit. As one of the last buckets of dirt was flung into the pit, a colorful cascade of unused water balloons, which had been appropriated from a practical joking crew member, recorded for future generations the fact that we had been there. With a few more buckets of dirt, the excavation area resembled the rest of the cave floor. Thus ended the 1996 Utah State archaeology field school.

This year's field school was held at Coombs Cave, located east of Moab. This was the third year of excavating here. Previous years focused on learning who used the cave, for what purpose it was used, how often it was used, and whether an agricultural field located below the cave was contemporaneous with the cave use. This year our main objective was to excavate below a layer of rubble that had fallen from the roof of the cave. We were hoping to find evidence of Archaic occupation.

In reality, we never found the roof-fall in the area we were excavating. We found the cave bottom instead. In the process of encountering the cave bottom, we found an assortment of artifacts. One corner of our pit yielded items ranging from plant material to cigarette butts and gum wrappers (probably from an adjacent vandal pit). From the rest of the excavation pit, we found plant material, projectile points, a possible human coprolite and a fire hearth.

Besides learning how to properly excavate, we learned Emily is not a morning person, Celeste knows irritating camp songs, Kristine has a witty sense of humor, Nathan can change a tire, Hiroto doesn't like salsa on his salad, Lina has an interesting taste in t-shirts, Jason knows way too much about Star Wars and Dr. Fawcett is known as the "Big A" in the field. All in all, it was a very educational experience.

Field School Reflection
by Nathan Larson

As an archaeologist, I will need to recognize artifacts and interpret them according to their character and context. Unfortunately, the applicability of class work to "real" archaeology is severely limited. I could spend the rest of my life reading about research methods and theory without being able to integrate them in to my work. Therefore, the hands-on experience I received with the 1996 USU Field School was a pivotal introduction to archaeological work.

At field school, I learned to find and recognize artifacts by sight and touch. More importantly, I learned to place them in context with other artifacts to reveal settlement patterns, land use and process of change. In addition, I received valuable training in archaeological techniques, from map making and recording of sites to excavation, testing and surveying. Even the dreaded paper work was made easy with Dr. Fawcett's help. Most importantly, all of our work occurred within the context of real research - research that gave us opportunities to contribute ideas and produce hypothesis.