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USU
Archeology Field School 1999
This was a four week course in archaeological field techniques enabling students to participate in an archaeological research project located on land managed by the U.S. Army at the Dugway Proving Grounds in northwestern Utah. The field school is part of a multi-year research project to construct a theoretically-informed predictive model of prehistoric foraging behavior in northwestern Utah. As such, it is grounded in theory on the evolutionary ecology of foragers, but the field training emphasizes the nuts and bolts of "dirt archaeology." The research also contributes to the cultural resources management plan for Dugway Proving Grounds. Thus, students also learned about cultural resource management - the employment context of the overwhelming majority of American archaeology. The 1999 field school featured a combination of survey and excavation. Students were trained in site identification, recording using the regional site form system (IMACS) and site interpretation based on assemblage composition, site structure and geoarchaeological considerations. Excavation was directed at "forager archaeology," and provided experience in subtle stratigraphic contexts, ephemeral and non-obvious features, and sampling. Mapping was taught using a range of methods from the very simple to sophisticated survey instruments and GPS. The field school employed the approach pioneered in the region by the late Jesse D. Jennings, emphasizing stratigraphic excavation and the "feature system" of documentation. Students experienced the administrative context of cultural resource management, and learned about regulations, permitting, site significance, alternative management strategies, and archaeological ethics. Evening, campfire activities complemented the field work by providing a forum for questions and discussion,mini-lectures on research questions, method and theory, cultural resource management, guitar and horseshoes. |
