Looking Back to Look Forward

Hey Everyone, 

I am writing to you from my house back in Kalamazoo! We’re back home from the field school, and I just wanted to tell everyone about my experience! For some context, I am an anthropology major with a public history minor. For the longest time my main goal has been to be a curator. I started college off as a history major, but once I got to WMU and took a couple of anthropology classes, I realized that I was more interested in anthropology than history. This last year, I have been taking a variety of different anthropology courses trying to see what subfield of anthropology interests me the most.

This last fall I took Erika Hartley’s Intro to Archaeology course, which piqued my interest. Then, when I heard about the field school, I jumped at the opportunity and applied. I was so excited once I got the acceptance letter! This field school has been such an amazing experience for me. I have learned so much about archaeology, anthropology, and what I want to do in the future.

Overall, I am so glad that I took this course, and I would recommend it to any student interested in archaeology. I made some amazing friends during my time at Fort St. Joseph and I had the chance to do things that many people won’t ever get the chance to do. I got to excavate in my own unit, with my pit partner Tyler (who is pictured to the left), and find artifacts left by the occupants of the fort. I had the chance to both wet screen and dry screen. I learned how to properly excavate (troweling, measuring depth, and shovel skimming), and how to bag and tag artifacts as well, making sure that they are assigned the correct tags in order to keep all of the information clear so that we know where each and every artifact came from exactly. I learned so much and I am so grateful that I had the chance to do everything that I got to do!

 This upcoming semester I am taking the archaeological analysis course. We finish cleaning and working on cataloging all of the artifacts that we found during this field season, as well as working with artifacts from past years. The cataloging is one of the things that I think that I excel in, so I am kind of excited for that part. I am hoping that while taking this class I will figure out if I for sure want to pursue archaeology in the future.

I had a great time at the field school, and if you ever have the chance I would also recommend the camps to anyone because it is such a great experience. I enjoyed telling everyone about my experience, and I look forward to writing to you all again during the analysis class in the fall! In the words of Ian Walraven, I hope you have an Archaeological Day!

- Brandy