![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Archeology-Field-Study-MAIN.jpg\")
Dr. Melissa Baltus, an associate professor of anthropology, discusses an excavation area with Geena Clarke, left, a senior from Toledo, and Nicholas McKarus, right, a junior from Sylvania, two of the anthropology students in her six-week Field Methods in Archaeology course at UToledo excavating and documenting a site close to Fort Miamis Metropark in Maumee.<\/p><\/div>\n
The archaeological site where The University of Toledo team is working is private property adjacent to the Fort Miamis Park owned by a family who live in a home a stone\u2019s throw away and reached out to Baltus about the project.<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s goal is to determine if there is any fort architecture \u2014 or discarded artifacts from its residents \u2014 present at the excavation site, buried beneath several strata of dirt, like layers in a lasagna that\u2019s several feet thick.<\/p>\n
Nicholas McKarus, a junior from Sylvania, and Geena Clarke, a senior from Toledo, had worked in the smaller of the two excavation areas for weeks.<\/p>\n
Hidden from main view in a small, shaded grove, the site had two large freshly dug excavation units and waist-high mounds of dirt from those holes that will be used to fill the excavation spots when the course is finished. There\u2019s also a large screen where the pair painstakingly comb through the dirt for artifacts to document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is archaeology right here,\u201d McKarus said as he pointed to the site where they had been working that morning. \u201cYou come out here four days a week, 8 1\/2 hours a day, you’re outside the entire time, so you’re dealing with the exposure, you’re dealing with the weather, you’re dealing with all of this around you and you’re getting the hands-on experience with the equipment, so you’re being completely immersed into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like taking swimming lessons by somebody flicking water at you versus somebody putting you in the water,\u201d he added. \u201cYou learn a whole lot more by being out here and actually doing this and experiencing it and living it versus looking at pictures of it on a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baltus said this experiential learning course, one of four offered in UToledo\u2019s anthropology program, is required for any student seeking an entry-level position in the archaeology field after graduation.<\/p>\n
![\"Geena](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Archaeology-Field-Study-STORY-1.jpg\")
Geena Clarke, left, a senior from Toledo, and Nicholas McKarus, right, a junior from Sylvania, use a large screen to painstakingly comb through the excavated dirt for artifacts to document.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cA degree is great, but you still have to have that field school,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to have that in-the-field training to be able to get a job doing archaeology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarke, who was on schedule to graduate with her undergraduate degree once she completed the course, said the field school was the best way to finish her time as a Rocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like this has been a great experience just to kind of help prepare me for it if I want to go back into archaeology for future career opportunities or not,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just visited Mannik & Smith Group and they had some cool opportunities for entry-level jobs so I’m possibly thinking about pursuing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the top side of the property, about 30 feet away from where McKarus and Clarke are working, is the main excavation site, with a large tent-pole structure for shade and a half-dozen other students digging, sorting and searching for remnants in and around it.<\/p>\n
Among them is senior Go Holsinger.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Holsinger\u2019s first excavation and so far they have found pieces of animal bones, projectile points, a pottery rim sherd and bricks that may be from a fireplace in the fort or another structure or could have just been deposited as fill decades ago.<\/p>\n
![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Archaeology-Field-Study-Story-2.jpg\")
Senior Go Holsinger, who was on their first excavation, holds a projectile point they found\u00a0 at the main excavation site, as Avery Nowak, a graduate student from Deerfield, Mich., works behind them.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI was honestly expecting to find absolutely nothing,\u201d Holsinger said. \u201cI talked with Dr. Baltus about it before, and she said that a lot of the time in archaeology you’re not finding much but when you do find things it’s super exciting and interesting, so the fact that we’re finding so many things is just blowing my mind. It is backbreaking, which I expected, but it’s so, so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby them is Avery Nowak, a graduate student from Deerfield, Mich., who is taking the field course to gain valuable experiential learning for the first time. His real-world experiences and education from these few short weeks is \u201cnight and day,\u201d he said, compared to what he learned from years spent in only classrooms while earning his undergraduate degree at another university.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a lot of the classroom experience, unfortunately, they don\u2019t go into much of the details of the excavation. It\u2019s a lot more theory, like talking about the data that’s been collected,\u201d Nowak said. \u201cSo actually being out here, and being able to collect it and learn about the process has been really enlightening for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it happens for the anthropology students in Baltus\u2019 Field Methods in Archaeology course, the constant bending down and working on their knees, sifting through buckets and buckets of dirt and most often not finding anything remarkable \u2014 it isn\u2019t just a class, it\u2019s the beginning of a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to the necessary required skills for an entry level job in archaeology,\u201d she said, \u201cthere are a number of transferrable skills that students gain as well. This ranges from some of the more technical applications like learning how to map features and stratigraphy by hand and using GPS and total station technology, to strengthening observation, interpretation and communication skills. They also gain a new perspective about themselves and their abilities, engaging their resiliency when the days are long and hot, challenging themselves to accomplish tasks and manage frustrations, and finding a sense of comradery in working together as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
As McKarus said, \u201cThe frustration is part of the experience. Nobody wants to be out here in the rain or to be out here fighting the bugs or sunburns, but at the end of the day, if people like us don’t do things like this, then there’s nothing to curate in museums, there’s nothing to be uncovered, questions won\u2019t be answered.<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Archeology-Field-Study-MAIN-150x150.jpg\")
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