By Jensen Kugler
Archeology Day was organized by The College of Wooster archaeology department and the Wayne County Historical Society (WCHS). It was held largely outside in less-than-ideal conditions, but its hosts dug deep and made the best of things.
Programming went from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 and was somewhat hindered by wind, rain and cold temperatures. The outdoor tables were covered by tents, but wind and rain caused some displays to be blown around. This was inconvenient for event organizers, but they were quick to adjust and successfully moved several activities inside.
There were a wide variety of hands-on activities such as artifact cataloging, a mock dig and atlatl spear throwing, as well as several displays and a Chuy’s Tacos truck. Wooster students and community members of all ages had the opportunity to learn about the archeological exploits of the College and the Historical Society from current archeology students, professors and WCHS staff.
The event is a yearly tradition for the College of Wooster Archeology Student Colloquium, and has been held in the Scot Center in previous years. Archeology Day is an opportunity for archeology majors to share their beloved subject with the public.
“[We have had] a pretty good turnout for people in the community. It’s always nice to have people interested in this stuff,” said archeology major Mihalis Protopapadakis ’25.
Archeology Day’s outdoor set-up featured several different tables, each with different educational displays for visitors to view and, in many cases, feel for themselves. The tables focused on a variety of subjects including artifacts like arrowheads and glassware.
Visitors also had access to sections of the WCHS museum. The museum houses a wide variety of unique objects from within and outside Wayne County, Ohio. The collection includes many different vintage and natural objects.
One display at Archeology Day was dedicated to The College of Wooster Pella Project, which is spearheaded by assistant professor of anthropology and museum studies at the College, Beth Derderian. The Pella Project is an ongoing effort to explore and recover the discoveries of a College of Wooster archeological expedition in Jordan in 1967.
“One of the main reasons why we wanted to start the Pella Project was to sort of be transparent about museum practices, because there is a lot of bad behavior in museums. We do know because of the documentation that’s in Special Collections that this dig was legitimate [and] was signed off on by the Jordanian Ministry of Culture,” said Derderian. “Part of our goal with creating this whole catalog of all the Pella material, which is what we’ve been working on with students, is [to] go to the Jordanian Ministry of Culture [and] ask them [if] they actually want any of that back now.”
Derderian is teaching a new course this spring titled “Collections Research: Pella,” which will give students the opportunity to work in a hands-on format with the Pella collection.
“University of Sydney took over the Pella dig in 1983 and they’ve been running it ever since,” said Derderian. “One of the things that we’re going to be doing [in the class], in addition to compiling our catalog of all the Pella materials, is to compile the materials that are helpful to them. They’ve given us some topics and things that they want to know: do you have this? Do you have documentation on this? Do you have photographs of this particular artifact? Things like that. So our students are going to be working on doing [what is essentially] curatorial research.”
There are many different avenues that students can explore as students in the archeology department. For example, Protopapadakis is a double major in archeology and geoscience. On the other hand, Sophia Champion ’27 plans to double major in classics and archeology because of her dual interest in mythology and field work.
“My parents read to me Greek myths and my middle name’s Athena,” said Champion. “I’m [also] very ADHD and I didn’t want to do something that was just going to be reading constantly, forever and ever.”
Both Champion and Protopapadakis were dinosaur lovers as children; there is a definite overlap between interest in paleontology and archeology, so archeology classes may be of interest to dinosaur fans who are looking for classes to take in the spring semester.
As a whole, Archeology Day was an engaging and creative event. Its hosts shared their studies with guests in an enthusiastic and friendly manner despite the dreary weather. Those who missed the event can experience some of its positive energy within the archeology and museum studies departments on campus, or stop by the historical society in downtown Wooster. With a discipline as diverse as archeology, everyone can find something they dig.