Wyn Caudle
Business Manager
On Saturday, Oct. 17, Wooster’s Archaeology Student Colloquium (ASC) hosted Archaeology Day. The event had five outdoor stations and eight indoor tables, ranging from hands-on activities and informative chats to demonstrations of how to throw an atlatl.
Lily Schmitt ’27, secretary for ASC, commented on the group’s community involvement. “One thing that I really like about ASC in general is that we get a lot of archaeology majors because it is an archaeology club, but we get a lot of engagement from people in the community. For example, Steve, our wonderful flint knapper, has been here for several years, and so our events are very community-oriented, especially this one, and the club as a whole is very welcoming to people in the archaeology department but also people outside of it.”
One of the tables located outside of Severance and Williams Halls was an informative table on soil identification, run by Schmitt. Participants learned about the Munsell color chart, which can be used to identify the quality and type of soil found at a field site. Located next to the table was a soil sifter, which is used to capture pottery fragments or other items that may have been missed during the initial dig of a site.
At another table, community member and flint knapping veteran Steve Kitchen performed a flint knapping demonstration. Flint knapping is a craft in which a piece of stone is shaped into a sharp point and then used as a tool. Kitchen shared that he has been working on flint knapping for over 30 years and collects stones from all over the country to do this ancient craft.
Also outside, Sophia Champion ’27, vice president for ASC, was running a table that showcased atlatl. An atlatl is a first-edition craft of a bow and arrow, in which a piece of wood is hooked into the back of an arrow and then thrown to wound prey. Champion shared that it was not strong enough to kill, so it was used to wound animals instead.
The final two outdoor tables featured Marco Conti ’27 and his family, who showed participants how to make friction fires using feather sticks and bow drills. They were accompanied by Josh Janssen ’30, who gave an overview of the archaeology profession and the different tools used during fieldwork.
Inside, there were multiple hands-on tables, including two run by Emma Norris ’29. One of the tables boasted materials for Play-Doh pot making. Attendees made pinch and coil pots to represent the same style that archeologists have uncovered across many dig sites. The second table simplified excavation at dig sites by having participants try to dig chocolate chips out of a cookie using a toothpick.
Across from these tables sat Cameron Honroth ’27 as part of the College’s Pella Collection. Honroth gave a brief history of where the Pella Collection came from before discussing the techniques used to create the pottery fragments present, such as using slip to create designs and thumbs to create texture. Also present was a poster of an Independent Study by Blair Heidkamp ’15 that provided more information on the Pella Project.
Of the five tables left inside, three hosted skeleton or skull replicas and two hosted more information on archaeological organizations. These tables included a skull broken into color-coded parts, so participants could get a better understanding of how a skull works, a table about the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). These tables displayed efforts being done related to these organizations.
The tables with skeletal recreations included one on Medical BioArcheology (a subsection of anthropology that combines parts of archeology and biology), looking at the ways that a child’s skull was reshaped after a hole was created in it to release pressure, a table with a to-scale skeleton that showcased different ways to identify a person’s activities in life, gender and relative age upon death. The final table hosted skulls showcasing the evolution from hominins to humans.
Moria Miller ’27 commented, “I really love archeology day; I think it’s kind of a fan favorite. I think it’s a great way for everybody to get out and show off their skills as far as if they’ve done fieldwork or things like that. I think it’s also a great way to expose other people not in the major to the kind of work that we’re doing.”
Check out @wooasc for future events!