Making History in Archaeology Lab

Part of the Curricular Exploration Requirements at Carleton include Science with Lab (LS). As a humanities girlie through and through, I was very nervous about fulfilling this requirement. My strengths include reading and writing, not titrating and fruit-fly raising. A chemistry lab might actually end with me extinguishing a Bunsen burner’s flame with my tears.

Lucky for me, Carleton seems to know this, and offers the ideal lab for someone who loves people and history. Archaeology Lab!

Whaaaaat? Archaeology is a science?

Yes, in fact, it is a rigorous interdisciplinary science that calls for all sorts of skills. While we don’t breed fruit flies or taste rocks in Archaeology Lab (or do we?), we do learn about many, many archaeological methods, including radiocarbon dating, GNSS tracking, and ground resistancy tests. And that was just the first three weeks!

Similarly to Geology (check out Hannah’s blogs about Geology Lab here), Archaeology has fieldwork days as lab days. That means for my lab section, we go out into the real world–err, the lawn outside Skinner Memorial Chapel–in order to study what artifacts and features remain on this campus. Whether rain or shine, we don our sturdy shoes and get surveying!

This year…

Archaeology Lab is focused on Seccombe Music Hall, which was a home donated to the College by the Seccombe family to be used for music classes. We located what we believe to be the foundations of the Seccombe Music Hall, which we’ve mapped out with flags and plotted into an online ArcGIS map. Our professor, Dr. Sarah Kennedy, called in an archaeologist friend, Geoff, in order to help us probe the ground and feel for the actual foundation remains in the ground. Geoff pulled up what he believes to be limestone brick and mortar, which is likely what the foundation is made of.

Geoff also allowed us to use special equipment to test the electrical resistance of the ground. We can then visualize what’s down there and make notes on where we want to excavate, that is dig a hole. We haven’t started digging just yet, but you’ll definitely hear more from me when we start doing that. I may be a bit biased, but having a professor’s permission to dig a hole on campus during class hours–and only during class hours!– sounds like a really fun time.

Because archaeology falls under the umbrella of anthropology, in some ways, we’re studying how Carleton College culture came to be. We’re using a mixture of physical remains and historical records to answer questions like: Who was the Seccombe family? What were early campus buildings made of? What were music studies like at Carleton before the Weitz Center For Creativity? While we may not be able to answer all of these questions by the end of term, we’ll at the very least have started.

So far…

I have really enjoyed how hands-on this class is. There’s no beating around the bush when it comes to doing what archaeologists do. “Learn by doing” has never rang so true in my life than in Dr. Sarah Kennedy’s Archaeology Lab. At the same time, I haven’t ever felt that I’ve been “thrown to the wolves” as Sarah is always sure to be there to answer questions and double-check our work. For tasks like assembling GNSS detectors – which is actually not as complicated as it sounds – Sarah gave us printed directions.

This class has inspired me…

to reflect on the ways that my peers and I influence the physical space of campus. Will future archaeology students be looking for Musser Hall’s foundations? Will they be interested to know how we spend our free time in 2023? Will they think of us as archaic and ancient? Knowing that Carls on campus today are generating history for future Carls to study makes me feel important. It reminds me of how I, as an individual, am part of a community here at Carleton, with culture and stories worth studying.

I’m looking forward to finding out more about early campus life, especially relating to Seccombe Music Hall. Since this class is an ACE (Academic Civic Engagement) course, and because we are effective archaeologists, we are sharing what we’ve learned on our website, Archaeology in the Arb. We’re pioneering archaeological research on campus, and what better way to do that than a cute website with pictures and student work?

So not only am I learning about Carleton’s rich history and using real-life archaeological finds to inform others, I am getting my Science with Lab (LS) credit without having to titrate any solutions! Your Bunsen burners are safe from my tears because of this class, believe me.