Public Archaeology:
Gaining Appreciation for Archaeological Practice
By David Butler, MA, RPA
Contributors: Lindsay Bartlett, Jack Clifford, Elizabeth Rogers, Adam Dannewitz
On Saturday, October 14th, 2006 my Rollins College Cultural Anthropology class enjoyed a field-trip to the Blueberry Site, including a stop at the South Florida Community College Museum of Culture and History where artifacts from the Blueberry Site are on display. This experience provided students majoring in Cultural Anthropology the opportunity to gain an appreciation for Archaeology and its unique contributions to the understanding of material culture and human behavior as one of the four sub-fields of Anthropology. As part of the field trip, each of the students was required to write an ethnographic narrative summary describing their experiences. The following excerpts from selected accounts demonstrate the students’ new-found appreciation for the practice of Archaeology.
Cultural Anthropology student, Lindsay Bartlett provides an over-view of the first part of the day, “Cultural Anthropology class ANT200 met at 8:15 in the morning on October 14, 2006 at the parking garage…on this cool, hazy morning, the class was assembled and…We then left the parking lot on our way to South Florida Community College, where the museum was located. The museum was the first stop of the two, the second being the actual dig site….while at the museum, we were introduced to the owner of the property, Anne, given a brief background on the site and Native American history in Florida, and reviewed items found at the site and by members of the Kissimmee Valley Archaeological and Historical Conservancy.”
Another field-trip student, Jack Clifford recalls some of his observations: “We left the museum at 11:30 and…arrived at the site at 12:05 and were immediately in front of a two meter by two meter block unit. The unit was dug into four quads in the cardinal direction starting at the south-west quad and was excavated in a clockwise direction. Inside the unit was an archaeologist who was excavating it by using a technique known as shovel shaving. This is when a person uses a spade and shaves thin slices of the dirt off the ground and places them in a bucket. This is done so that when an item is found the archaeologist has a clear understanding of where the artifact came from, also it means that discoveries are less likely to be damaged because of careless excavation. After the bucket is full of dirt it is taken to a 1/8 inch screen. This is a rectangular device that sifts through all of the soil whilst keeping anything of larger size…”
While student Elizabeth Rogers states: “When asked what his purpose was out in the middle of an orange grove digging thousands of little holes in the ground, Dr. Butler replied, “My goal is to find out as much as I can about the human behavior that occurred on this property, spatially, temporally, and culturally.” His response had a great impact on the way I view anthropology today. Rather than envisioning some nerdy, paled person with their nose in a musty book mumbling about pieces of rock and their importance to some tribe or another, I understand a clearer picture of the cultural context that anthropology is trying to achieve; people from pre-history have no way of explaining their behaviors and beliefs to the people of today’s society, it is up to anthropologists and archaeologists and all other scientists to analyze what they discover and bring to light the practices and lives of the people who make up our histories and therefore the way their lives impacted our own. Quite a feat if one really thinks about it.”
Fellow student, Adam Dannewitz summarizes his experiences on the field-trip: “An archaeological dig is not simply a lot of time spent playing in the dirt, it is the science of recreating historical fact that occurred before actual written history. So despite the sleep deprivation, the heat, and the giant spiders, this will be one Saturday morning that I will always remember.”
Public Archaeology prioritizes education, and this
field-trip allowed students who would not normally experience Archaeology to
gain an appreciation for its contributions to our understanding of