Purdue News
Purdue News
|
|
June 25, 2004 Purdue anthropologists help teachers uncover historyWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Indiana educators are joining Purdue University anthropologists in the field to learn how archaeology can bring history to life in the classroom.
For the first time, Project Archaeology, a national program based at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, will bring 10 teachers to Purdue from June 29 through July 1 to learn what it's like to be an archaeologist. The program, which teaches adults who work with children how to protect America's cultural heritage, will team with the Purdue Department of Sociology and Anthropology's summer archaeological field school for its West Lafayette workshop. The field school takes place every summer and provides technical training for Purdue students. "Purdue's field school teaches students site surveying, mapping, excavating and laboratory procedures, such as classifying and cataloging artifacts, which are all skills that prepare them for a career in archaeology," says Deborah Rotman, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the field school. "By opening our site to Project Archaeology, teachers will work alongside college students who can give them a taste of what it's like to be an archaeologist." Project Archaeology teachers from Lafayette, Indianapolis, Valparaiso and Noblesville will join the Purdue students Wednesday (June 30) in excavating the Wea View Schoolhouse (No. 8) in Tippecanoe County's Wabash Township. The school, which dates to at least 1866, once stood on land that is currently owned by the Purdue Research Foundation, a private not-for-profit organization. The one-room school closed in 1916. "Schoolhouses during the 19th century were more than places of education, as community members gathered there for social, political and religious activities," Rotman says. "As one of the few social institutions that rural people encountered daily, the school reflected and shaped a sense of community." All items recovered will be analyzed and curated at the Purdue University anthropology lab. "Archaeology is not about just about digging and discovery, it really is a way of thinking," says Alicia Stewart, Indiana coordinator for Project Archaeology. "Archaeology teaches that the past is important and why it needs to be preserved, but it also demands higher-level thinking skills that we want students to use. It also is a vehicle for teaching math and science." The Bureau of Land Management created Project Archaeology in the early 1990s to promote awareness, stewardship and appreciation for American heritage. The program operates in 32 states and is expected to expand nationwide. Since the program started in Indiana in 1999, more than 100 teachers have benefited from a dozen workshops. Other 2004 Project Archaeology teacher workshops sites are in Madison, Clarksville and Indianapolis. Purdue's archaeological field school will continue through July 30. The public can visit the site Mondays through Thursdays on July 6-29. Purdue students will be giving tours of the excavation site, located at Newman and Sharon Chapel roads in West Lafayette, from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-3 p.m. The anthropology program, in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has more than 100 undergraduate majors and about 18 graduate students. Anthropologists at Purdue work at field sites in Europe, Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa and the United States studying economic and political anthropology, semiotics and non-verbal language, primatology, conservation and development, religion, gender, and sexuality. In 2003 the field school excavated an unexplored Middle Woodland period mound site in Dearborn County. Writer: Amy Patterson-Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu Sources: Deborah Rotman, (765) 494-4683, drotman@soc.purdue.edu Alicia Stewart (317) 233-9348, astewart@dnr.state.in.us Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Note to Journalists: Journalists can cover the Project Archaeology field day on June 30 at the Purdue University summer archaeological field school site, located at Newman and Sharon Chapel roads, West Lafayette. For additional information, contact Amy Patterson-Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu. PHOTO CAPTION:
|
