Update from PHAST by Ross Owen

This is my second and final summer leading the PHAST crew. PHAST (Pennsylvania Highway Archaeological Survey Team) is an archaeological survey program created through an inter-agency partnership between Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and IUP. Each summer, 3 crew members and a field director (that’s me) take on a list of small archaeological surveys required by State and Federal regulations for PennDOT projects which propose ground disturbance. The crew this summer are all graduate students at IUP who have just completed their first of two years: Steven Campbell, Sam Edwards, and Kristina Gaugler. Most of our projects are bridge replacements and intersection realignment that do not have a large footprint. This gives us many opportunities to work in different parts of the State. Oftentimes in cultural resource management those working in the field are less involved in the lab work and report writing, so the holistic experience offered by the PHAST program is one of it’s biggest draws.

PHAST crew from left to right: Kristina Gaugler, Sam Edwards, Ross Owen, and Steven Campbell

Since mid-May, we have completed the fieldwork for 4 projects, finding one archaeological site in the process: a multi-component site with both prehistoric and historic artifacts present. A rainy month of June has slowed us down some, forcing us to search for drier portions of the Commonwealth. Unlike Dr. Ford, none of our crew is qualified to conduct underwater archaeology…

The joys of fieldwork in the rainy season….

After a few weeks working in the center of the state and dealing with a flooded project area, we headed to Wyoming County in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. After the fourth of July, PHAST will begin a project in Venango County in the northwest corner of the state. In addition to our growing list of hotels to stay in (or avoid staying in) and the good eats in small towns across Pennsylvania, our travels force us to become familiar with several regions of the state.

Our background research, fieldwork, and reporting require us to learn about the environments we are working in in order to interpret the soils and artifacts we unearth in our excavations. Upon encountering a field full of chert, a material often used to produce stone tools, further research into the bedrock geology along with analysis of the samples we collected allowed us to determine that the chert was naturally-occurring and unrelated to human modification. Working in floodplains along creek sides we must pay attention to geologic factors which influence the routes of waterways over time, historic deforestation and mining across the state, and more recent events such as Hurricane Agnes which caused significant flooding along waterways in Pennsylvania.

shovel test pit

Running the PHAST crew is an excellent learning experience, constantly forcing me to adapt to new situations and solve unexpected problems as they arise. The network of support from the university, from PennDOT, and from the crew is what keeps everything running smoothly – ensuring that it is not only a learning experience, but a productive component of PennDOT’s cultural resource management program. In addition to the educational benefits it provides, and the contributions PHAST makes to interpreting the archaeology of Pennsylvania, the program also helps to save money. As an in-house program utilizing student interns, PHAST is able to complete projects required by Federal and State regulations for a fraction of the cost if a private company were to do the same job. In doing so it also helps to train students to work in the cultural resource management industry spreading the benefits across state and agency lines.

Where in the world are IUP Achaeologists this summer?

Summer is upon us (where did the year go?!) and our applied archaeology students are off to many exciting places and experiences. We are very proud of the hard work of our recent grads and current students, and pleased to see that nearly all of our current students are employed! Here are some highlights:

May 2018 graduation

Recent grads:  Samantha Taylor (MA, ’18) recently completed her thesis on the ceramic assemblage at the African-American diaspora site of Pandenarium. She is currently working as the Assistant Site Director at The Germanna Foundation. Danielle Kiesow (MA, ’18) recently completed her thesis investigating land use and gardening practices on the Ojibwe reservation from 1854 until 1930 to analyze the relationship between the Ojibwe at Grand Portage and the Indian Agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  She is currently working as an Archaeological Technician for the Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council. Undergraduates Harley Burgis (BA, ’18) and Eleanor Schultz (BA, ’18) recently graduated with Honors. Harley, whose thesis explored prehistoric cooking technologies at the prehistoric site of Dust Cave, is off to work as a field technician for TRC while she takes a gap year between college and grad school. Eleanor, who won this year’s Olin-Fahle award, will begin a graduate program in museum studies at Johns Hopkins University this fall. Congrats Grads!

Year 2 cohort:  these guys are off running! Gen Everett (who has been running this blog admirably for the last 2 years), is working as an archaeological technician for the National Park Service at Isle Royale, enjoying scenery the rest of us are envious of. Britney Elsbury-Orris, Heather MacIsaac and Zane Ermine are serving as crew chiefs on several phase I and geophysical surveys for IUP’s Archaeological Services Center. Zaakiya Cua is working as an archaeological technician for the Allegheny National Forest-Bradford District during the week while writing her thesis on the weekends. Matt Bjorkman is utilizing his GIS certificate training by working part time for IUP’s IMAPS (Institute for Mine Mapping, Archival Procedures, and Safety) program, and conducting fieldwork at the Squirrel Hill site as part of his thesis research. Patrick McGinley is conducting his thesis research using geophysical survey to locate Ft. Halifax along the Susquehanna River in central PA, and Mesfer Alqahtani will soon be defending his thesis, which uses GIS to model the distribution of stone circle structures in northern Saudi Arabia. Mesfer recently won the Dean’s Award for best poster at the 2018 IUP Scholar’s Forum. Congrats to Year 2!

Zaakiyah Cua in the field at the Allegheny National Forest-Bradford District (left) and Sami Taylor diligently taking field notes as the assistant site director for the Germana Foundation (right).

Year 1 cohort: Not to be outdone by the Second Years, the Year 1 cohort is also doing impressive things this summer. Ross Owen, whose thesis explores the management of metarhyolite stone quarries in central PA (funded in part by the South Mountain Partnership), is once again serving as supervisor for the PHAST (Pennsylvania Highway Archaeological Survey Team) program. Assisting him as the PHAST crew are fellow first-years Stephen Campbell, Kristina Gaugler, and Sam Edwards. Andrew Malhotra is interning with the Department of Conservation of National Resources’ forestry division, and Chris Thompson is working as a field technician out in the Badlands region of North Dakota. Joe Bomberger works for the Allegheny National Forest, where he worked prior to matriculating into IUP’s MA in applied archaeology program. Finally, Jessie Hoover has begun research on her thesis at the Mary Rinn site and Anthony Gilchrist is taking an underwater archaeology field school hosted by Lake Champlain Maritime Museum before heading to upstate New York to serve as a crew chief for Dr. David Starbuck’s archaeological field school at French and Indian War site of Rogers Island.

Danielle Kiesow in the field at Grand Portage (left) and Anthony Gilchrist sporting the latest style in underwater archaeology (right).

Keep up the awesome work everyone and can’t wait to hear about your summer adventures at the first Fall Graduate Colloquium!

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