On Saturday, October 12th, Indiana University of Pennsylvania held its Archaeology Open House to celebrate International Archaeology Day! The event had a lot of great tables and a huge turnout. Thank you to all the graduate students who helped make the day a success, and to all the people who came to learn about archaeology! The event was primarily organized by students taking the Public Archaeology course, and several other students volunteered their time to ensure the day was a success.
Tables were set up at the entrance and exit to bring people in and provide information about Archaeology Day to people first coming in or leaving. They handed out “passports”, which had the names of all the tables at Archaeology Day where people could get stickers. Anyone who got all their stickers was rewarded with candy at the end. The exit table handed out evaluation forms for people to tell us how we did, and they also shared additional information about archaeology and the anthropology program at IUP.
Brendon Ward, David Hay, and Nathan Coughlin at the Squirrel Hill table.
Dion DeGarmo and Rae Tuite with some cookies.
The hallway on the ground floor of McElhaney Hall was filled with tables where students shared information about different aspects of archaeology and offered educational activities. First year graduate student James Duke worked the historical archaeology table, where people could use a guide to identify different artifacts. Nathan Coughlin, Brendon Ward, and David Hay shared artifacts from the field school at Squirrel Hill. Jennifer Kennedy and Selena Rodriguez hosted a table dedicated to spreading awareness of issues among indigenous people in the U.S. such as missing indigenous women, repatriation, and the protection of natural resources. Second year students Dion DeGarmo and Rae Tuite took on the task of educating people about conspiracy theories and pseudoscience in archaeology. Dion even wore a terrific tin foil hat to look the part.
Ryan Devanny and Cassidy Tech teach folks about bones.
In the lab, Ryan Devanny and Cassidy Tech educated people about animal bones. Their activity involved matching long bones to the correct animal. People who came to their table would also be able to guess the different kinds of animal skulls and learn what different skulls looked like. The PHAST table was run by Elena Vories, who is the GA for the PHAST program, also known as the PennDOT Highway Archaeological Survey Team. She had a poster on PHAST, with pictures from surveys over this past summer and an activity to find all of the PHAST letters within the pictures. She would also explain what PHAST was and go through some of the projects she worked on. Abdul Jones is our GA working for DCNR, and at his table he taught people about working in cultural resources management and what life is really like in the field.
Authentic Cave Painting
The Kids Activity Room was run by Rickie Weinrich and Catie Rosler. They had several activities for kids to enjoy, including Wampum beading, pottery, and cave painting! Kids had the opportunity to make a beaded bracelet and put their handprints up on the wall. The Flotation table was run by Heidi Hepburn, who is the GA for the float lab this year. This table went through what flotation is and what it is looking for. This includes micro-artifacts and organics that can tell archaeologists things about what people were eating and what they were using different surfaces for. Heidi also processed some samples in the flotation lab while people walked through so they could see the process and answered questions about the process.
Tyler Fanell oversees a GPR demonstration.
Outside we had the Geophysics table, run by Tyler Fanell. Tyler demonstrated our ground penetrating radar (GPR) unit and let folks take it for a spin. He also had processed GPR data out on the table for people to examine. The data was both in vertical orientation, as well as 3D, so people could see what GPR anomalies look like after they are processed.
Two young archaeologists sift through the past
Next door was the mock excavation table run by Isabel Srour. She had a screening activity where people could dump dirt into a screen and screen it to find artifacts (little toys) they could then bag and write an artifact tag for. This taught people stewardship and the importance of properly recording and turning in artifacts.
The next table was flint knapping run by Emma Kinsinger and her uncle, who ran a flint knapping demonstration throughout archaeology day. They also had multiple types of precontact artifacts for people to see. Emma answered questions about flint knapping and precontact technologies.
Selena Rodriguez goes for the kill
The last table was spear throwing, using an atlatl, run by two members of the community who own several atlatls and have even participated in National Atlatl throwing competitions. They had two targets out and two atlatls for people to try out. This is a type of precontact technology people would have used for hunting. This table was probably the biggest hit of Archaeology Day and a lot of people enjoyed throwing spears.
Overall, we would like to thank everyone who came once again, this day never would have been possible without everyone who helped out and who came willing to learn. Thank you everyone, and see you next year!