Browse the 2008 Archaeology Field Schools
Add Entry
Search

US - Alaska - Field School in Alaskan Prehistoric Archaeology PDF Print E-mail

Archaeology Field School

Field School in Alaskan Prehistoric Archaeology

Application Deadline: 04/15/2006
Start date: 06/01/2006
End date: 07/04/2006

University, Company, Institution

University of Nevada-Reno

Location of field School

Trapper Creek, Alaska
USA

Field School Overview

  • Excavation: Yes
  • Survey: Yes
  • Prehistoric: Yes
  • Time Period(s) Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene
  • Remote: Yes
  • Drive to site: Yes
  • RPA certified yes

Project Directors

Brian Wygal
Doctoral Student
University of Nevada-Reno

Ted Goebel
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of Nevada-Reno

Field School Description

The 2006 field school will focus on continued ex-cavations of two mid to early Holocene archaeological sites located along the middle Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska. These sites are among the earliest yet documented in southcentral Alaska and are known to contain stone tools once used by hunter-gatherers who colonized the recently deglaciated landscapes south of the Alaska Range. Excavation of these sites and survey for additional sites will provide insights into the tech-nological and settlement organization of these early foragers. Eight students will be selected to join this research project in the Trapper Creek-Talkeetna region. They will learn fundamentals of site excavation, survey, stratigraphic profiling, total-station mapping, artifact typologies and tephrochronology of South central Alaska. Additional instruction in map reading, orienteering, geomorphology, and global positioning systems will be provided. Students will conduct the majority of the excavations at two p


Field school web site: www.unr.edu/cla/anthro/field.htm
Field School Size:
1-15
Minimum age: 18
Is prior experience required?: No
Recommended experience: Students with an interest in archaeology are preferred.

Specialized skills you will have the opportunity to learn

Manual Mapping/drawing (plan views, profiles): Yes
Total Station EDM mapping: Yes
Compass mapping survey: Yes
GIS: Yes
Digital Photography: Yes
Excavation Survey Techniques: Yes
Interpreting stratigraphy: Yes
Soils: Yes
Lab work: Yes
Database: Yes
Artifact analysis: Yes
Flora identification: Yes
Lectures: Yes
Lab work on rain days?: Yes

Rain days free: Yes

Academic, Credit Room and Board, & Tuition

Academic Credit: Yes
Number of Credits: 6
Tuition: 630 tuition+1070 camp fee = $1700 +0 non UNR application fee
Institution offering credit: University of Nevada-Reno
Room and Board Information: Camping is provided by the students, bring warm clothes, sleeping bag, sleeping pad for camping. Food is provided by the project, includes 3 meals a day, seven days a week. Restaurants, snacks, soda, ect. are the responsibility of the student.
Room and board cost: See tuition

Recommended Readings:

West, F.H. American Beginnings 1996
Hamilton and Goebel - edited by Bonnichsen & Turnmire Late Pleistocene Peopling of Alaska 1999
Additional readings: Contact organizers for more info

Archaeology field school contact

Brian Wygal
University of Nevada-Reno, Dept. of Anthropology, MS 096
Reno, NV 89557
USA
Telephone: (775) 784 6704 x2005
E-mail: wygalb@unr.nevada.edu