Wednesday, November 15, 2017

My Archaeology Senior Project

Hello, my name is Garrett Mohney, and I am a senior at Mattawan High School. As a senior, I was tasked with finding a field of interest, and completing a project on it. One of the requirements included meeting with a mentor in the field for around 10 hours, where I can learn and experience the subject first hand. Now I found myself with a challenging dilemma: what on earth could I do a project on? After years of intense love for history, an enjoyment of the beautiful Michigan wilderness, and endlessly watching everyone's favorite whip brandishing collector of rare artifacts on the TV, I knew that archaeology would be the perfect fit for a senior project.
One of the artifact bags I helped sort during inventory
with Dr. Nassaney and Kaylee
                  I was very interested in finding out what real Archaeologists do, contrary to running through South American temples. In meeting with my mentor, Dr. Michael Nassaney of Western Michigan University and the Fort St. Joseph Archeology Project, and working with other great students of archaeology, I found that archaeology exists as much in the library and lab as in the field. One of the first things I learned from my project is the concept of careful artifact inventory and preservation. The careful process of identifying calcined bones, lead shot, and trade beads and carefully bagging them with proper labels soon came natural.
                  Additionally, I wanted to know more about what we can learn from archaeology. Through excavation and inventory, we can learn where people lived, how they lived, and what their lives consisted of. Finding a plethora of nails and tools might indicate a blacksmith was around. Finding pieces of building materials, a door hinge, and a foundation feature can indicate a possible location for a house. Other times, archaeology leads to more questions than answers. For instance, finding little to no fishing supplies from a riverside trading post, while another post just north is full of fishing items, leads to confusion and more research.
Lead shot, calcined and unburned
 bone that were sorted and bagged
                  Archaeology is a fun, educational, and thought provoking field that can really benefit all aspects of our lives today. We learn how to be careful, how to think critically, and most importantly, we learn how to better our future by considering the past. Archaeology isn’t just about studying the past, it’s about learning from it. Even as I continue my education beyond high school, the information that I have learned from archaeology has certainly helped shape my interests for the future. After all, who doesn’t want to be Indiana Jones?
 - Garrett

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