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| Contact: | Richard Chapman, 277-5853 Connie Noel, 291-8320 Michael Padilla, 277-1816 |
June 26, 2001
UNM Maxwell Museum teams up with Albuquerque Academy for
summer field school
The
University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and the Albuquerque
Academy are participating in a six-week summer field school archeology program.
The goal of the program is to introduce students to archeology and to teach
them about the environment and ecology. Twelve students from the Albuquerque
Academy, grades 6th through 9th, are participating in a full-blown archeology
dig and are learning all aspects of archeology from excavating to taking notes
to laboratory analysis. The students are led by UNM archeologists and by Albuquerque
Academy instructors.
Richard Chapman, director of the Office of Contract Archeology at UNM and liason
for the program, said the site of the program is a late archaic campsite, probably
inhabited intermittently on a seasonal basis between 1000 BC and 500 AD by hunter-gatherers.
Chapman said predominant features at the site are several roasting pits, one
of which was excavated last year. The site is on private land owned by the Albuquerque
Academy on the West Mesa near the Hawk National Guard headquarters.
One
reason the Academy is using the site for their field school class is that features
at the site are being destroyed by arroyo cutsthus the Academy excavations
are helping retrieve information about the prehistoric occupation before it
washes away, Chapman said.
Connie Noel, an instructor from Albuquerque Academy and a leader for the program,
said the students are exposed to archeology and learn the importance of understanding
prehistoric cultures. She said one of the most important aspects of the project
is that the students are being exposed to the culture of the region.
We have a very productive site, Noel said. The students have
found pieces of stone tool making.
One thing that the students have learned is that archeology is hard work,
she said, adding that its been hot but the students have been able to
stay enthusiastic.
On July 6, the students will be at the Maxwell Museum to study forensic archaeology. The program runs through July 13.
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