This summer the UIC Department of Anthropology
is offering an eight-week intensive archaeological field school from June 16 - August 8.
Students will receive eight hours of credit
by enrolling in Anthropology 425 (Field Techniques) and Anthropology
426 (Laboratory Techniques). Enrollment in both courses is required.
Formal field instruction in techniques of excavation, mapping, and
surveying will be provided. Students will also learn the basics
of recording, cataloging, and lab processing of recovered material.
Evening lectures and occasional field trips to local areas of interest
will also be a regular part of our program.
No prior knowledge or experience in archaeology
is required; however preference will be given to students with a
strong desire to pursue future coursework in anthropology and archaeology.
Participants should be aware that archaeological excavation entails
hard work, and that a reasonable level of physical and mental fitness
along with the ability to work and live outdoors in hot and humid
weather and primitive conditions is a must.
This summer we will be working at a Clovis-aged
site located in northern Illinois. Clovis people lived throughout
North America at the end of the last ice-age around 12,000 years
ago, and sites dating to this time period are extremely rare. Traditionally
thought to represent the earliest occupations of the New World with
a focus on hunting Mammoth and Mastodon, new research suggests that
Clovis may not have been the earliest inhabitants, and may have
relied on a more diversified hunting and gathering subsistence that
varied from region to region.
Our main goal will include mapping, surveying,
and test excavations at the Anderson Site in DeKalb County.
We hope to document the presence and distribution of diagnostic
Clovis material across the site, in an attempt to learn how the
site was formed and to assess the stratigraphy of the deposits.
A course fee of $500.00 in addition to tuition
and university fees will be charged to cover costs of housing and
supplies. Housing for the field portion of the course will be provided at the dormitories at Northern
Illinois University in DeKalb. Students must provide their own housing
and meals during the Lab portion of the course at UIC. Field transportation between the dorms and the site will be provided. Students will be responsible
for the cost of dinners in the field.
Enrollment is open to UIC and non-UIC students
alike (www.uic.edu/depts/summer/). Tution will be approximately
$2500 for Illinois Residents and $5500 for Non-Residents.
Registration is limited to 12 students, and permission of the
instructors is required. All students must complete and submit
a field school application form before permission to enroll is granted. Application deadline is May 15th.
For hardcopy application forms and more information please contact either:
Dr. Thomas Loebel, 312-413-8247, email:
cagis@uic.edu or
Dr. Robert Hasenstab, 312-413-9577, email:
rjhasens@uic.edu
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois at Chicago
