Eastern New Mexico University Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology’s
Featuring field and laboratory training in archaeology and forensic science
Instructors: Dr. Heather Smith and Dr. Kerriann Marden
2017 Archaeological Field School
In 2017 ENMU Anthropology developed a different kind of fieldschool. During the first half of the four-week session, we trained in archaeological and forensic methods “in-house” at the Anthropology Department’s laboratories, the Blackwater Draw National Historic Landmark, and Arch Lake to prepare students for the field when we joined the excavation at Creekside Village in Week Four. In a collaboration with the Jornada Research Institute, we established a field camp near Tularosa, NM, and joined the excavation team at the Creekside Village site, a transitional Basketmaker III–Pueblo I site.
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Our goal was to provide students with an understanding of the excavation/analysis/curation processes to help them appreciate and practice thorough and objective field recording, systematic excavation techniques, and the latest analytical potential of archaeological and forensic materials.
Field school students practice using Total Data Stations at Blackwater Draw.
Students map the Blackwater Draw National Historic Landmark using GPS and UTM coordinates, and develop an arbitrary grid system using Total Data Stations
Special guest, ENMU faculty geologist Dr. Jim Constantopoulos, teaches students Ground Penetrating Radar.
ENMU graduate students Erick Martinez and Michael Merritt go over the physics of flintknapping and conchoidal fracturing.
ENMU undergraduate student Cash Ficke discusses variation in ceramic sherds that they will encounter at the Creekside Village site excavation.
Special guest, ENMU archaeological fauna specialist Dr. Kathy Durand, teaches students to identify and work with archaeological faunal materials.
Students not only learn what type of faunal remains they have the potential to recover at the Creekside Village site, but what sort of archaeological materials are common across New Mexico and through time.
Special guest, flintknapping expert Tommy Heflin, teaches students to make stone tools.
Students set up a site grid and begin to map the individual activity areas that they created during the flintknapping session.
Students prepare to join the excavations at the Creekside Village site by receiving instruction from Principal Investigator and Jornada Institute Director David Greenwald.
Dr. Kerriann Marden supervises excavations at pithouse feature 1.
Fieldschool students diligently excavate pithouse feature 2.
Students dry-screen excavated sediments in view of the Sacramento Mountains and wide New Mexico skies.
David Greenwald and graduate student Catherine Carbone dig a trench to bisect an early Jornada-Mogollon irrigation canal.
Dr. Kathy Durand and fieldschool students excavate the great Kiva at Creekside Village.
Dr. Heather Smith and graduate student Nathan Shelley complete excavation forms and feature maps.
Graduate student Christine Gilbertson (right) begins excavations of an early Jornada-Mogollon irrigation system as part of her Masters Thesis project. Graduate student Erick Martinez (left) and undergraduate student Brandon Aranda (center) assist Gilbertson in the irrigation excavation.
Students in the chow line back at camp after a hard day’s fieldwork.
Left, students gather round to tell field stories at the end of expedition party in Cloudcroft.
Right, graduate student Christine Gilbertson bids farewell to the Creekside Village site…for now.
