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Show Weber State College Comment, October 1986, page 6 Archeology program is up and running Field School makes two major finds Stories and photos by Craig V. Nelson, WSC News Bureau. tudents in the archeology field school at WSC ave dug their way through more thar five centuries of mysteries this summer making a number of significant finds along the way. The students found first-ever proof of of an intermediate culture between ancient Fremont: Indians and the more modern Shoshone at a site in Brigham City. Then they topped that by unearthing a Shoshone camp in Nevada, which was previously untouched by white man—a find. which is believed will have world impact on the method of such excavations. The Archeological field school, under the direction of Dr. Steven R. Simms, was designed to give students a feel for what it means to be an archeologist. “It’s been intense,” one student said. Enrollment was evenly divided between WSC “This is really tough,” said Janet Hokett, a WSC junior from Brigham City. “You have to be part scientist and part laborer.” But the digging produced a keen interest among the students to know how the ancient inhabitants lived. “It’s like digging in an ancient sand pile, only so-meone made up half the story for you. It’s a real puzzle,” said Suzanne Sarver of Ogden who spent a number of days scooping dirt with a dustpan. DeSart said, “Field archeology is a heck of a personal commitment. We really cram a lot down their throats, we really push them. It builds character.” students and students from the archeological program at the University of Colorado at Denver. The work was hot, grueling and intellectually demanding, but both instructors and students agree that their efforts produced admirable results. “The students have learned more archeology at these two sites than they could anywhere in a field school in the United States. They're excavating stuff that has seldom or never been excavated,” said Dr. Dennis DeSart, an assistant professor of archeology at the Colorado university who, along with Simms, taught the students. For a majority of the students, this was their first experience on an archeological excavation, and most expressed surprise at the strain of such a project. At both the Brigham City and Nevada locations, students were required to dig, survey, record, map, sweep, haul and walk miles at a time, but more importantly, they had to think. “To be a good archeologist you have to be a natural history buff,” Simms told a group of students as they walked through the Nevada site. “You have to be aware of the vegetation and vegetation cycles, the soil construction, meteorology, the geology and geography, and anything else that affects the site.” he said. The field experience started July 14 in Brigham City where students found evidence that links Freemonts to Shoshone. They also uncovered pot shards, deer, elk, bison and fish bones, hearths, pit houses, beads, trash piles, charcoal deposits and the human remains of an early resident. At the Nevada site, students spent 10 days camped in the known forested desert excavating one of the few undisturbed Shoshone sites. The area con- tained five wickiups, pine nut storage bins, tool mak- Fremont, Shoshone link discovered near tudents in ave found Indians and the Shoshone In- The students, digging at a site just south of the Brigham City airport, have discovered evidences of a group of people that are not the full-fledged horticulturists of the Fremonts, neither do they show the true traits of hunters and gatherers evident among Shoshone. “This has never been dug before in a Salt Lake Valley location,” said Dr. Steven R. Simms, director of the archeological technician program. ‘We think what we have here is kind of a stop gap between the | Fremonts and what became the Shoshone. ding of what they could do individually and as a team, they said. “T don’t think I'll ever be the same,” said Eva Jensen of Ogden. “I have a greater sense of self-worth, and it makes me feel good to know that together we really did something.” “People here are fabulous folks,” said Jeannette Shane of Denver. “Everybody pulls their weight and more. The camaraderie happened as an extra bonus.” Simms said, “This is as good a group in a field school as I’ve seen. The whole experience definitely exceeds my expectations.” The excavations ended Aug. 20 with the completion of work in Nevada, but some students expressed a strong desire to repeat the experience at next year's archeological field school. Brigham City “Some days we don’t find anything, and some days The time of history between the Fremont Indians, we find a lot. It’s amazing how excited you can get who lived from 300 A.D. to about the 1200's, and the over a piece of charcoal,” said Eva Jensen, a junior Shoshone, who began somewhere in 1600 A.D. and | working on the site. greeted white settlers, has remained a mystery. Collected charcoal samples will be Carbon-14 Some have speculated that the Fremonts actually tested to determine exactly when the area was inbecame the Shoshone, “but we don’t have a very habited. Pollen samples, and tests on seeds, small good idea why they changed to hunters and bones and twigs will give the archeologists an idea of gatherers, which is essentially what the white man what the people were eating. found,” Simms said. “There is almost nothing known about this time of The students collected enough information to proUtah’s pre-history. We hope this will provide some vide a beginning framework for future digs during valuable information,” Simms said. their four weeks (July 15 to Aug. 8) on the site. the archeology program may an important link between an- cient Fremont dians of Utah. ing areas, a discarded ax, grinding stones and other artifacts. ‘It’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. We're seeing the story revealed before our eyes,” said Elayne Stoker of Clearfield. Archeology requires scientific knowledge, but also necessitates the reasoning style of Sherlock Holmes, DeSart said. Past events are shrouded in mystery, and unearthed information gives only a few clues. “We've done a pretty good job at milking information out of the sites,” DeSart said. “It's like bringing the dead to life,” said Richard Barnes, a graduate student from WSC. “We find out the why’s and how’s and build from there.” The students learned a great deal of archeology during the field school, but also gained an understan- Here we're seeing the demise of a partially agricultural society, and the return to a society of hunters and gatherers.” Simms estimated the site is between 500 and 700 years old. Ceramics on the site are the biggest indicator the site may represent the transition period. “It’s not characteristic Fremont pottery. It’s the kind seen from a more mobile society,” he said. The archeologists have found pot shards, deer, elk, bison and fish bones, hearths, pit houses, beads trash piles charcoal deposits and the human remains of an ancient inhabitant. “We exposed part of a human skull, and once we identified it as human we covered it back up and put boards over the site so we could work in the area without disturbing the grave. When we're done, we'll fill the site back in, Simms said. “We have no plans to remove the remains unless we find something so unique that it requires us to move it to do further digging. If we do have to move it then we'll work through Indian representatives,” he said. The former Indian abode sits near a small stream on a flat stretch of land sandwiched between the Wellsville Range of the Wasatch Front and the Great Salt Lake. Desert brush and grasses cover the | ground. Students clear away the vegetation one section at a time and sift each level of dirt so as not to miss any | artifacts. They only dig a few inches before finding | signs of the ancient Utah natives. “We were real lucky to find this as quickly as we did,” Simms said. |