Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014 - (Page 26)

site. Blendon Landing is just one of many educational projects Flanders and future Grand Valley faculty members would initiate to take advantage of the rich physical resources of the campus, accomplishing work valuable both academically and scientiﬁcally. Flanders once told the Grand Rapids Press: "My group is nearly unique in the country. Most universities with archaeology programs use graduate students. I have only undergraduates, but I'm extremely pleased with the way they have worked." Flanders took students to dozens of area sites including the Norton Mounds site in Grand Rapids and the Spoonville site south of Nunica. In the early 1880s, Spoonville was a small village located along the banks of the Grand River. Both locations would prove to be important training sites for students, yielding numerous chipped stone tools and other projectile points (pointed tools, such as a spear, dart or arrow, or perhaps a knife). "These sites were rich in artifacts and Doc Flanders and his students found items dating from 50 B.C. to 100 A.D.," said Brashler. "Doc Flanders established the ﬁeld school tradition in the curriculum and in the local community as a public service and a way of engaging students." Grand Valley archaeologists and anthropologists travel the world for field work Modern Digs Elizabeth Arnold environmental archaeologist South Africa, Sudan, Israel Dale Borders historical archaeologist Charlton Park in Barry County Janet Brashler archaeologist the Midwest, Jordan Archaeology was initially combined with the geography and sociology departments at Grand Valley, and was still combined when Brashler came to the university 25 years ago. She said the archaeology program has experienced the most growth during the past 15 years. "It started out with just Doc Flanders and a few adjuncts. Then I came in 1990," she said. "We have now expanded the staff and program to include environmental and historical archaeologists as well as cultural, biological and linguistic anthropologists who also run summer ﬁeld programs that give students hands-on experience working in the local community and in several countries around the world. Students come to Grand Valley speciﬁcally for the anthropology program." Brashler said participating in a ﬁeld school is required for students, not only because of its educational value, but so students can understand the physical demands of the career - sometimes spending weeks in the cold, wind and mud. Brashler has taken students to many of the sites established by Flanders, but the Allendale farm site she visited in May was a ﬁrst for her and her students. The site was ﬁrst identiﬁed in the 1960s and has turned up numerous Native American artifacts. "It is a multi-component site, a new and challenging effort," she said. "Items found here date back 30 years to 10,000 years." Kenny worked alongside Jarrod Trombley and Katie Richcreek, both recent graduates. They said despite the thick, clay-like dirt, students were able to ﬁnd some Native American pieces. "We found ﬁre-cracked rock, which is evidence of occupation," said Kenny. "Rock heated to that extreme doesn't happen naturally." Trombley said students also found Gwyn Madden bioarchaeologist Ukraine Mark Schwartz archaeologist, underwater archaeology Michigan, Turkey, Middle East Other anthropological field work Russell Rhoads cultural anthropologist Sierra Leone (Fulbright Scholar) Chris Shaffer biological anthropologist Guyana Heather Van Wormer cultural anthropologist New Zealand Deana Weibel cultural anthropologist France Michael Wroblewski Linguistic anthropologist Ecuador 26 Summer '14 Areas in pink show where Grand Valley archaeologists and anthropologists have traveled for field work. GVM ONLINE Watch a video of the 2014 dig online at www.gvsu.edu/gvmagazine. http://www.gvsu.edu/gvmagazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014

Table of Contents
Campus News
Fall Arts Celebration
Athletics
Donor Impact
Sustainability
Research
Q&A Karen Gipson
A seat at the table
Students dig program
Deployment to enrollment
Seeing double
Off the path
Arts
Alumni News

Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014