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Many Colleges & Universities Participate in Paleoarchaeological Projects
Over the last 15 years, non-credit classes about paleoarchaeology have been offered through Oregon State University, Chemeketa Community College, and Portland Community College. This mini-course continues to provide an opportunity for members of the public, including Seniors, to excavate various pre-Clovis sites in the Willamette Valley. In 2009, students worked with participants from the Yamhill River Pleistocene Project, at McMinnville. In 2010, students worked at Mammoth Park in Woodburn. Participants learned proper methods while excavating real paleontological sites.
Many classes are due to partnerships between the institutions, the public land management agencies, and the Institute for Archaeological Studies. In these situations, members of the Oregon Archaeological Society, with vast site experience, provide friendship and much assistance to students.
Woodburn High School science teacher, Dave Ellingson, balances a portion of cranium (head) and horn cores from an extinct giant bison. This type of bison could walk up to a standard NBA basketball hoop, raise its head, and scratch its chin. Students from Portland Community College have been involved in this project, which began several years ago with Woodburn High School students. The City of Woodburn provided great support! Further, the host of the McMinnville Mammoth Site, Mike Full, joined this project to add his expertise.
The leg and foot bones of this giant bison (left), Bison antiquus, have been reassembled by Woodburn High School students. Site director, Alison Stenger, came in from the field to support the specimen for photos.
A bison mandible fragment and two teeth are cleaned in the water screening area (below). Photo generously provided by Doug Reynolds.
Field work is a cooperative effort, and is rewarding in many ways, including the building of new friendships.
  The careful excavation of units (below, left) allows for the safe and accurate recovery of many specimens, including this extinct bison tooth (below, right).   Where there is a will, there is a way! One brave student so much wanted to participate that she stayed for the entire project--in a wheel chair and in 100 degree heat.   Field labs allow for the immediate assessment of specimen condition, while providing students with an opportunity to learn basic procedures.   Student had an opportunity in 2009 and 2010 to view the specimens already excavated and stabilized, so they would know more about what the sites had already yielded.  *******************The 2009 student experience, illustrated below, shows the excavation, screening, and documentation of another type of site.   Water screening keeps Chemeketa students cool during fieldwork in 2009, at the McMinnville Mammoth site.       The above photos were generously provided by Cecelia Barry, of Chemeketa Community College. Learn more about the 2009 featured project through http://www.yamhillriverpleistocene.com/meetus You will want to register at that site--it's worth it! For projects before this, please use the links provided on the Web Favorites page.  Anthropology professor and physical anthropologist, Dr. Lyle Hubbard, supervises with a smile. While team teaching a
Chemeketa Community College Class, at the Yamhill River Pleistocene Project, Hubbard managed to demonstrate
measurement taking and how to laugh at our own errors.
If you
would like to involve your students in this project, please contact the
adult education department at Portland Community College. Only students
over the age of 15, please. ****************
If you are a student or teacher, please read the following:
Documents related to NAGPRA 2010
regulations for the disposition of culturally unidentified remains can
be seen at www.friendsofpast.org. Directors of the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American Indian and the National Musuem
of Natural History, and 41 prominent scientists (all members of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences) weigh in AGAINSTthe DOI's FInal
Rule. Related articles and testimony.[updated 5/28/10]. Please read
this important information. *************************
Travel classes offered through Portland community College's Community Education program allow class members to travel to such wonderful places as Hawaii, to study ancient cultures and modern communities. People have an opportunity to visit restored and unrestored archaeological sites, including wonderful prehistoric village areas.    Students walk pathways through the Big Island's parks, listening to informative talks by naturalists (left) such as Mark Fitzsimons, and then studying petroglyphs (right).   Some petroglyphs are easy to see and perhaps interpret, while others are not. Walls help keep visitors from walking upon these amazing cultural resources. >>More photos to be added soon. In the interim, please google astenger webshots, and follow the link to the albums picturing public archaeology on the Big Island of Hawaii. Photos of Kauai have now been added, and are available for viewing, although captions still need to be attached.<<
A class dedicated to the archaeology of Kauai, held on the island of Kauai, is now scheduled for next February (2011). Please email or contact Alison, at this website, for information.
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