2021
10
Jun
The Ins and Outs of Survey
Gabby Pfleger, Glendale Community College
(June 10, 2021)—Over the past week, I’ve been learning the processes involved in archaeological survey from the field school’s survey director, Michaelle Machuca. In theory, this work sounds like the dream—hiking and searching in the name of archa...
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2020
09
Jul
Putting the People Back into Wilderness
Maxwell Forton, Binghamton University
(July 9, 2020)—Normally this week I’d be wrapping up teaching survey on Archaeology Southwest’s Preservation Archaeology Field School. The past two summers, I’ve had the pleasure of leading our intrepid students in archaeological surveys in the Gila N...
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2019
20
Jun
Preservation in Practice
This post is one in our annual series of essays by our Preservation Archaeology Field School students. We invite you to follow along with their experiences over the next six weeks through their own words.
James Margotta, Wheaton College
(June 20, 2019)—As most students of archaeology do, I spe...
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2018
12
Jul
Finding History in the Shade of Ponderosas
Maxwell Forton, Binghamton University
(July 12, 2018)—I’ve had the pleasure of being the survey director for this year’s Preservation Archaeology Field School. Survey is the systematic on-the-ground search for new archaeological sites—a critical step in the preservation of cultural proper...
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2018
25
Jun
Learning to See
Constance Connolly, Sewanee, the University of the South
(June 25, 2018)—Heading into this field school, I had no idea the wide range of knowledge and experience I would gain that would in turn help me become a better student and hopefully a better archaeologist. The beginning of the field scho...
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2018
22
Jun
Survey and Mapping
Sam Rodarte, Cochise College
(June 22, 2018)—Participating in the field school has been a really great experience that I consider myself so lucky to be involved in. I originally got into anthropology because of my interest in different myths from all over the world. I want to be part of the pro...
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2017
19
Jun
Watching the Landscape Change
Dylan Fick, New College of Florida
(June 19, 2017)—Scarcely before we had finished digging our initial trench it was time for me to head out with two other students and a staff member to survey possible new sites for preservation and perhaps later investigation. This let me see a lot more of the ...
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2016
13
Jul
The Durability of an Ancient Technology
Alyssa Kyper, Eastern New Mexico University
(Posted on July 13, 2016)—Today was an excellent day on survey with Evan, Karen, and Jon. We spent the cool, crisp morning showing Karen an array of check dams and terraces on a bench above the Gila River we had surveyed earlier in the season, double-...
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2016
28
Jun
Understanding the Landscape They Lived in
Evan Giomi, Survey Director, University of Arizona
(June 27, 2016)—Archaeological survey is the activity of locating, identifying, and recording archaeological sites to build a record that can be later used by archaeologists looking to put shovels in the ground or monitor any damage to the sites ...
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2016
17
Jun
The Archaeology of Looting
Elissa McDavid, Hendrix College
(June 16, 2016)—Before arriving at field school, I had imagined well-preserved sites disturbed by nothing more than a few animal burrows, adobe walls and floors that behaved nicely, and no looting. (Blame National Geographic glamour and the fact that no one reall...
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2016
14
Jun
Leave-No-Trace Archaeology
Lexie Bennicas, University of Hawaii
(June 14, 2016)—When my turn at archaeological survey came, Evan led us past rattlesnakes and through thick brush into the valley of the Gila to a hill on the outskirts of the floodplain. Within minutes of approaching the hill we found artifacts rangin...
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2016
08
Jun
Survey Says…
Adam Sezate, Graduate of United States Naval Academy
(June 8, 2016)–Under our survey supervisor, Evan Giomi, my partners and I had the opportunity to help the Nature Conservancy survey their land along the Gila River. My team and I were in search of any clues of past human settlement in an ...
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