Lindsay doing archaeological work in Jordan.
In the summer between second and third year, KI student Lindsay participated in a field school in Jordan, supported in part by the KI donor-funded Knowledge Integration Experience Award.
Here's how she describes her experience:
For 5 weeks, I was fortunate enough to participate with the Barqa Landscape Project. This field course (ANTH 371) was run through the Anthropology Department at Waterloo under the direction of Dr. Russell Adams. Dr. Alexis Dolphin was also in Jordan to assist with the bioarchaeology side of the project.
This experience allowed me to gain hands on experience working at different archaeological sites in the Faynan region of Jordan. During the week we would live in a camp, living in tents and eating all our meals outside. We would wake up every morning at 4 am to start our field work before it got too hot, and then spend our afternoons in lab, washing pottery and sorting what we’d found in the field. On the weekends we would explore different parts of Jordan including Aqaba, Amman and the Dead Sea region. One of my favorite weekends was our Petra weekend. Seeing the beautiful Roman sites with a new found appreciation for the hard work that archaeologists have to do to discover these sites was incredible.
I learned a lot from this whole experience. I gained a much deeper appreciation for the work that archaeologists and anthropologists do. I am completing a minor in Anthropology, so this field course counted towards my minor. I went into this trip looking to experience the culture of Jordan and pursue my interest in bones.
I was able to apply a lot of the knowledge I’d gained in my Anthropology classes. One of my favorite parts was working at the cemetery site and being able to identify the bones I was excavating, since I had learned all of them in ANTH 355 (Human Osteology). What I was surprised to take out of this field school was a deeper understanding on the value of public engagement in archaeology. The final portion of our field course required us students to write a research paper. The topic for my paper was how museums and economic reforms can aid in combatting the illegal antiquity trade.
I applied a lot of what I had learned in the KI museum field trip (INTEG 230) in my paper. While I was on this trip to learn about archaeology, I was able to experience firsthand a lot of what I’ve learned so far in KI, such as collaboration and group work skills, and an appreciation for the value of interdisciplinary work (as archaeology is very interdisciplinary).
Read about other KI students' summer experiences: Summer off? No -- summer on!