Internships and Field Work

I've had three internships in my undergraduate career so far, 4 if you want to get technical but that was just listed as an internships so I could get credit for it.  In addition, I've worked at one field school and I'm leaving for another in two weeks exactly.  In other words, I've got quite a bit of work experience under my belt. 

My first internship came from an arts and sciences museum in my hometown between my freshman and sophomore year of University.  I did 150 hours for 3 credit hours (while jostling two classes!), but I ended with 254 because I was co-directing the first ever Harry Potter Planetarium Show.  I played Tonks, and it was quite a lot of fun.  I interned with the Education Department, so I was exposed to virtually every aspect of the museum.  I watched the exhibits and helped people there, I played with children in the children's discovery center, where they learned about gravity, air pressure, and things like that through playing.  I designed my own summer camp activity that was incorporated into their summer camp.  Since I'm an archaeology major, I did something related:  I had the participants decorate clay pots, break them, and put them back together.  They loved it!  They said it was a challenge, but it was very fun nonetheless.  I was also able to dissect sheep brains for the public in association with one of our exhibits at the time.  I was a little happier than usual after the demonstrations (ahem...formaldehyde).  Overall it was a great experience.  I learned new skills in dealing with the public, other museums, handling many large projects at once, and I really enjoyed it. 

My second internship was with a Cultural Resource Management firm.  CRM deals with the identification of sites in areas that are about to be developed.  Coal mine companies, construction companies, and the Department of Transportation call CRM firms to investigate areas that they are going to be working on to see if there is a valuable archaeological site within the construction zone.  CRM archaeologists also do some rescue archaeology.  For example, I helped with the removal of a 19th century cemetery from a logging area.  Mostly, however, it is surveying and reports.  Rarely does a CRM firm actually go to a full-scale excavation.  I helped survey on a couple of projects, but I mostly cleaned the artifacts that were found.  Toward the end of my internship I learned cataloging and inking, as well as getting them ready for a museum.  I also helped write the reports on the sites.  My main project, however, was putting together a spreadsheet of historic maps of all of the counties in the state.  That took most of the semester, but I did start on another project, which entailed looking for chert in the tri-state region.  I did not get credit for this internship, but it was paid.  I learned the workings of CRM, seeing the artifacts from excavation to museum, and what goes into surveying and reports.  I really enjoyed this internship as well. 

My third and current internship is at a children's museum 40 minutes away from my house.  This one is entirely volunteer, no pay, no credit.  I love it.  I am technically an intern with the Education department.  I was signed on to help, and actually design, one of the main parts of the summer camp.  It is archaeology related so of course I am right at home.  It is a week-long camp for ages 7-12 and I'm planning one of their rotations.  Unfortunately I won't help with the camp itself.  I will be in Romania, but it has been very fun planning it.  I'm also helping with a daily science lab for the museum visitors.  Each month is a new theme, and each week is a new activity.  The monthly themes are done in the afternoon, while the weekly themes are in the morning.  Each session is an hour, but if we're bored or busy we stay open.  The kids and the staff like it when we stay open.  More play time!  Apart from that I help out on the floor or wherever.  Hopefully I will be back next summer, because this is a very fun place to work! 

My first excavation was last summer in Kampsville, Illinois.  I received credit for it, and it was amazing to work here.  I worked at a very small excavation site near the Illinois River, and also at the base of a limestone cliff, which is great for preservation!  We found whole shells, fragile bones, even  jaw from a gar.  The pottery was better at the base of the cliff rather than the rest of the site.  The Middle Woodlanders who lived here chose to put their midden pit at the base of the cliff.  Whoo hoo!!!  On the very last day, I found a sherd concentration (rim sherds, shoulder sherds, body sherds, you name it).  There were seven that I could see, and there were more, plus a bone, underneath.  Of course, it was the last day, and unfortunately I couldn't stay.  We learned proper excavation techniques and field journals and such, in addition to cleaning and tabulating artifacts.  We also learned to make Cherokee-style baskets and how to flint knap.  My flint knapping skills are not great, but I got a pretty good cutting utensil!  I miss my field crew, but I'm looking forward to this summer! 




This summer, and I'm leaving in exactly two weeks, I will be traveling to Romania to work at a Roman fort.  I am so excited to work here I can't even describe it to you.  I will say that when I received my acceptance email from the director I just about jumped through the ceiling. 

:D

Academic Experiences

So, I'm a geek.  I'll admit it.  I love Roman and medieval history and archaeology and I want to go into the archaeology of Eastern Europe, focusing on the medieval period.  I'll be a senior in the fall and I'm not planning on graduate school for about a year after that.  I want to work in the field and some museums. 

So far, I've been to two conferences and a third is planned for next winter.  I observed an academic conference my freshman year and then presented my sophomore year at the Regional Phi Alpha Theta conferences.  My junior year I couldn't present at Regionals because I was in England, but I did go to Pennsylvania to present at a conference there.  This year I'm hoping to present at least twice, once at the National Phi Alpha Theta conference and again at our Regionals.  If I get to present in Pennsylvania again I would jump at the chance.  I love presenting my work and getting feedback on it. 

My work is on Vlad the Impaler, and I've done numerous papers on him.  My strongest topic so far has been presented.  I'm working on it for my senior thesis at University and it will be the basis of my career.  I have many ideas and not enough time!  I already have the book planned, and my advisor for my senior thesis told me to keep it under 100 pages.  That's great, at least I know that I'll have no trouble for my Master's.  I think that my thesis will be on the upper end of the page limits (30-50 pages).  I'm looking forward to writing it.  I'm planning on a clean start, not using one of my other papers as a basis, which is what I normally do.  New paper, new research, new everything.  I have more documents and books than I probably should, but I like researching the Impaler.  I'm not goth, I'm not emo, or anything.  I'm fairly normal as far as geeks go.  Well, if geeks can be normal.

Italia

Venice/Florence/Rome:  Ten days in Italy at the end of the year, after school ended.  Wonderful trip.  I cannot wait to go back to Italy, especially Rome.  We saw the Rialto Markets in Venice, and walked all over the place.  I geeked out again because an episode of Doctor Who took place in Venice, so I checked out the water.  I saw what seemed like thousands of Venetian masks, all of which were gorgeous, and if I had money, I would’ve brought more back.  We did some more walking around in Florence.  We did see Pisa, and the archaeology museum in Florence, as well as the Duomo.  We were in Florence during Easter so we watched the Eastern celebrations.  That was incredible.  Some of the participants were dressed in full armor and full costume.  They have a burning cart, which is loaded with fireworks and they set it off.  When we were in Rome, we did what most tourists do when in Rome...Coliseum, Forum, Trajan's Column and Markets, Palatine Museum, Capitoline Museum, Pantheon, the Circus Maximus, and I managed to get to Pompeii and Ostia.  By the way, if you want your picture taken with a re-enactor, be ready for fork out 5 Euros.  There was no way I was doing that when I could take their picture from a distance, so I got out of that one.  We didn't see the Ara Pacis, Hadrian's Villa, the Baths of Diocletion, the Baths of Caracalla, the Catacombs, and a few other things, but it was still awesome.  I can assure you that I am going back. 

 

Pompeii and Ostia:  I loved Pompeii and Ostia.  We took a 2-3 hour train ride from Rome to Naples, and then a mini-train, called Circumvesuviana, to Pompeii.  Circumvesuviana would also have taken us to Boscoreale, an ancient Roman villa.  My original plan for Pompeii was to visit Aemilius Celer’s house, as we learned about him in one of my first classes at University.  I had a map, I was ready, we got there, and the street was blocked off.  We couldn’t get to it.  My professor thought that that was the area that had seen many collapsed walls and such, and a tour guide said that there were “better things to see,” which is true but I wanted to see that house!  Oh well.  We got to see the House of the Faun, the Villa of the Mysteries, the Amphitheater, granaries, and just being in Pompeii was a complete blast (no pun intended, ahem, Vesuvius ;}).  The preservation in Pompeii is fantastic, unlike Ostia.   Ostia, the ancient port of Rome, is about 20 miles from the city on the Metro.  It has its own Metro stop, and the ancient site is about a block from the station.  The preservation at Ostia was not good.  Walls were still there, but they were crumbling.  It was sad to see.  I, being an archaeologist, investigated everything, including areas that were probably off limits.  I charged through weeds and tall grass and didn’t get attacked by insects or people.  The mosaics were gorgeous, and we saw the Basilica of Maxentius.    

Oxford, Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge

Oxford/Bath/Salisbury/Stonehenge:  We got pretty close to Stonehenge, closer than I thought we could get from all the pictures I've seen.  It was very cool.  I stole the 11^th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver from someone (Doctor Who thing) and took it to Stonehenge and got pictures.  He sent me the song "Stonehenge" by Spinal Tap and told me to play it at the site.  I didn't because I couldn't get my iPod to work.  We didn’t have much time at Stonehenge, but being an archaeology major and studying Stonehenge in class on multiple occasions, it was incredible to see.  I did a nerd dance on the earthworks around the stones.  We walked around Oxford and saw the University's bookstore, which is where most of our school books come from.  The Roman baths in Bath were great, but I'd like to go back and go through the museum again and spend more time there.  Salisbury occupied our afternoon, along with hail and a horrendous downpour.  We got there in time to see Salisbury Cathedral, with a 465’ spire, the tallest one in the world.  We also ate Burger King for lunch in Salisbury and waited out the rain, so it was a pretty fun trip. 

Cambridge

Cambridge:  Before we arrived in Cambridge, we stopped at the American WWI and WWII cemetery outside the city. We saw King's College and King's College Chapel, and a Round Church, one of very few left in the world.  Over 30 colleges make up Cambridge University.  It was a cold and rainy day but I enjoyed the trip. 

Cadbury and Birmingham

Cadbury and Birmingham:  You may or may not know, Cadbury chocolate is located at Cadbury World near Birmingham.  We went there.  Oh my goodness.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  We ate chocolate straight from the vat, wrote our names in chocolate, ate free chocolate, bought some more.  Yum.  In Birmingham we saw the Bull Ring...the largest mall I have ever visited and possibly the craziest I ever will visit.  Avoid the place at Christmas, or you may never be seen again!

Lincoln

Lincoln: Lincoln was so cold, and rainy, but it was good.  The Steep Hill...whoa.  I hope you're in shape if you attempt that one with a backpack.  There is a great view of the town at the bottom of the hill, but the Castle, Cathedral, and Roman ruins are at the top.  Anyway, of course we saw Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Castle.  We saw a Norman pillar in Lincoln Cathedral, as well as a Roman mosaic, and the cathedral itself is wonderful to look at.  If you go, you must find the Imp.  Lincoln Castle is a motte-and-bailey castle (a castle built on a hill) and was used continuously from the 11th century to today.  It was built in the 1080’s.  The courthouse is there.  In the 12^th century, Stephen (a contender for the throne) and Matilda (another contender) fought at Lincoln.  One was at the Castle, the other was at the Cathedral, and they fired arrows at each other.  Must’ve been a fun time.  The drawbridge is in the original place, and the walls are about 10-20 feet lower than they were 1,000 years ago.  Also, one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta is at Lincoln Castle.  I saw it.  I geeked out.  Lincoln Castle also has the only remaining Victorian pulpit in the world.  Lucy Tower, in the Castle, was formerly the gallows, and the last people to be hanged were executed there in the mid-1800’s and buried in the tower. Cobb Tower, across the bailey from Lucy Tower, was Norman, and has a great view of the Cathedral, as well as graffiti carved by Teutonic knights when they were imprisoned there.  In addition to those two, we went on a Roman tour of Lincoln, formerly Lindum Colonia.  The Roman arch is still there, the one that the Ninth Legion marched under on their way to quell Boudicca's rebellion.  Overall, Lincoln was a great place to see.