8:00am - 5:00pm, M-F
SUMMER 2022 - Students will have the option of earning 1 or 2 semester hours for the Natural History Workshop - Field Archeology
1 semester hour option runs from June 27 - July 1, 2022
2 semester hour options runs from June 27 - July 8, 2022
A specific aspect of the upper Midwest's natural history, or techniques for studying natural history; amphibians and reptiles, birds and birding, nature photography, mushrooms and other fungi, Iowa's trees and forests, fish biology, prairies, common algae, common insects, aquatic plants, life in rivers, life in lakes, mosses and liverworts, natural history of Iowa Great Lakes region, field archaeology, scuba diving, astronomy, nature sketching; five-day, nontechnical introductions.
In 2022 Lakeside Laboratory archaeological field school participants will investigate 13DK9, the Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin site (https://iowaculture.gov/history/sites/abbie-gardner-sharp-cabin) in coordination with the State Historic Sites program of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and the Dickinson County Conservation Board. While well-known for the tragic events of March 1857, the site also includes potential archaeological deposits related to earlier Native American ancestral populations, 1800s Dakota usage and Abbie Gardner Sharp's transformation of the location beginning in 1891 into one of Iowa's earliest tourist attractions. These potential components offer the possibility of discovery of a wide range of preserved artifacts and features.
Assignments: As this is primarily a field course, excavation and mapping notes as well as recording of general observations while digging will be required. Lab processing forms will also be completed by field school
participants. No formal tests or writing assignments are required beyond the field notebooks (which will include building an annotated bibliography from pertinent source materials provided by the instructor).
Course Objectives: Participants will be introduced to the essential methods of field archaeology including artifact identification, site mapping, excavation techniques, artifact processing, and beginning analytical
methods. The field school will include lectures on Iowa archaeology and the culture history sequence of western Iowa as well as day trips to the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa and the Dixon Oneota site, and possibly the
Blood Run National Historic Landmark, Jeffers Petroglyphs, and Pipestone National Monument.
Required Course Materials: AT LAKESIDE LAB: many articles, texts, manuscripts, and reports pertinent to the archaeology of Northwest Iowa will be available for use by the course participants.
Textbook to Purchase: There is one required text for those signing up for the full four-week session (a used copy from Amazon.com is recommended): Hester, Thomas R., Harry J. Shafer, and Kenneth L. Feder. 1997. Field
Methods in Archaeology. 7th Edition. Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View California. [ISBN No.: 1- 55934-799-6 paperback]
Equipment: This is a field course so be prepared to be outside all day. Sunscreen, hat, rain gear, and good footwear (no open toe sandals) are required. Excavation and surveying equipment will be provided.