Archaeology isn't only for archaeologists.
While this disciplined science definitely isn't for the Indiana Jones type and the ruthless looters of the past, it can be a rewarding experience for dedicated non-specialists who love research. Several field institutes operated by Utahns beckon the interested to roll up their sleeves, slap on sunscreen and dig.
Universities and private consultants are sorting through tents and filling out paperwork for federal excavation permits in preparation for the 2001 summer field season. Some, like Logan's Utah State University already have filled their openings. Others, like Cedar City's Southern Utah University are advertising for students.
SUU's ad is running in the current issue of Archaeology Magazine, which has an international circulation. SUU offers two sessions, June 4-30 and July 5-31, both at Utah sites, worth four semester credits.
The Cedar City university worked for several years at a site called Corngrowers near Hildale, Washington County, then switched to excavate a small ancient habitation. Now, said Georgia Thompson, associate vice president for student services at SUU, that work is finished and, "We'll be starting a new site this year."
The new location probably will be on Little Creek Mesa on the Utah side of the Utah-Arizona border, she said.
About 20 students will make up each session, coming from throughout the United States and Canada to live in tents and dig through the Utah soil.
Although they will eat meals prepared by a cook, "it's not fancy," Thompson said. "We have a shower where people can at least get clean."
Students excavate during the day, or go on archaeological site survey projects. In the evenings the group hears lectures and does lab work — cleaning and labeling finds.
Barbara Frank, an archaeologist from Cedar City who is director of the field program, said that over the years the SUU summer field schools have operated, "we've been able to document fairly well the existence of the Anasazi in this part of Utah, from Basketmaker II . . . through Pueblo II."
The time range is from around the time of Christ through 1300 AD.
"I think in general people really enjoy the field school," she said. "We try and really give them an idea what archaeology is like. It's interesting, but not only that, it's tedious.
"It's physically demanding and it's hot and kind of unpleasant" work. But 90-95 percent of participants enjoy the project, and some become archaeologists.
For those who don't, it's good to discover before they go too deeply into archaeology that they might be better off doing something else, like museum work.
F. Richard Hauck, a consulting archaeologist from Bountiful who also is director of the nonprofit Archaeological Research Institute, has been leading field schools for years to sites in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.
"We've done a big medicine wheel site in Colorado several years ago and did an analysis on that," he said. The site at Dust Devil Gorge included rocks aligned in concentric circles with spokes. The alignment corresponded with lunar and solstice dates, the archaeologists discovered.
This year, the institute's field school plans to work at KibRidge-Yampa near Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado. As described on the institute's Web site, "This is a rare find . . . dating back as much as 11,000 years ago, representing an occupation of Paleoindians who hunted extinct forms of mammoth and bison."
BYU's field school begins around the first of May and lasts through June 20, with 17 students, four student staff members and four supervisors. The group will carry out a survey of surface remains in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Joel Janetski, chairman of the BYU Department of Anthropology and director of the field school, said the group may excavate three pit houses east of the town of Escalante. Pit houses are homes dug into the earth, lined with slabs of stone on the sides.
Duncan Metcalfe, associate professor at the University of Utah, plans to take students on three 10-day sessions sponsored by the U. The first session will be at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in western Utah, where they will continue a field survey.
"The last two sessions will be down near Teasdale," Wayne County, close to Capitol Reef National Park. At the 2,000-year-old site, "we're looking for sort of the transition between full hunting-and-gathering (lifestyle) and agriculture," he said.
USU's Steve Simms, an anthropology professor and archaeologist, said students this year will excavate Anasazi sites near Kanab. About a dozen researchers will work there for 30 days, in 10 sessions separated by four-day breaks.
"It's done in a fairly primitive field camp, which is part of the education," Simms said. "No motels allowed."
With costs ranging into hundreds of dollars, or even more than $1,000, conditions primitive and work hard, are field schools worthwhile to the participant?
Steve Stacey, a Tucson, Ariz., resident who has worked on several SUU expeditions, said in an e-mail to the Deseret News: "You should take a month off and attend the SUU field school — you will have the time of your life and learn archaeology at the same time."
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com