Photo: Michigan State University Archives via the Smithsonian.
Michigan State University’s first observatory, circa 1888.
Sometimes it’s just luck that starts someone on a rewarding career — or generates a lifetime of memories. Today’s story is about the trajectory of budding archaeologists.
Daniel Wu writes at the Washington Post, “Morgan Manuszak had to travel thousands of miles from her East Lansing, Mich., campus in 2022 to get some much-needed work experience. The Michigan State University senior, who studies archaeology as part of a minor in anthropology, said she was able to do archaeological fieldwork for the first time only in Isthmia, Greece, where the university hosts a field school.
“Not every budding archaeologist at Michigan State is so fortunate, students and researchers said. Opportunities for students to complete archaeological fieldwork are competitive and often require expensive overseas travel. Many students were also unable to access such trips during the pandemic, when travel was restricted.
“But soon, a new archaeological site will be waiting for the university’s undergraduates just a short walk from their dorms.
“Students working with Michigan State’s Campus Archaeology Program this summer unearthed part of the cobblestone foundation of a 142-year-old observatory in a clearing near a student residence hall, the university announced [in August]. The site of the building — Michigan State’s first observatory for astronomy, dating back to 1881 — will become a dig site next summer for the university’s undergraduates and local residents to practice archaeological techniques right on campus.
“The unlikely discovery happened this summer when construction workers attempted to install hammock poles near a student residence hall on the north end of campus, said Stacey Camp, director of the Campus Archaeology Program. They contacted the program after hitting a hard surface while trying to drive the poles into the ground.
“Researchers consulted school records and noticed that the unassuming site — a lawn shaded by leafy trees near picnic benches and a basketball court — was near the location of a century-old facility built during a key period of change for the university. Michigan State, originally an agricultural college, was slowly branching out into other fields when a professor built the observatory in 1881. …
“The observatory housed a telescope and some of the university’s early astronomy classes and was probably demolished in the 1920s, said Ben Akey, a PhD student and campus archaeologist at Michigan State.
“Akey and a team of students, including Manuszak, conducted an initial survey at the location in June, digging a grid of small holes to try to find remnants of the observatory. They dug for weeks without luck in the area where the construction crew had been working until, on the last scheduled day of searching, a shovel finally struck a small stretch of cobblestone and mortar.
“ ‘It’s a weird common occurrence in archaeology,’ Akey said. ‘Just as you’re about to move on from a site, you end up finding something that sticks you there for another few weeks.’
“Further excavation confirmed that the rock border was the foundation of the old observatory, to the excitement of Akey, Manuszak and the rest of the team. …
“ ‘It was really, really fulfilling,’ Manuszak said. …
“The Campus Archaeology Project has conducted additional research on the site since June, including a scan using ground-penetrating radar, but the bulk of the work is being saved for the university’s undergraduates.
“Some of those students have been starved for an opportunity like this, Akey and Manuszak said. The Campus Archaeology Project has conducted digs and partial excavations at other locations on campus, but the observatory will be one of the university’s oldest excavation sites. That makes a difference in a competitive field where job opportunities hinge on hands-on experience, Akey said. …
“ ‘You can sit in a classroom and learn the steps of how you’re going to lay out your grid and how you need to take note of your stratigraphy as you’re digging down for your excavation unit,’ Manuszak said. ‘But you don’t really get a feel for it until you’re doing it.’ “
More about getting hands-on experience at the Post, here. Also at the Smithsonian, where there is no paywall.
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