Down Home Archaeology: Digging into the Past with Local Archaeologists
October 21, 2017

In celebration of International Archaeology Day 2017 our local society hosted “Down Home Archaeology: Digging into the Past with Local Archaeologists.” Milwaukee and the surrounding areas have a large archaeological community, with archaeologists working all over the world on a variety of cultures and with a vast number of materials. The AIA Milwaukee society, along with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Departments of Anthropology, Art History, and FLL/Classics put together a wonderful program of activities and demonstrations to highlight the work of local archaeologists.

Alexis Jordan taught visitors how osteological analysis is done, while Jason Sherman and Cheri Price showed visitors all types of ceramic analysis, from petrography to typological analysis, to reconstructing ceramics. Visitors also got to see the work of our president, Elisabetta Cova, identifying ancient home renovations at Pompeii, and our treasurer Alice Kehoe discuss excavating piskuns to reconstruct Blackfoot bison drives. Kevin Garstki and Derek Counts demonstrated how artifacts are 3D scanned, and taught our younger visitors how to produce a scientific illustration. Emily Stanton explained how she is producing replica swords with experimental archaeology, and many epic swordfights ensued in the hallways of Sabin! Josh Driscoll and Ann Eberwein presented their work on foodways in ancient Europe, from ancient brewing, to food preserved from Neolithic Switzerland that is now kept at our local Milwaukee Public Museum. Our junior archaeologists also showed off their skills analyzing coins from around the world, learning ancient alphabets, and making their own headdresses and archaeological art to take home! We cannot thank our volunteers and visitors enough, we all had a wonderful time learning new things, and showcasing our vibrant archaeological community!