Lisa Schaaf of Erie, Pa., and Mary Ann Vicari of Baltimore, Md., both '06, are spending the summer researching the geoarchaeology of Smith Creek Cave in Nevada. Schaaf and Vicari, who are working with Professor of Archaeology Tom Jones, spent the first six weeks of their research on-site in Nevada, and are now back on campus analyzing samples in the lab.
Smith Creek Cave, a limestone cave located near the Utah border, is believed to have been home to some of the earliest humans to live in North America. Schaaf and Vicari are working toward putting together a record of the environmental changes in and around the cave to try and determine how long ago people may have been there. "We're trying to paint a picture of the environment to solidify when people were actually there," said Schaaf. People arrived there after the Ice Age, when the climate became suitable for living conditions. Some believe people were at the cave as long as 12,500 years ago, although this fact is being contested. Schaaf and Vicari are working towards helping to answer this question by studying the geology of the cave. They also took sediment samples from the oldest part of the cave, which is about 30,000 years old, and are analyzing them for grain size and organic remains as well as trying to date them.
Both geoarchaeology majors, Schaaf and Vicari plan to continue this research as part of their theses, and hope to take their results to the 2006 Society for American Archaeology meeting. "Hopefully we will be able to say a lot more about these environmental changes," said Vicari.
After arriving back at Hamilton, Schaaf and Vicari ran into some problems with the logistics of lab work. Because of the transition to the new science building, a lot of equipment is still packed away in storage, and space is limited because the second phase of construction is not yet complete.
This is the first summer for both doing research on campus. "It's
nice to have flexible hours and free reign to concentrate on our own
interests," said Schaaf.
Outside of geoarchaeology, Schaaf is a coxswain for the women's crew
team and Vicari participates in dance. Both hope to continue in the
geoarchaeology field, in a graduate program and later field work.
-- by Laura Trubiano '07
