Join Michigan Tech archaeologists excavating at sites of nineteenth century pottery shops in beautiful southern Utah. Immigrant potters settled in small towns and large cities as part of the Latter-day Saints' colonization of the desert and mountain west.
Excavators hope to learn how the potters adapted to the new physical and social environments of the west, overcoming their limited technical skills to use new raw materials and run businesses in a new social setting. The 2009 excavations will concentrate on recovering details on production-related features, including the kilns, clay processing areas, and workshops.
The Utah Pottery Project is a public archaeology program. Students will work side-by-side with community members in research teams. Teams will combine clues from excavation with evidence from oral history, experimental archaeology, materials science, and archival research. Students help to interpret discoveries to visitors both at the site and in blogs on the web. The results from the 2009 excavations will also be used to design an operating replica pottery at the Iron Mission State Park Museum in Cedar City, Utah.
Students will learn a broad array of field techniques, including excavation, geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological sampling, survey and mapping, photography, technical illustration, artifact identification, and will discuss how excavation research articulates with materials science and experimental archaeology.
View of the western Wasatch Mountain front from Route 6 in Southern Utah
Tim Scarlett, Utah Pottery Project
Southern Utah enjoys a stunning landscape with unequalled outdoor recreation opportunities, including ecological and heritage tourism. Within a short drive are Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Grand Canyon National Parks; Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument; Fishlake and Dixie National Forests; Lake Powell; the cities of St. George, Utah, and Las Vegas, Nevada; and many other heritage highways, state parks, forests, monuments, and museums.
Credits: Variable (2-8). Tuition ($ per credit) Undergraduate MI resident: $331.00. Undergraduate Non-Residents: $723.00. Graduate: All students: $567.00
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