Photos from the Kansas State Historical Society
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the spring issue of 2001. Today, the Kansas Archeology Training Program continues to be held every June. In partnership, the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association have hosted field schools at over 45 sites in 35 Kansas counties.
Kansas is riddled with buried treasure, full of mystery and fascination. Although this treasure isn't the stuff that makes for millionaires, it nevertheless is a rich source of knowledge.
The treasure? Archeological sites. Places where prehistoric peoples ate, drank, slept, farmed and, helpfully, disposed of their trash.
Thanks to an ongoing public-private partnership, a few of those sites are being excavated and studied.
"The program has allowed us to really intensively investigate at least 25 sites," says Virginia Wulfkuhle, public archeologist. That means scholars know far more about the sequence of prehistoric cultures than they otherwise would have.
Wulfkuhle referred to the Kansas Archeology Training Program, a joint effort of the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association (KAA). The KAA was founded in 1955 to organize the state's many serious amateur archeologists and anthropologists and to survey the state's archeological sites. The training program was organized in 1974 and conducted its first major dig in 1975.
"The state office was interested in carrying out research, but they needed a workforce," Wulfkuhle says, "and the KAA was interested in getting training and, of course, Society archeologists didn't want people to go and dig unsystematically. It was a perfect fit."
Since 1975, the training program has occurred during the first two weeks of June. The sites have ranged from border to border, from as far west as Scott County (the first major training project) to as far east as Franklin County. Northern sites have included Norton, Phillips, and Washington counties. Southern sites have included digs in Comanche, Harper, and Cowley counties.
TREASURE TROVE
The 1998 dig in Meade County, north of Fowler, proved especially fruitful. Archeologists looked for artifacts (items made or used by people) and "features" (evidence of structures). The 121 people who volunteered on the Meade County dig found bones of large and small mammals, birds and fish, shell and charred corncobs-evidence of the inhabitants' diet.
Tools unearthed weren't as numerous but included bone and stone hoes, needles, knives, scrapers, and drills. Workers also found bone and shell beads and pottery pieces. All artifacts become the property of the state.
"There are some people who are never going to find again as much as they found on that project," Wulfkuhle says. "We happened to get in on a part of the site that was a definite midden area, a trash area. It was chock-full of good stuff, artifacts that will tell us about food ways ... life ways."
Radiocarbon dating of various bits from the site all fell in the period of A.D. 1280-1430.
Tod Bevitt, a Wichita State University graduate student at the time, helped supervise the Meade County dig and used the materials to write his master's thesis.
"We wound up with maybe five to ten reconstruct-able pottery vessels," he says, an almost unheard-of number. "We found a fair number of storage pits and basins for storage," Bevitt says. In addition, they found the corner of a structure, an exciting find for the archeologists.
THE ARCHEOLOGY PROCESS
When most people think of archeology, they think of digs. The training program lets volunteers dig but also allows them a look at the bigger picture of anthropological study. The 1999 focus was on lab work.
"Lab is a really good place to start," Wulfkuhle says. "It makes people better diggers."
Randy Thies, archeologist with the State Historical Society, gave first timers a brief look at the process. It starts with a survey of a prospective site, maybe a place where area residents have found arrow points, for indications that a dig would be worthwhile. The systematic excavation comes next, followed by cleaning, sorting, recording, curating, analysis, and publication of the findings and, if all goes well, an exhibit. The historical society developed a small exhibit for the Meade County Historical Museum on the findings there.
The first annual forays for the Kansas Archeology Training Program were 16-day digs. The relative specialization in recent years reflects concerns about the costs of the digs and the backlog of acquired artifacts. Although most of the labor is provided by KAA volunteers, the Kansas State Historical Society staff organizes and oversees the digs. The 1999 lab, for example, worked on a collection from a dig in 1988 and moved that analysis one step further.
If you’re interested in learning more about the field schools, find out more here.
