I have been fortunate enough to be involved in several ECU projects. This year, I am a crew chief. The position is offered to select second and third year graduate students to give us a leadership opportunity and the chance to act as mentors to the new class. Crew chiefs have the interesting dilemma of being both student and a part of the leadership team. I am excited for this opportunity because I get to improve the skills I already have, create new skill sets, and be a part of a team that has to figure it all out along the way.
Each year, first year students on the archaeology track are required to attend a Summer, and subsequent Fall, field school. Last year, my Summer field school was on Tranter’s Creek Wreck – a North Carolina oyster boat sunk in a black water river. While that was an amazing experience, rarely received at other institutions, it does not hold the same appeal to most students as Costa Rica’s clear blue waters and cannon piles. This year’s summer project is bound to be fantastic, but not without its challenges.
We have already had to face the dreaded packing of equipment. Packing for any SCUBA trip is hard enough. With a buoyancy control device (BCD), regulator, mask, fins, and snorkel; gear load is already pretty high for an airplane. Now, we have to add photo scales, slates, tapes, tow boards, GPS units, drafting equipment, AND dive weights (among other things), making packing a very hard, very heavy game of Tetris. Even with 17 checked bags between the students and leadership team, I am worried about meeting weight limits and what will happen if luggage is lost along the way.
Once we get to Costa Rica, we will have to improvise if we find we left any equipment at home. The leadership team has, thus, taken gear collection and allocation very seriously. We will also have to face culture shock and jet lag. Because our professor has done such a good job preparing for the project, culture shock will be at a minimum. We have the right permits, accommodations, and (hopefully) expectations of what we are getting ourselves into. I know it was not easy for our Principal Investigator (PI) to get all the paperwork done for this project, but the students and staff are so glad she did.
We will be diving from fishing boats with captains from the community. Their boats are small, and not specifically built for SCUBA diving, so our gear will have to be carefully placed at our feet to get to the sites (this is where the fun stuff is!).
We have been talking in class this week about the structures and methodologies that will be used on site. Safety is our number one priority, learning is second, and data collection is third. We will always defer to the Captain, then to the Dive Safety Officer (DSO), and then to the tasks given to us from the PI. Our research questions are set, so it should be easier to delegate tasks among the students.
Each student team (yes, we ALWAYS dive in pairs) will be given a daily assignment to help collect data that will answer our research questions. These tasks could include search patterns, cannon or anchor recording, fish inventory, artifact drawing, geo-referencing site elements using GPS, photography, etc., but we will NOT be excavating the site. All this data will be compiled and we will gather as a team every morning and evening to discuss what the site could be, what formation processes were in play, and what the next step is to answer our questions.
Sound complicated? It is actually quite fun – we are solving a giant puzzle. The interpretation is my favorite part, and is the reason that many maritime archaeologists are in this field. We have meticulously planned this project. Lots of time, energy, thought, and paperwork went into getting the opportunity. Now, to begin the field work!
-Hannah