The Bluefields Archaeological Survey
Anthropology professor Bill Wedenoja went back to Bluefields, Jamaica, in the Summer of 2008 to start the Bluefields Archaeological Survey. This society is a community research and historic preservation project. He was joined by Travis Carr and Elijah Robison, graduate students in Geospatial Sciences, who assisted in the surveying and mapping of plantation sites as well as archival research at the National Library. They retrieved a number of old maps and pictures of colonial estates. Anthropology graduate student Justin Bartlett assisted with the survey and initiated field research on drumming in the Maroon village of Accompong.
Dina Bazzill (formerly Williams), Missouri State anthropology alumnus (2004) who since earned a Master of Science in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology at Eastern Carolina University, directed a four-day underwater survey of Bluefields Bay, where they located two cannons and three large anchors.
Anthropology undergraduate majors Ryan Williams, Nicholas Scolaro, and Aaron Geary, along with graduate student Jessica Gray, students from Jamaican high schools and colleges, and volunteers from the Bluefields community conducted an archaeological survey of a recently discovered prehistoric Taino village site, which produced Spanish and African pottery, Seventeenth Century British glassware, and the remains of a blacksmith shop. This survey was directed by a Jamaican archaeologist along with two archaeologists from Binghamton University, and was conducted under permit from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust for the Bluefields Peoples Community Association. The project was underwritten by an incentive grant from the College of Humanities and Public Affairs and a Missouri State University University Faculty Research Grant. Dr. Wedenoja also located the site of a British fort built in 1656 and met with the Spanish Ambassador to initiate a search for the site of a Spanish settlement dating to 1509.
Archaeology in Oman
Anthropology majors Tarina Greer and Brandon Wilson worked during Summer 2008 with alumni Stephanie Smith (2008), Marcus Ross (2005), and Kathryn Lamzik (2007) on an excavation in Oman directed by Professor Emeritus Juris Zarins.