Wellesley College Students Get Their Hands Dirty at New Paleoanthropology Field School

September 20, 2010

CONTACT: Wellesley College Media Relations | publicin@wellesley.edu | (781) 283-2373

WELLESLEY, Mass.-- As a young child, Wellesley College junior Simonetta Gramolini spent hours in her backyard pretending to be an archaeologist who found great discoveries under every rock. Now, thanks to a new Wellesley College Summer School program, her dream has become a reality.

FIELD SCHOOL: Among students who took part in this summer's dig are, left to right, Zach Coffran, Alex Claxton, Simonetta Gramolini,  Tobias Avalos, Genevieve Kelly, Sana Saiyed and R. Wes Smith with Wellesley professor Adam Van Arsdale.

Gramolini is one of the first students to take part in the brand new Dmanisi Paleoanthropology Field School. From mid-July to mid-August, Gramolini, of Brussels, Beglium, and fellow Wellesley College juniors Genevieve Kelly, of San Jose, Calif., and Sana Saiyed, of Shelbyville, Ky., were in Dmanisi in the country of Georgia. Along with Wellesley College professor Adam Van Arsdale, the students participated in an archaeological dig and were part of a team that uncovered some of the earliest hominid fossils, including a 1.8 million-year-old human heel bone.

“To have undergraduate students have the opportunity to participate in excavations where that kind of new material is being discovered, it’s fairly unprecedented,” said Van Arsdale, an assistant professor of anthropology at Wellesley and the program’s coordinator.

Outside of Africa, Dmanisi is the oldest place in the world to find human fossils. It is one of the most active archaeological dig sites with human remains and archaeological materials from both the Bronze Age and medieval time periods as well as Paleolithic fossils.

The students, who Van Arsdale hand selected from his classes, spent eight to 10 hours a day looking for fossils. At night, they heard lectures from researchers who are experts in the field. They also had a few days to tour Georgia.

“What surprised me the most is how I never got bored of digging in the dirt,” said Kelly, an anthropology major. “We did the same thing six days a weeks for eight hours everyday, but the possibility of finding something, and the excitement that ensued every time someone did find something, kept it interesting.”

Most field schools are run by large research universities, Van Arsdale said, so it is fairly unique for Wellesley, a small, liberal arts school, to host its own. The students didn’t just work at the site; they also lived there with Van Arsdale, graduate students, professors and other professionals working on the site. The opportunity allowed the students to build stronger relationships with their colleagues.

“I was able to work with world-renowned professionals from different fields such as paleontology, geology and archaeology,” said Saiyed, a junior majoring in anthropology. “The fact that I, as an undergraduate student at Wellesley, was able to learn interactively at a place such as Dmanisi is awesome.”

Van Arsdale, who joined Wellesley’s faculty in 2008, has been going to the Dmanisi site since 2002. He had been toying with the idea of starting a field school there for a while but it wasn’t until he established a partnership with the Georgia National Museum that he approached Wellesley administrators about creating a new summer program.

“It was an incredibly rewarding teaching opportunity for me to be able to share this side of my research with them,” said Van Arsdale, who is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. “I was really blown away.”

To commemorate the successful completion of the program, the U.S. Consulate in Georgia attended a press conference at the site, hosted by the Georgia National Museum. Attending the event was the director of the museum, the U.S. ambassador, as well as the director of the Georgia National Science Foundation and the deputy director of science and education for Georgia. The students received awards for being the first participants of the field school.

While details of next summer’s application program are still being worked out, Van Arsdale is planning on going again and wants to take about 10 students. This year's students can't praise or recommend the experience enough.

“It was truly the most breathtaking and rewarding experience of my entire life and I honestly hope I'll make it back there someday,” said Gramolini, who is double majoring in anthropology and psychology. “This trip completely changed me as a person.”

Since 1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in providing an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world. Its 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate students from all 50 states and 68 countries.

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