Located in the Rock House, the WKU Archaeology Lab houses an extensive collection of hundreds of thousands of prehistoric and historic artifacts from 92 of Kentucky's 128 counties. The collection was obtained over the last three decades through field school excavations, government compliance contracts, and donations from private citizens concerned about preserving Kentucky's archaeological record. Site documentation - in the form of field notes, field drawings, photographs, correspondence, and reports - for hundreds of archaeological sites is also curated at the lab. We also have teaching collections and teaching aids related to archaeology and physical anthropology. The lab is run by Dr. Darlene Applegate.

 

The Archaeology Lab is the hub of much activity through the school year.
 

• Students in archaeology and physical anthropology complete lab assignments as part of their course work. Pictured below are students Dennis Pennington, Guy Wathen, Marshall Peschell and Katie Englert working on a projectile point identification lab for Anth 230, Introduction to Archaeology. During spring 1999, Anth 230 students also completed flotation, classification, and lithics assignments at the lab. In the fall, students in the Anth 300, Forensic Anthropology course will be completing lab assignments related to skeletal identification, aging, sexing, stature estimation, and pathology identification.

• Students in Dr. Applegate's Ethnoarchaeology and Experimental Archaeology course completed a trampling experiment at the Rock House during the spring 1999 semester. They sought to identify laws that describe the effects of trampling on the horizontal distribution, vertical distribution, and condition of artifacts on a grassy substrate. Lithic and ceramic artifacts were measured, distributed on the Rock House lawn, mapped, and trampled for almost 50 hours. Locations were recorded midway and at the end of the experiment. The data will be processed over the summer months, and paper describing the results will be submitted for publication. Photos of students at work on the project are forthcoming.

• Dr. Applegate and several work-study students work diligently on long-term curation of the collections, insuring that they are properly preserved for the future. Pictured below are two of the work-study students, David Spence (top) and Mitch Warren (bottom).

 

 

• Students may undertake directed studies in anthropology at the lab. For instance, during the spring semester of 1999, anthropology major Adrienne Asbell completed an inventory and analysis of skeletal remains from Crystal Onyx Cave in Edmonson County, which we plan to submit for publication. Student projects such as these will be instrumental in realizing the full research potential of the collections.

• We were pleased to have members of a local Brownie troop visit the lab in March. They eagerly learned about the types of artifacts archaeologists find, and they conducted their own mock dig in the basement!

• Volunteers from anthropology courses invested literally hundreds of hours of work at the lab over the year. They have been very helpful in cleaning, locating artifacts, curation, trampling, reorganizing the library, and entering data into our lab databases. We appreciate your assistance!