FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY REMEMBERED*

 

One summer I took a chance

In picking to my interests advance…

My parents said “sure”

To an archaeology tour,

I’d learn by the seat of my pants.

–

It was funny to arrive in town,

Board a van and turn around…

To a museum near

Had a parking lot where

They were seeing what would be found.

–

We worked two to a square,

At the Roberson Center there…

In Binghamton

Where I’d begun

That morning to reach the class elsewhere!

–

One or two clay pipes

Or portions of same, and snipes…

Were hiding nearby,

I don’t know why,

And some Civil War button types.

–

A little further from home,

An emergency excavation in Rome…

New York State, that is,

Vis-a-vis

The site for a Victorian home.

–

Fort Bull, New York,

Was ratcheting up the torque…

The Victorian in pieces

Was an older species

Then the normal time era they worked.

–

So in a former sheep pen

Field Biology began to spend…

On a salvage job

To map this bog,

I mean–field–for archaeological trends.

–

We found several fire pits,

Some buttons and that was it…

Then the museum

Put up displays to see them

And proceeded their house to refit.

 

–Jonathan Caswell

*The author took this college course in the summer of 1982.