Scott j. Demel

Archaeology Field School - 

Seminar in Archaeological Field Methods (AN355)

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• The summer field schools are taught every other summer at NMU by Dr. Demel. He has conducted archaeological investigations on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan for the last 10 years. Six, four week-long field schools have been held in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. While the sites vary in location and age, students learn archaeological survey and mapping methods, excavation skills, and archaeology lab techniques. Advanced field courses are also offered to students who have completed a field school. Additional abbreviated site investigations were also conducted at Cable Bay in 2011, and at the Mormon Print Shop (MPS) in 2019 as part of salvage archaeology operations for the Beaver Island Historical Society.
   

• 2020. Harvey, Michigan - Chocolay Bayou Nature Preserve. Despite the pandemic and canceled summer field school, I was able to hold a fall archaeology field school for the first time. Properly masked and spaced students conducted a Phase I Survey and Phase II archaeological testing of three sites we discovered, including the pillar footings of a late 19th century train depot, a former camp cabin, and a small prehistoric site on an ancient Lake Superior beach ridge. Railroad spikes and freight straps were recovered, as well as household items and personal items at the cabin, and a handful of quartzite debitage.

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• 2019. Beaver Island - MPS- île de Castor Site (20-CX-59). Volunteers and students working at the site in May were focussed on the recovery and testing of deposits beneath the former summer kitchen. This late building addition was removed from the Mormon print shop to make way for the future museum addition. Excavations yielded letterpress metal printing type from the original Mormon print shop, clay pipes, trade beads, and other historical artifacts. Pottery sherds and lithics were also recovered from the Late Woodland anthrosol.

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• 2018. Beaver Island - MPS- île de Castor Site (20-CX-59), and the Theodore Protar Homestead. Work continued once again at the MPS site in an attempt to wrap up our investigations there. Four more excavation units were completed at the site, while three units were completed at the Protar Homestead. Features at the MPS site include several hearths, a smudge pit, and the continuation of a possible fortification wall (individual post construction). Noteworthy artifacts include a black bear canine, turtle bones, and dorsal spines from a 5'-6' long sturgeon. Additional trade goods such as glass beads, decorative furniture tacks, and an iron point were also recovered. More 1850s and post-1850s historical, Contact Period, and Late Woodland Period artifacts were recovered. The ancient garden beds were relocated and flotation samples reveal what appear to be charred beans (analysis pending). A surface survey at the Theodore Protar Homestead was also conducted to document the remains of his barn and outbuildings. A privy was excavated, revealing artifacts from the original occupants of the cabin, and subsequent occupation by Protar.

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• 2016. Beaver Island -  MPS - île de Castor Site, French Bay, Cable Bay site. Work continued at the MPS site, working through the various horizons down to the Late Woodland anthrosol. Features discovered include a smudge pit, hearths, a fish processing pit, and a section of wall (post construction) that may be Late Woodland or Contact Period (analysis pending). A shovel probe survey in an area of French Bay helped define the ca. 1900-1910 lumber camp, while text excavations were concluded at the Cable Bay site.​

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• 2014 and 2012. Beaver Island - Mormon Print Shop & île de Castor Site. Test excavations occurred behind the old Mormon Print Shop (current home of the Beaver Island Historical Society) during the summer archaeology field school (2012); artifact analysis is underway from this multi-component site. Beneath the historic layers was an occupation horizon from the Late Woodland Period (ca. A.D. 900-1100), complete with pottery, stone tools, cultural features filled with fish bones, charred sand cherry fruit, and butchered beaver. This may have been a late summer or fall beaver hide processing station. Radiocarbon dates from two pieces of charcoal associated with pottery came in at 925 +/- 15 BP (ca. AD 1025) and 840 +/- 15 BP (ca. AD 1110).

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• 2011. One week long survey of part of Cable's Bay site. Surface survey and sampling, and test excavations of the surface of the "brick dune."

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• 2010. Cable's Bay Fishing Village. Survey and test excavations took place at this coastal site during the NMU summer 2010 archaeology field school and during the summer of 2011; artifact analysis continues. Research and results of analyses were exhibited in "Scattered To The Winds - The Vanished Community of Cable's Bay," which ran from April to September of 2012 at the Beaumier UP Heritage Center on NMU's campus. Portions of this collection may be exhibited at the Beaver Island Historical Society in the future.

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• 2010. Burke Farm. Survey and test excavations took place at the Mormon and Irish farmstead, including documentation of the remaining barn and orchard.

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