Cara-Lynn Vealey
Charlotte, Michigan

Cara-Lynn Vealey recieved her Bachelors in Anthropology and Museum Studies from Central Michigan University. She is currently attending Western Michigan University for her Masters in Anthropology. Her concentration in her studies is physical/biological anthropology. She loves to travel and has been fortunate enough to have visited nine countries in Europe, along with Mexico, Canada and China.
 

Sunday, June 18th
Today I arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska. I traveled here from Michigan in order to attend a Forensic Science Field School. I really have no idea what all we are in for, but have been told that we will be studying various topics in forensic science, from bones to ballistics. We all settled into our (very nice!) housing where we would be living for the remainder of the month. The campus is nice and small, easy to get around in. The dorm we stay in is a short walk to the building where our lectures will be taking place. We had our orientation at 7 pm. There were eleven of us, excluding Dr. Connor and Dr. Scott. We then introduced ourselves and discussed what we all expected to get from our experiences here in Lincoln. All of us are from different places in the world, various ages and professional experiences. We all have varying majors and interests. We do have one thing in common, though, our curiosity of forensic science.

Monday, June 19th
This morning my two roommates and I awoke bright and early. After cleaning up we headed off to breakfast in the cafeteria. After our much-needed coffee we found our way to Burt Hall, where we will be spending much of our time here in Nebraska. Dr. Connor started with introducing us all to Forensic Science. We started out with some PowerPoint lectures and discussions. It is a very informal setting. We are all invited to add to the discussion in order to keep involved and share information that some of us are more familiar with than others. Since we are all interested in various topics and research, we have a wide range of knowledge to share among ourselves. A great thing about the field school is that we have both lecture and lab experiences. We got out of our seats after the discussion and headed down the street to the crime house. This is a place where the forensic science program here at Wesleyan can use in order to research and help students with hands-on projects. They can create a mock crime scene and have students practice going through the steps to a real case. It impressed me that they actually dropped real human bodily fluids on the floor in order to allow students to actually use real luminescence to find biological fluid where one may find DNA (they actually go back and analyze the evidence found at the house). Other incriminating evidence is planted around the house and the students job is to work it like a real crime scene, including a moot court at the conclusion of the class. All in all, it is a very useful house for the forensic science students. 

Here we were able to practice lifting casts of tool marks on doors that have been broken into (for research use). We used a substance called Mikrosil and mixed it with a hardener. After being applied to the tools and/or tool marks, it only takes a short time for it to dry until it becomes hard enough to peel off. It essentially becomes a rubber like substance. It forms to the marks very well and then can be used to match tools to forced entry damage marks. Tools can then either be labeled consistent or not consistent to the marks made. 

We also were able to try our hand at dusting for fingerprints. We started with tiles with our own fingerprints on them. There are different types of powder and brushes. Thin brushes, wide 'ostrich-like feather' brushes, and magnetic powder are examples of some of the variations. After our trials on the tiles, we moved on to more difficult items such as milk bottles and other more porous objects. It is much more difficult to lift a print on those items than one would expect. 

After lunch we had another hands-on experience back in the basement of Burt Hall. There we learned to determine whether bone was indeed bone, and then whether it was human or non-human bone. This particular area was more of a review to me, as I study physical anthropology. But whether you know about a topic or not, you always have more to learn, and it was nice to have actual bones out in front of us to touch and study up close and personal. Class ended with an exercise to test our knowledge of what we had just learned. Six stations were set up with various bones and we had to move to each and say whether it was human or not and why. Very handy teaching methods.

After class ended we all explored a little bit of campus and the surrounding area. We then went to bed, looking forward to the next day, our next adventure in forensic science.

Tuesday, June 20
This morning Dr. Doug Scott took over lecture. His specialty is ballistics. I am not so familiar with this subject matter. Proof of this statement lies in the fact that I have to say that the most important thing I learned is that there is a difference between a bullet and a cartridge. Kind of important information, especially when working with cases involving murder, because guns are a common weapon used in the homicides that a forensic anthropologist would help to investigate. I also learned what the term calibur meant  (Severe lack of knowledge in this area). He discussed with us the different parts of a gun. We were again able to have a hands-on experience with cartridges and casts. We looked at lands and grooves (and the direction and angles of them) and other markings that could be used for class or individual identification. He discussed bullet ricochet with us. He shared with us some modern cases of shooting incident reconstruction. The most powerful case to me was the one from El Mozote, El Salvador. There many children were gathered together and executed. The killers themselves were in a kill or be killed situation. Sad, and scary.

Dr. Scott also gave us a more archaeological perspective on the use of ballistics. He worked at the battlefield of Little Big Horn and was able to reconstruct some of what had happened at the battle through location and identification of bullets and cartridges. He also shared with us a website that we all can use to help match bullets as if they were under the microscope (www.firearmsID.com). Check it out for yourself, it’s good fun, and good practice.

We segued into DNA and the CODIS database. With DNA becoming a huge area in forensics, some physical antrhopologists are actually being bypassed. One of their main goals in studying a crime scene is identification of the body(s). DNA is is by far more acurrate then bone indentification, however, our services are still useful. DNA takes a long time to get results, and there are so many files to compare to in databases that it could take years to find a match. Physical anthropologists can use their skills to establish a likely group of people to narrow down search results using informtion such as the individual’s ethnicity and location and such. This can greatly reduce the time it takes to make a match.

Another topic about DNA is an issue about personal information. With the use of DNA, a person is literally mapped out. Information such as paternity and the possibility of serious disease may be leaked out to the person and/or public. Think about it... do you really want to know if you are likely to get a horrible disease in you mid-life?  Some would say yes, some no. And if you did find out, what should or should not be made public?  For example, could insurance companies legally use the information to  accept or deny a person due to information held in their DNA?  It is a hot topic right now.

After lunch, we were introduced the the topic of mapping. I never thought about mapping being a forensic topic before, but it makes sense now (exact location of graves, crime scenes, pieces of evidence...). We were taught how to use GPS (Global Positioning System) hand-helds and were sent out on a mapping exercise, or treasure hunt. We broke into three teams and were each given a GPS and a coordinate/clue. My group’s first clue read ‘trash, but not trash’. We read our coordinates, read where we were supposed to be and took off. Our GPS led us to the roof of a building which we actually climbed on top of. (It wouldn’t be leading us into the building because heavy foliage or building ceilings would block the satellites used in helping to find out exact location). We noticed that other teams were very much further along than us, and that we could not find our next clue, even as we stood in the exact coordinates listed on our paper. We saw Dr. Connor and asked her what we were missing. This is why hands-on projects are great. Yes, we were on the exact coordinates that the GPS led us to; however, we had failed to check what zone we were in. Here, in Lincoln, Nebraska, we are in Zone 14. We had the zone way off and so threw off the GPS and ourselves.

Using GPS units to navigate the NWU campus in search of some hidden cookies proved to be a good means of demonstrating how GPS technology can be used to relocate crime scenes or graves.

Once we fixed the problem, we knew we could handle it. We found our second clue near a trash can which read:  ‘Rock, Garden’. Our third clue we found behind the crime scene house. It read:  ‘Rear well, take only one!’  We ended up taking the long way to our destination, and once we were there we were stumped by the clue. We were in a parking lot... rear well?  There was interesting concrete and a tree in the parking lot... where was the well?  Well, it was the rear WHEEL well of a car, a car with licsence plate NWU 4N6. (Get it, haha)  There we finally found our treasure, our hidden stash of cookies!  We brought them back to the classroom and ate them. Yum!  We ended with more discussion about mapping and its uses in forensic science. An interesting website that I recommend anyone to check out is www.geocaching.com. It is the official Global GPS Cache Hunt site where anyone and everyone can take part.

After dinner some of us elected to meet to critique an episode of CSI: Las Vegas (Burked). Some of the comments made were in regards to the perfect makeup and clothing, no glove usage, misleading witnesses (would not hold in court), warrant issues, and other simply silly notions such as evidence being sent to the lab and results within a half hour. This is simply not how this works. It takes time, and it takes money. We are hoping that sometime this week we will also be able to view the film Hotel Rwanda, and a video about Croatia.

Wednesday, June 21
Today’s topics were centered around finding and identifying surface remains and taphonomy (as Dr. Connor would say, “The $20 word for YUCK”)  Taphonomy is the science of decomposition. Things can decompose in various stages, phases, and variations due to the circumstances surrounding their death, location (meaning both coordinates and surrounding materials such as water, air, carpet, sand, clay etc...) and other factors. After figuring if a bone is bone, and it is human bone, the next question is, ‘Is it modern?’  Things to look for would be a greasy feel (fresher), teeth/dental wear (a person from the 1800’s would not have the same kinds of equipment in their mouths as some have today, ex. modern dentures), and personal items (type of clothing and other artifacts can help to date a body). You also want to be alert and on the look for multiple bones (multiple victims). One person cannot have three mandibles.

Cara working on documenting a surface scatter.

When locating surface remains, one must keep in mind the steps to working a scene. First one must mark all found pieces of evidence with pinflags. Cutting the vegetation around the crime scene can be very helpful (as we found out later in the day). There must be a systematic search of the area (working a grid, for example). An inventory of all remains must be made to ensure that all bones have been found. It is not uncommon that rodents and other animals drag off parts of a body and would be found a ways off, so searching the surrounding area is very important. After all of these steps are accomplished, the scene needs to be transfered onto paper (mapped), photographed, and finally collected and sent to the proper labs.  

Melissa Connor discusses mapping protocols with one field team at a mock surface remains bone scatter.

Dr. Connor shared with us a research project that was conducted by some of her students. They were interested in variation that can occur in different situations with decomp. Because NWU does not have a human body farm, pigs were the next best thing. Do not worry, they are put down for other reasons and we just use the bodies for our research. Her students had four pigs. They put them all in various conditions and watched for 174 days as they rot. One was a control. It was just placed on top of the soil and secured using wire in order to prevent coyotes and other animals from stealing the pigs away. Another was burned and then situated in his resting place. The third was rolled into a carpet and left to decay. The fourth pig was stabbed multiple times and had duct tape around it’s legs and a noose about its neck. I won’t go into all of the grisly details, but I will say that all situations and conditions certainly affected the factors of decomposition of the pigs.

We discussed entomology and how bugs can be a super way of estimating time since death.  This was one of the factors that varied with each separate situation, and so this is why it is helpful to study such things, gruesome as it may be. It will help people to investigate human deaths more accurately the more and more we know what will affect decomposition factors. In the afternoon we headed out to the professor’s property. There we got to put our newfound knowledge to use.

We again separated into three groups and were assigned a mock crime scene. I was in  the group that got to work on a real death scene with a real body (albeit a deer carcass, but hey, you have to begin somewhere). We located the body and scanned the area for ‘evidence’. We located six (planted) cartridges around the body. We also found footprints and flagged these as well. After flagging the evidence, we set up our datum (starting point of our map) and measured the distances of our points of interest. We plotted them on our grid paper and made our map. We took the GPS and noted the coordinates for our starting point, the body, and the far end of our scene. We also started a mini observation project today. We planted a piece of real meat (caged and secured to the ground) on the property. As the day went on we were to check to see if we could identify the kinds of bugs that were attracted to it. I believe that during the week we will be able to revisit it and observe our own little entomology research project.

After all groups had finished and picked up our areas, we all hopped into the large school van and headed back to the dorms in anticipation of our much deserved dinner.

Thursday, June 22
This morning we discussed geophysical techniques with Dr. Scott. These are the techniques used that allow investigators to define an object in the subsurface without direct contact with the object or material. These techniques help to put together the bigger picture, fill in gaps in a map, minimize ground disturbance and gives the investigators hints on where to focus their attention. An important point to remember is that no electronic instrument exists that can find a buried body. The equipment instead shows anomalies that may indicate ground disturbances that should be looked into.  'The success of geophysical methods depends on the existence of sufficient contrast between the measured properties of a target and its surrounding background conditions (anomalies)' - quoted from Dr. Scott's PowerPoint presentation. He discussed various equipment such as magnetometers, electrical resistivity, electrical conductivity, and ground penetrating radar (GPR). 

After our break we met back at Burt Hall to meet with John Beck and Iva.  John is Iva's trainer. Iva is a 40 lb yellow lab and a cadaver dog, trained to sniff out dead and decaying human flesh. After he shared some information with us, we got to see Iva in action. We were given two washcloths with a strong odor of decay on them and we were asked to hide them. One was hidden in the basement bathroom beneath a urinal, and the other was hidden around a corner of the building outdoors. Iva was ready for action. She ran up and down the hall of the basement sniffing at the doors as she went by.  She found the bathroom cloth with no problem. She seemed very pleased with herself. We then took her outside. After John took her leash off, she once again looked around, (or rather sniffed around) to get her bearings, and took off around the corner. The passers-by must have thought it a funny sight to see the dog take off and a whole class break into a run after her.  She had found the second cloth before we even rounded the building. She happily chewed on her prize as John shared more stories and info with us about their interesting hobby.

John and Iva get ready to find the scent towel hidden by the students outside Burt Hall. Iva took off around the corner of the building and found the towel before we could get a picture of her finding it.

It amazes me that he does not charge for his service. The only time he charges is if travel expense add up to a substantial amount. Since we had another guest speaker for us lined up, we had to thank him and head to lunch at around noon. 

At around 1, we rode the van to the professor's house once again to meet with Robert Nickel, a specialist in geophysical techniques. We were able to see and touch the equipment that we had seen in the morning's PowerPoint.  After our discussion we got up and actually got to try out a GPR ourselves.  It is an amazing piece of equipment. We had earlier walked around the property in an attempt to guess where pig graves may have been hidden. With the GPR we were able to run the equipment over our areas of interest and see if we had anything. One area that was suspicious looking turned out to be nothing... salt had been dumped there in mass quantities and nothing has grown there since. When we did roll the GPR over an actual grave, an anomaly was recorded onto the screen. It was very interesting to see the ground we walked on being mapped out as we went. To make sure that we would be able to get back in time for dinner, we split into two groups. One group finished discussing geophysical techniques while the other left with Dr. Connor to learn how to cast foot prints and tire tracks. It was a relatively simple procedure. We mixed a plaster like substance (not plaster though) with water and simply poured the mixture into the box fence that had been placed around the print that we were interested in casting. We had to leave before it was hard enough to lift, so Dr. Connor said that she would cover them with plastic for us in order to protect them so that we can lift them the next time we head out to the field. The casting reminded me of my Museum Studies lab class from my undergrad at CMU. We made replicas of objects such as leaves, mushrooms, and frogs. We used plaster extensively that semester.  The substance that we used with the prints today actually heated up just like plaster. Update on the meat we left outside: Today there were still the same kinds of green flies on the entomological specimen with the black dots identified as fly egg locations, plus an ant and a an insect that I know as a pill bug. When we looked closely we saw the beginnings of baby maggots.  How cute... Personally, I am looking forward to the morning. We will be having the whole day devoted to studying osteology... my favorite!!!

Courtney runs the GPR over a disturbed area in the ground looking for anomolies to show up on the screen.

Friday, June 23
Today was osteology day.  We met in Burt Hall for the entire day with Jeri Myers.  She helped us to delve deeper into our studies of human bones.  She explained how we get identification information from a set of human remains.  Some of the info you can get include finding out the person's ethnic ancestry, age, statue, sex, trauma and even hints to his or her former occupation. 

Our first hands-on task was to arrange an entire skeleton in anatomical order.  Parts such as the skull and long bones were easy to place.  I realized that I need to brush up on siding bones.  The
hardest part by far was placing ribs in the correct order.  There are true ribs, false ribs and floating ribs.  It is important to remember to estimate
ancestry before sexing an individual as different populations have different characteristics.  For example, in India, the sexual dimorphism is not as
pronounced as it would be here in America.  Another handy piece of information is that people tend to over report and under report their heights on documents such as driver's licenses.  This may help someone's
self esteem to exaggerate their height or vise versa, but when you think about it, it is not that good of an idea.  If by chance you had a mishap and died and you became an unknown body, when the investigator estimated your height and concluded it to be in the range of 5'1" to 5'4'' when you are 5'3'', and you reported your height as 5'6'', it would be more likely for them to dismiss you as a match. 

After lunch we continued with our osteology lessons.  We first practiced estimating sex, stature, age, and ancestry on a cast skeleton using tools such as calipers and protractors.  We then got to work with two real life cases.  My group ended up inventorying at least two individuals of prehistoric times.  Again, the ribs proved to be the most tedious of bones to inventory (we had to side them and attempt to put them in order while keeping in mind that there were at least two individuals).  The other group also had at least two individuals that they worked with. 

Epie, Gina, Cara, Anthony look over their case.

Later on in the evening we got together in the lobby of the dorms and watched Hotel Rwanda.  It is a very powerful and pretty accurate portrayal of the recent genocide in Rwanda.  Dr. Connor worked right where the movie took place.  A line that Joaquin Phoenix says in the movie really shames me because it is so true and I along with virtually everybody else in the United States is guilty of.  About the genocides in Africa being broadcast in the news, "People will say, 'Oh my God, that's terrible!' and they will go on eating their dinners."  We have these lives that we take for granted here in the home of the free.  We are so self absorbed that we may hear about these terrible things going on in the world, but once the TV turns off, so apparently does the violence and wars.  We need to recognize this in order to change anything. 

After the movie Dr. Connor shared some of her experiences with us and we learned a little bit more about the history of the Hutus and the Tutsis.  We discussed how media can have a huge impact on people and their perspectives of the world around them.  Media really helps to spread paranoia.  I suggest to everyone to see this movie and to read up on this event and others like it around the world.  The comment was also made that the movie was not nearly graffic enough (strange comment, huh).  It was a powerful movie, but some may not get the whole picture about what happened to the countless amounts of people murdered.  Men, women, and children were eliminated in an attempt to wipe out the next generations.  Machetes and pangas were some of the main weapons used.  Bodies litered the streets.  Most of us can only imagine, and most of us choose not to.  How selfish and indifferent can we be? 

Update on entomological specimen:  We did not visit the field today, however Dr. Connor reported that our baby maggots are healthy and happy, and growing in size.  Yay!  Today was our last day of class for a couple days.  Tomorrow we are going on trips to get us off campus.  Some people are going to the zoo, and some are heading downtown.  Some of us might try our luck at geocaching.  Whatever we choose to do, we will all definitely have an awesome adventure!

Saturday, June 24

Sunday, June 25
Yep. Slept in.  Til noon.  Wow, I am beat.  I totally missed breakfast.  I found out at lunch that only one person showed up for breakfast.  I felt bad for the poor cafeteria people that had to wake up way early, cook food, and have only one person show up.  So I made it a point to make it to lunch.  Today is very laid back.  No appointments, no commitments or obligations... just relaxation.  I walked to Walgreens so I could stock up on bathroom supplies and camera film.  On the way back to the dorms I wandered about, taking pictures of the crime house, the cafeteria and the squirrels that think they have right-of-way.  My hand turned into a two-minute chew toy as I chatted with the guardian of a Japanese husky dog. 

I made my way back to the dorm and was invited to join some of the group in having dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  I decided I wanted to go, but I didn't want to spend money, so  I ate dinner in the cafeteria and walked with Kate, Jackie, Jen, Anthony and BJ down past Walgreens to the restaurant.  We were all anticipating our Mexican meal, especially Jen.  As we neared the building, we read "Mexican Food!  Grand Opening July 1st!"  We were like "Sweet, ok, now what?"  We continued to walk down the road, bypassing Wendy's, McDonald's, Pop-Eyes and Taco John's<---(Taco JOHN'S? lol).  We came upon an Outback Steakhouse, and it was unanimous.  Since I had already eaten, I ordered a Lolly Sour Apple Martini.  They brought me some sort of crazy orange sour berry drink.  I asked for an 'actual apple martini' after I finished their first attempt.  I have to say, I definitely like Applebee's Appletini's better. 

After dinner we trekked back to campus with a short pit stop at Walgreen's.  I had to run; I was late for a date.  A date with Harry Potter!  lol.  I met Jaclyn and Courtney in the lounge and watched TV for a while.  After the show,  I dyed my hair, showered, and went to bed.  I am so exhausted and we have to be up early tomorrow for an actual archaeological field exercise.

Monday, June 26
This morning I was dead to the world.  I slept through my alarm so I had only about 15 minutes to get dressed and run to the cafeteria.  After shoveling some food into my tummy I ran out to the van. 

Today was the day that we spent with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln archaeology students.  The site that we worked on was actually a section of the Oregon Trail.  We drove out to Beaver Crossing which is about 30-40 minutes away from Nebraska Wesleyan University.  We had to drive a little ways into the fields in order to reach the site that the UNL students were excavating.  We had to go through a couple gates, one of which was the most interesting gate I've ever encountered.  It was basically a couple barbed wires strung across a few feet attaching to a couple posts.  It was a very rickety flimsy looking thing.  Anyway, we drove through and found the site. 

UNL Professor Paul Demers first introduced us to the site.  He gave us a short tour around the area that was once used as a 'rest area' for traveler's of the Oregon Trail. We split into three groups and worked along side the UNL students.  I was first shown how to sift.  I had to balance the sifter on my hip and break up the large dirt chunks that are part of the pile of soil dumped onto the screen.  The next step is to rock the sifter back and forth at a good pace in order to get some of the looser dirt to fall through leaving only the bigger pieces behind.  The chunks are then rolled by hand and slowly crumble and fall through the screen.  The clay-like soil got harder to work with the longer it was exposed to the heat and sun (as opposed to a more sand-like soil that would not clump up so easily).  Objects of importance remain because they cannot slip through the 1/4'' screen.  Artifacts that were being found at this site included bits of (animal) bone, metal, glass and ceramic.  Sometimes they would find more interesting artifacts such as utensils.  I personally found a piece of metal, a piece of bottle glass, and a black glass bead. 

After sifting for a while it was time for lunch.  Our awesome NWU cafeteria staff had packed us lunches.  We all pulled up empty buckets or popped a squat on the ground and hoped that the ticks didn't fancy us for their lunch.  After we ate it was back to work.  We had a pretty mild day.  I was nervous about the heat, but it was partially cloudy and we had a breeze.  The UNL students said that they had already been at it for seven weeks, and yes, we lucked out on weather.  I spent the rest of the day shoveling the dirt that was headed for the sifters.  We had to take the pits down by layers.  The first layer of sod taken out was 5 cm.  We took the next layer down 10 cm (15 cm total).  I mainly worked on the next level, down to 25 cm.  I do not have the upper body strength and shovel skills needed for this kind of work (yet). 

Epie had grown up on a farm and taught me how to use my shovel (how embarrassing).  I held the shovel correctly, however I had been making a mess.  I was getting the dirt out all right, but instead of skimming the surface little by little (evenly), I was making a mini pit, and another mimi pit and so on.  Our pit was pretty rough for a while.  My pit buddy Bill and I chatted while moving the soil out of the hole. 

Another skill we were taught was how to level the pit.  Stakes were in each of the four corners.  String was attached to them and traced the perimeter of the pit.  We could stretch the long end of the string from one stake and pull it over across the pit.  We could then place a ruler vertical into the hole and perpendicular to the string.  This allowed us to measure how deep the pit was and to see if the depth was uniform on different sides of the pit.  For example, the corner of the pit dug by Bill was where it was supposed to be (25 cm) and mine was only about 18 cm deep.  This showed where the pit was sloping, which helped us to see where the pit should be left alone and which sides may need more attention. 

I got to see my first tick today.  There was one on Paul's shoulder.  They look like little crab-like insects... I hope I get through this week without my own tick encounter.  Another thing that we learned was how laid back digging with the others was.  Even professional archaeologists are not always formal and proper.  I cracked up when there was a small discovery in our pit.  Paul came running over and asked what was found.  The UNL student's response was something to the effect of "Some broken-ass shit".  Paul's question was, "Ok, what is the technical term for that?"  Answer: "Uh, fragmented ceramic..."  I was laughing all day at the memory of that conversation. 

At about 3:30, it was time to pack up.  Bill and I grabbed up the tools that were around our pit and the guys took the tent down.  They only had one more week left at this site.  We piled into the van and drove back to Lincoln.  Courtney called 'shotgun' on the showers.  After we washed, our showers were blackened by all of the dirt and dust that had accumulated on our bodies throughout the day at the pits.  We were all pretty beat after such a long active day.  We watched some TV and caught up with our e-mail.  I had an awful allergy attack that started earlier in the night so I ended up going to bed about an hour earlier than I normally had been on this trip.

Tuesday, June 27
I woke this morning still suffering from allergies.  I forced myself to roll out of bed and made it to class right on time.  The morning's topics were grave location and excavation techniques.  We discussed things to look for while attempting to locate graves visually (color, depressions, cracks, vegetation changes...)  Melissa and Doug took us outside to identify soil samples.  We had a cheat sheet that explained how to tell the difference between sand, clay, and loam.  The mulch samples we had did not work so well, so we grabbed a handful of Nebraska Weselyan campus soil.  Since a few steps had us add water, it was a pretty muddy experiment.  We went back inside and discussed excavation methods.  Before we got into the PowerPoint lecture, Dr. Connor and Dr. Scott gave us pointers on what to and not to include in personal statements for admissions into jobs and grad schools.  Tip:  Do NOT include how you are an avid fan of CSI (please refer to my blog entry for Tues, June 20, 2006).  Another reason we discussed CSI being fake forensics was the actual cases themselves.  We noticed how they almost always chose adult victims, and they were almost always killed off at the beginning (or they were a jerk anyway) so there is no emotional attachment to the victim.  Also, bodies are not neat, pretty, and perfectly colored and intact!  They bloat, they smell, and they fall apart (among other more graphic conditions left out in this blog).  So we had our discussion on grave excavation techniques. 

Dr. Connor shared a case and a video about a murder of a child.  They moved tons and tons of trash in a landfill looking for a 35 lb boy.  They never found him.  He was the first case in Nebraska where someone was convicted of murder without the body being found.  There prosecution argued that a boy that small that lost so much blood could not possibly be alive.  It is unbelievable how many sick individuals are out there. 

Melissa Connor explains the role of taphonomic studies to the class.

We had more discussion about taphonomy today also.  We saw a PowerPoint on mass graves and more pig decomp research.  We got a sneak preview of what our pig-in-a-bag might hold for us tomorrow.  Looks like it may be quite the nasty pile of goo.  More on that tomorrow.  We watched a video called True Stories: The Grave.  It was about a mass grave in Croatia.  It showed the archaeologists and the families of the victims.  I thought it was interesting in the end.  All throughout the video, it showed family members talking about their loved ones as if they were still alive and imprisoned somewhere.  I've heard stories about how families were grateful for anthropologists coming in to identify the victims and give the families some peace and closure.  The women of this community were not happy with the dead being disturbed.  They did not want to know the truth.  I understand that it would be difficult, but in their denial, they turned away the bodies of their loved ones.  They refused to believe that the pile of bones they recieved was once their husbands, fathers, and sons.  They opposed the excavations, but they did use and keep up the memorial made to the victims of the massacre.  During lecture, we discussed more factors that could alter remains in a grave (rodents, carnivores, excavation damage, root etching...).

It is interesting that bodies in a mass grave create their own microenvironment.  The bodies on the outside of the mass are more likely to skeletonize, while the inside, more protected bodies saponify, keeping much of their tissue.  Care must be taken while removing the bodies.  They tend to be tangled within each other and limbs may detach from the bodies.  As soon as the buried bodies are exposed, they begin to decay further and so must be stored in cooler temperatures as soon as possible. 

After our dinner of cheese quesadillas, we took a trip downtown to check out Jazz in June at UNL.  Every Tuesday in June jazz musicians come to play while vendors sell their wares.  There was a lot of glass jewelry and exotic foods.  I admit, I am not a huge jazz fan, but it was relaxing to walk around campus amid the people lounging around on the grass.  Dogs were everywhere; there were Chihuahuas, Irish wolf hounds, and dogs in wheely-walkers, the equivalent of a human wheelchair, but for dogs (it's back legs were bad).  Jaclyn and I walked around the entire time while most of the others headed off to take advantage of 99 cent margaritas.  We ran into Paul Demers again (the head archaeologist from the dig the day before).  A lot of us are feeling exhausted.  At night, some of us play cards (Uno) while others read, watch TV, or relax by getting lost in the internet.  Honestly, this blogging takes a lot of my time in which I could be reading or napping or going out, but I have learned through my various travel experiences that it is awesome to have some sort of journal written.  You don't realize how much you actually forget about some amazing experiences you have.  I've learned to balance going on adventures with recording my adventures.  It does take some time and dedication, but I know it will be worth it in a few months, years, and even decades to come. 

Wednesday, June 28

Today is pig day!  I pulled myself out of bed and got decked out in digging gear.  Work boots, gloves, long sleeves and legs, and a hat or bandana help to shield a person from sun and bugs.  A nice pair of overalls would have been nice; I would have been more able to lay down on the ground without worrying about ticks and fire ants.  But first things first. 

When we arrived, we first checked up on our previous projects.  Our entomological specimen was very black.  Melissa reported that the day before it had housed a few very large maggots.  Various bugs were still very much interested in the rancid piece of meat.  We also lifted our casts that we had made last week.  They were pretty nice, if a little dirty.  That wasn't difficult to take care of.  The whisk brush removed both the excess dirt/vegetation and the nests of pill bugs. 

We were broken up into three groups.  Jaclyn opted to work on the plastic human skeleton while two groups (of 4 & 5) separated in order to excavate two pig burial sites.  One grave was set back into the weeds and we tried to locate from Dr. Connor's notes where the pig in the bag was (we ended up not finding it).  I worked with the latter group.  I first probed the suspected area with a thin pole.  This technique is used to find where the soil is hard, and where it is soft (which helps to indicate the outline of the burial).  We set up our site using spikes, measuring tape, string and patience.  Once we had a 2X2 meter square around the grave site, we began to lift the sod layer.  Of course all of our actions were recorded and a map was started.  We took the dirt and used the sifter over a piece of tarp.  Our grave was interesting... the dirt of the sides of the suspect spot were very loose yet in the middle of the grave the soil was very dense. 

After a while of digging around and down and not finding any signs of a grave (other than a couple loose bones) we began to wonder.  We should have seen a change in the color of the soil.  We should have been smelling decomp.  We should have found something.  We used the probe again to see if perhaps our outline was a bit off.  Nope.  We got the same results.  We decided to concentrate our digging in one spot of the grave in hopes of finding something deeper down.  Jackpot.  We hit something solid, something white, something rubber.  It appeared to be the sole of a shoe.  NEVER say anything as a fact.  Always use words such as seem to be, appears to be, may be, like, consistent with.... this helps to keep you out of hot water (and your credibility) if later findings suggest something other than your initial ideas and statements. 

Gina and Cara work on their pig.

Our find was in perfect timing, because it was now time for lunch.  Dr. Connor is awesome!  She made us cookies!  Chocolate chip, AND peanut butter cookies were laid out for us throughout the day.  

Since we had found something in the grave, we were excited to head back out and continue our excavation.  As we uncovered objects, we tried to work our way up/down the skeleton.  We found items in the grave other than bone.  We found red cord and lots of decayed fabric.  It is interesting... natural fibers decay pretty quickly while it seems that synthetic fibers take forever.  For example, the clothes of a buried person would look very different after the natural fibers decay.  Thread of the sleeves and collars of a t-shirt might remain, but the 'shirt' is long gone.  Same with underwear.  The actual 'underwear' is gone, but the elastic part of the waist and legs remain.  They turn into string-like rings around the body.  We found that in our grave, the tags also did not decay.  We could even read the brand and size (Fruit of the Loom, Sz 6).  We found a lot of fibers, a knife through the eye socket, 4 rubber gloves, one yellow condom, a target bag and other red cord that may have been used as a ligature.  We also uncovered a beaded necklace.  We had most of our body and artifacts pedestalled when it was time to pack up.  We took care of our tools and laid a tarp over the grave.  We will have to finish in the morning.  The body was so skeletonized that we did not worry much about a coyote or other animal dragging away our evidence. 

After we got back and showered, Dr. Connor and Dr. Scott invited us to dinner.  They took us to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant.  It was delicious!  I had green tea and two servings of my own made up recipes (shrimp and crab!).  Thank you!  You two are awesome! 

I am getting sad... I realize that in just one and a half days we will be gone, never to be this group again.  I love traveling, having adventures and meeting wonderful people... but there comes the time when we must separate and continue with the lives we had at home.  I have met some wonderful friends: fun-loving, intelligent, curious people.  Before I go to bed tonight, I'm going to go hang out with Jaclyn and Courtney in the lobby of our dorms.  Oh!  I must add one highlight of my day.  Jackie and Kate played with my hair on the way back from dinner.  I know it sounds silly, but I love people playing with my hair, and no one has done it in a long time.  It is sooo relaxing.  Tomorrow is another early morning, so I am going to attempt to get 8 hours of sleep tonight.  We'll see how well I do with this goal. 

Thursday, June 29

Well, I got about 7.5 hours of sleep... that's close. I ended up watching TV with Courtney and Jaclyn. I got to play with Jaclyn's hair like the girls did for me yesterday. Social grooming, how relaxing. :) So we got up this morning to go finish our pig excavations. Gina had awful allergies so she stayed behind and gave us a jump start on our court presentation preparations. (Fun Fact: Nebraska's state flower is Goldenrod). Anthony, Epie, and I only had a small amount of work left with our site. We finished brushing off excess dirt and we mapped out the mystery cord that stuck out of the ground a little ways from the grave. I finished mapping out the locations of the grave artifacts and we were basically finished. We did not lift the body because Dr. Connor planned to reuse the graves for future students. Let me reword that, she wanted other students to be able to benefit from learning how to excavate the graves just as we had had a chance to do.

After rearranging the grave artifacts and filling the hole once again, we waited for the other group to finish with their area. When they were satisfied that they had collected all of the possible information from the grave we all grabbed a shovel and filled their hole. These now will be secondary burials (rather than primary burials) as we had disturbed the bodies. We went back to NWU for showers and lunch.

We met back in Burt Hall in order to put together our information and start getting into expert witness mode. Another reason we did not remove the bodies from the graves was that since they were non-human, they would not have served us any useful information. If it were human, we could use measurements and distinct shapes and marks on the bones in order to narrow down possible identification. Pig bones cannot compare to these calculations used in real missing person cases so we were given measurements as if the bodies were human and had already been looked at and the findings had been documented. We were given a stack of missing people reports and a stack of information pertaining to our 'body'. We once again calculated stature, age, ethnicity and sex. There were two possible people that matched the information observed about our body. Only one of them, however, was within all of the probable ranges (stature and age), so we chose her as our missing lady.

Dr. Connor introduced us to the court room. We discussed who is in the court room and what role they play. She informed us that we would be practicing our roles as expert witnesses. She warned us to have three things ready for when it was our turn to take the stand. 1. Credentials (we got to make these up) 2. Methods 3. Findings. Since Gina was leaving this night, it was down to three in my group. Epie, Anthony and I discussed among ourselves what roles we had in the excavation. We decided that Epie would be the Chief Archaeologist, Anthony the Medical Examiner, and I the Evidence Technician. This night many of us got together to go over our cases. We had to make sure that we all knew exactly what was going on, as we would not be allowed to be in the room together when each gave their testimony. This was a somewhat stressful night. We had to come up with our credentials, try our best to memorize our case and make sure that our information matched with the other members of our groups.

This was also our last night here in Nebraska. Gina had already left. The rest of us spent the night packing, studying, and getting ready to say goodbye. I can't believe that two weeks has gone by already... I actually think I'd stay another week. Time has gone by so fast. I am thankful because this has been such a wonderful experience... and I am sad. I will miss Nebraska and this beautiful campus. I will miss Dr. Connor and Dr. Scott. They were amazing people to work with and learn from. I will miss the group. The people I've lived with, studied with, ate with, explored with, and befriended. What an adventure we all have had! ...an experience that I will never forget.

Friday, June 30

This morning I woke early in order to make sure that I had my stuff packed, the place picked up and myself ready to go.

We all met in Burt Hall for the last time. It was time for court. BJ's group went first. Jeri Myers acted as our judge. Dr. Scott was the prosicution lawyer and Dr. Connor acted as the defense lawyer. After being sworn in to Judge Myer's Cock-eyed Court, the questions began. It was easy to answer Dr. Scott's questions. When it was Melissa's turn, though, watch out. She caught your mistakes whether on legalities or slips of the tongue. She twisted words and tried to make us less credible. Boy, did it work on most of us.

When it was my turn to testify, she tore my credentials to shreds. I figured that that was the best thing to get caught up on though, seeing as those were the facts that I had to make up. Were it a real trial and I were a real expert witness, I would have the credentials and know them intimately. If I didn't have what was needed, I wouldn't be on the stand anyway. It turned out that Kate and Anthony were the King and Queen of Expert Testimony. They knew their case and seemed both confident and knowledable. They would have none of the defenses attempts to discredit them. We discussed the results after all had had a chance to testify. It was also time to fill out comment cards about out experiences at NWU. Most of us agreed that if anything, the field school should be longer. We all enjoyed the various topics introduced to us and would have loved to learned even more here in Nebraska.

BJ had to catch his flight first, so we wrapped up class and had our last lunch together. It was weird walking out of the cafeteria this day... I knew that it was the last time that I would see many of the faces that had become so familiar to me. Melissa and Scott granted us one last favor. They transported us to the airport in groups depending on our departure schedules.

After saying farewell to Courtney and Kate (they both had later flights), I hopped into the van along with Jaclyn, Jackie and Jen. At the airport we thanked Dr. Scott. We checked our luggage and headed to our separate terminals. Jackie was scheduled on the same flight that I had (to Minneapolis). We sat at the gate and chatted a while. When we landed in Minneapolis, we met again and grabbed a quick bite before saying goodbye. She ordered a Paul Bunyan (burger) and I ordered a chicken finger platter (mmmm, fried, processed chicken....) Her flight left soon after; I had a four hour layover. I talked with Jaclyn over the phone while we were both waiting for our connecting flights in separate airports. I made it home by midnight, tired yet extremely satisfied with my two week adventure in Lincoln, Nebraska.