The Sixth Annual Ohio Archaelogy Symposium

Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology

The Sixth Annual Ohio Archaeology Symposium

This past November, Cleveland State University (CSU) hosted the Sixth Annual Ohio Archaeology Symposium. Dr. Phil Wanyerka––SeniorCollege Lecturer in the Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology at CSU––started the symposium back in 2013 as a way of highlighting CSU’sarchaeology program as well as the archaeology scene in northeast Ohio. These annual symposiums are free and bring local archaeologists from around the Greater Cleveland area together for an afternoon for lively discussions and presentations on their recent archaeological discoveries. This year’s symposium featured two CSU faculty members and one student presenter.

With more than 80 people in attendance, the program began with an illustrated lecture by Dr. Wanyerka entitled Where the Earth Meets the Sky: Recent Archaeological Investigations at the Fort Hill Earthwork Complex. Wanyerka has been conducting archaeological investigations for the past three years at the only known prehistoric earthwork complex located in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. His investigations, as part of CSU annual archaeological field school program, have made some remarkable discoveries revealing that the earthwork was first constructed around 356 BC by an Early Woodland culture known as the Adena. Other discoveries discussed featured possible ritual and astronomical uses for the earthwork itself as well as plans using geophysical methods for exploring different areas of the site.

The second lecture of the day was by CSU anthropology major and now recent graduate, Michael Dodrill. His lecture was entitled Archaeological Investigations along the Lower Lake Trail, Richfield Heritage Preserve, Summit County, Ohio. Michael was the lead teaching assistant and project cartographer for the summer field school as well as a recipient of an Undergraduate Summer Research Award. His talk featured CSU’s archaeological investigations of the Lower Lake Trail, a 30,000 square meter area of the Richfield Heritage Preserve, located in Summit County. Michael chronicled this past summer’s excavations, which were aimed at exploring, surveying, and inventorying this section of the 3336-acre preserve to better understand and define both the history and prehistory of the park. The cultural material artifacts recovered by CSU will be used to assist the park in their continued assessment and interpretation of the archaeological and cultural resources located within this park.

Finally, the last lecture of the day was presented by Peter Dunham, Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology at CSU. Dr. Dunham’s talk entitled Imagery and Identity: The Archaeology of a Costa Rican Banknote highlighted his recent research on how archaeological imagery was used to help reinforce the indigenous foundations of Costa Rican national identity. This lavishly illustrated talk focused on the extraordinary odyssey of a beautiful pottery vessel that is featured on the front of a banknote, from its original discovery in the 1930s, through its disappearance in the antiquities market in the 1950s, to its eventual reemergence at the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum.