Caylee Pallatto ’21
- 2020s
On the first day of class, Professor Elizabeth Minor declared that the field of archaeology wasn’t like an Indiana Jones movie. My naïve enthusiasm was quickly replaced by uncertainty. Did I make a grave mistake choosing Introduction to Archaeology as one of my courses?
The class culminated in the inaugural season of the Wellesley College Hall Archaeology Project, an archaeological dig in Tower Court to excavate remains from the 1914 College Hall fire. Professor Minor led the class in all aspects of the dig – surveying the site, establishing a grid, excavating our selected units, and logging any artifacts we discovered. No artifact was considered insignificant, including a gum wrapper I unearthed from my assigned unit on our initial excavation day.
This project was the first of many hands-on learning experiences which set my education at Wellesley apart from others. How many people can list “archaeological dig” on their resume?
