DIG IT! PATIENCE IS TRULY A VIRTUE AT FIELD SCHOOL

WICKLIFFE, Ky. Archaeologists and students from three universities are working to piece together an ancient Indian village here by removing dirt about a teaspoon at a time.

Southeast Missouri State University has joined with Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and Murray State University to offer a field school this summer for anthropology students, in addition to further study Wickliffe Mounds.

This weekend, an open house is being held at the archaeology site. On Saturday, students were excavating and answering questions.

In addition, craftsmen were working at the site, displaying ancient arts like flint knapping, finger weaving and leather tanning.

Students, who normally work Monday through Friday, will have a day off today. However, the demonstrating craftsmen will be working and the sites permanent exhibits will be open today.

Carla Hagen of Sikeston, a junior at Southeast majoring in cultural anthropology, said Saturday, "It's hard, hard work, moving dirt from one spot to another by the teaspoonful."

She said when someone come upon an object in the dirt, an arrowhead or a bone, the work then proceeds with dental instruments and a brush.

"It's very meticulous work and requires a lot of patience," Hagen said. But patience pays off.

"One day I was troweling along and came across a beautiful arrowhead. It was kind of exciting. When any one of us finds something it's very exciting," she said.

For years, the site at Wickliffe was called the "Ancient Buried City," a combination tourist attraction and museum. In the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of artifacts, including many human skeletons, were unearthed and placed on display. Skeletal replicas are on exhibit now.

Kit Wesler, a professor and archaeologist from Murray State University, directs study of the prehistoric Indian village.

"We took it over in 1983 and what we had was a whole slew of artifacts that had been excavated in the 1930s," Wesler said. "We have been excavating to re-evaluate what was done in the '30s. As you can imagine, archaeology has changed quite a bit since the '30s."

New excavation work is under way to determine the boundaries of a cemetery at the site.

Wesler said excavation at the Wickliffe Mounds will continue for two or three more years. "Then we will preserve the site. As we look ahead 50 years, we can assume that archaeology techniques will be that much better," he said.

Carol Morrow, archaeologist at Southeast Missouri State University, explained that the three universities have joined forces and formed a regional research consortium, called Middle Mississippi Survey.

Pooling resources also provides a variety of expertise. Morrow is an archivist. Professor Patrice Teltser of SIU-Carbondale specializes in survey work and Welser specializes in excavation.

"We are focusing on archaeological research in Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky," Morrow said. "The Mississippian Indian culture thrived from 900 to 1300 A.D. This area was just a hotbed of cultural activity. It was just heavily populated with Mississippian Indian villages. There are thousands of sites."

Over 20 students from the three schools are participating in this summer's field school, seven of them from Southeast.

As a result of the new alliance, the field school includes two types of field work, the excavation and also survey work.

In the survey phase of the school, students are walking fields in Southeast Missouri around Charles~ton and Sikeston looking for potential excavation sites.

Brad Eftink of Marble Hill, a senior commercial art major at Southeast, said he is interested in majoring in anthropology also.

"It's something I've been interested in since I was little hunting arrowheads," he said.

Eftink recently completed a two-week field survey around the Diehlstadt area in Southeast Missouri. "We saw a mound system bigger than this. It's cultivated with crops now, but we know it's there."

Morrow said: "I do the archives and records. My department has set me up with a nice computer program so that we can build a big research bibliography for the area."

She will utilize survey records done in the 1950s and add survey records collected this summer and in the future.

David Glick of High Ridge, a senior history major at Southeast, said, "Growing up, I always wanted to do archaeology. With a history major it seemed like a good idea."

Glick said he plans graduate studies in historic preservation, specifically archives.

"Rather than the research end, this experience is the hands-on end most people never see or do.

"To me, history is very important," Glick said. "But some people don't enjoy it. This open house is a chance to learn what's going on around you without much effort. You can get outside, bring your video camera and your kids and walk around."

The site is located on U.S. Highway 51 at the northern edge of Wickliffe, just a few miles south of Cairo, Ill., after crossing the Ohio River bridge.

The site will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and costs $3.50 for adults, $3.25 for adults 55 and older, $2.50 for children ages 6-11 and children under six are admitted free.

(Some information for this story was provided by Staff Writer Mark Bliss.)