Yeneth Renteria holds the screen while Karisa Smathers unloads a soil sample from the auger.
As CSUCI workers improve the campus for the future, an archaeology team of undergraduates keeps a watch on the past.
Every time a spade hits the dirt for a construction project, the Cultural Resource Management Team supervised by Professor of Anthropology Colleen Delaney makes sure buried historic artifacts or other remnants of regional history are protected.
A student searches through soil for artifacts or evidence of human activities.
“We’ve found shells, some beads, buttons from some of the Camarillo Hospital patients, old medicine bottles — lots of colored glass,” said senior Anthropology major Daniela Valenzuela. “When we find something, we take it back to the lab where it has to be catalogued, measured, weighed and placed in a bag with a note about where and how it was found.”
The team was formed in 2021 to train students in archaeology while helping the University comply with laws mandating that cultural resources be protected. Delaney said it could be the only undergraduate archaeology team of its kind in the nation.