PANAMA CITY — Gulf Coast State College students are learning the best way to learn about shovel tests or grid patterns is to actually go out and do it.
Since Feb. 14, 19 students in Assitant Professor Jason Wenzel’s archaeology class have been conducting digs in the parking lot next to Panama City Marine Institute. The goal was to find artifacts related to the two former hotels at that location — Panama Hotel, 1912 to 1929 when it burned down, and the Edgewater Hotel, 1933 to 1970, which was demolished. The students have uncovered items like shards of porcelain plates decorated with flowers, and porcelain wire protectors along with more innocuous items like brick.
“We did nothing but find brick,” student Leslie Thompson said. “There’s enough brick for a whole new building.”-
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As a bit of a welcome surprise, the students did find arrow heads and pottery shards that were prehistoric among the items from the old hotel. These discoveries confirm Wenzel’s hypothesis that while the sites might be different — the UF doctoral student had his first dig at Mayan ruins in Belize — the techniques remain the same. For all of the students in the class, the digs are their first experience in the field.
“It’s learning the basic procedures of archaeology,” Wenzel said. “It gives students a chance to get out in the community.”
One tenant of the discipline is that archaeologists will spend five hours in the lab to every one hour at a dig site. On Thursday, students cleaned their finds with a toothbrush, a bowl of water and a colendar. They did not think of it as less glamorous because it was still hands on.
“You definitely can not sleep through this class,” Cameron Boneta said.
“It’s nice to do what you’re studying,” Thompson added.
Any of the artifacts uncovered belong to AMI Kids — the current name for PCMI — but the alternative school will donate any finds to the Panama City Historical Society Museum. The digs are conducted in conjunction with the historical society and will continue through the semester. The public is invited to observe one of the digs on March 14.
Want To Go?
- What: archaeology dig
- When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., March 14
- Where: 200 E. Beach Drive, Panama City
- Details: Jason Wenzel, 850-769-1551
