Undergraduate students studying anthropology can enjoy a rare opportunity each summer - the chance to travel overseas and excavate a Copper-Age farming village in the mountains of Hungary.
The coveted field experience that can be so instrumental after graduation is provided by three men and the National Science Foundation.
Three years ago, Richard Yerkes, an associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State, received a call from a colleague, William Parkinson.
"Parkinson didn't have a job, and I was between jobs, and he called and said 'Hey, want to go to Hungary?'" Yerkes said.
The two joined forces with Attila Gyucha, prehistorian and curator at the Múnkacsy Mihály Múseum in Békéscaba, Hungary.
The professors spent 10 weeks over the summer in Europe and found the experience so rewarding they applied for and received grants to fund an annual field school to the site.
The grant pays for airfare, accommodation and meals, which makes this school unique. Most field schools and opportunities for students to assist in research and participate in excavations can cost thousands of dollars.
Thanks to Gyucha, the project has been able to keep expenses low by staying in a local school gymnasium and storing findings in Gyucha's museum. Yerkes and Parkinson forfeit taking a salary from the grant, which allows more students to participate.
"It gives you an opportunity that you might not have had otherwise, financially," said Robert Tate, a senior in archaeology who participated in the school last summer. "It was an exceptional experience. A very rare opportunity for an undergrad."
The school encourages students to focus on individual research and several students, including Tate, have had their research published in national science journals.
Students receive 12 graded credit hours for their participation and the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with a variety of technology. Students are also afforded the chance to become engrossed in another culture and to expose themselves to politics and society in rural Europe.
The students are encouraged to write about their research and publish their findings.
The group will not be heading overseas this summer. Because the previous groups brought back so many artifacts, this summer will be used to study and catalogue the findings.
"If we want to publish results, we have to know what we found," Yerkes said.
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