Fair offers chance to dig

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

There are now 45 declared anthropology majors at YSU.

CANFIELD — Jacob Dombrowski crouched near a bed of dirt, sifting through the soil until he found what he was looking for and held it up triumphantly.

“Just like Indiana Jones,” said the 8-year-old with a skull in his hands.

He didn’t make his discovery in a faraway land, but at the Canfield Fair. The anthropology department at Youngstown State University is providing a simulated archaeological dig at the university’s tent through today.

The “SimDig” is a wooden 30-inch-square box that, when filled with dirt, weighs about 250 pounds. Artifacts such as pottery shards, plastic bones and one real skull remain hidden in the box until unearthed by brooms and trowels.

This dig model is a miniature version of the 1-meter-square box that Dr. Matt O’Mansky’s archaeology students have to use for a final project at YSU. A meter is about 39.5 inches.

Having the more portable dig enables O’Mansky to take it to places such as the fair and local schools.

“I want to tell the kids in this area that they can be archaeologists, but they need to go to college to get there,” O’Mansky said. “Once they’re in college, I hope they stick with it, but if not, at least they’re already in college.”

Archaeology, the study of past societies through material artifacts, is a subfield in anthropology, along with linguistics, cultural and biological anthropology. There are now 45 declared anthropology majors at YSU.

The dig was gathering a lot of attention Saturday as children lined up to find clues to the past in the dirt.

“We can’t even finish putting the bones back in the dirt before the next group comes along,” said Edwina Baier, a senior YSU anthropology major.

Baier is among a dozen local anthropology students who have volunteered to help run the SimDig.

“When we’re on a real dig, we work in marked boxes or pits, so it’s set up just like we set up real sites. We use some of the same tools they have here, like brooms and trowels,” Baier said.

The chance to get dirty was what caught the attention of a few passing children.

“He’s having a blast,” said Jeannette Dombrowski, Jacob’s mother, of Austintown. “He loves digging and playing in the mud.”

Dombrowski added that her son likes the Indiana Jones movies and sometimes dresses as the main character, complete with toy whip.

After digging for 10 minutes and finding another skull, Joseph Winters, 5, of Knox, Pa., was tired.

“I want to sit down,” he said, handing the skull back to Baier, who set it on a pile of collected finds from Winters’ dig.

“It’s been fun,” Baier said. “It’s great to see them excited about the different bone parts and archaeology in general.”