Calcophones: Little bronze instruments made of coils found in wealthy female graves at Incoronata, Italy.
By Dr. Giulia Saltini Semerari, Research Affiliate at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan & Co-Director of Italy: Incoronata The plateau of Incoronata is ringed along its edges by a vast [...]
“Every archaeologist wishes that they could talk with people from the time period their site is set in; being able to actually do that was the most meaningful part of the entire field school for me.”
My name is Kylie Dillinger, and I’m a senior at the University of Denver majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Emergent Digital Practices. I attended an IFR field school in 2018 at the former [...]
What did IFR students find this year?
From Israel - Tel Abel Beth Maacah: “Here is a special find from our last excavation season at Abel Beth Maacah in Israel - a small ivory seal depicting a head [...]
The Gallina Phase: Hillbillies or Hippies?
By Gary Chandler, 2019 Field School Student from New Mexico: Puebloan Rebels of The Southwest Have you ever tried putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle? You eventually find one piece that doesn’t [...]
“I became the first person I knew to go to a field school, I had no idea what to expect.”
I’m Julian Gonzalez, a Psychology major and Anthropology minor studying at California State University, Los Angeles. When I expressed to my professor that I was interested in attending a field school, he immediately recommended [...]
Updates from the Field 2019
Summer is here, and our field season is in full swing! From museum studies to primatology to indigenous archaeology, IFR students are engaged in hands-on research around the world. Check out the following updates [...]
An Interview with Dr. Mark Harrison
Meet Dr. Mark E. Harrison, Ecologist at the Borneo Nature Foundationand Director of our Indonesia: Peat Ecology field school. The program is based in the Sebangau peat-swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo – the [...]
A reminder that being in the field involves so much more than just collecting data
Dear 2019 Arctic Viking Field School Students, As you are now preparing for your upcoming travel, I would like to take the opportunity to share a few words that will help to frame the significance [...]
An inside look at my internship with the IFR
My name is Marisa Saldaña, and I am a senior at the University of La Verne majoring in Communications with an emphasis in Public Affairs and minoring in Anthropology. I have always been interested [...]
A Day in the Life at Corral Redondo, Peru
[Traducción al español abajo] Last summer, the Corral Redondo Archaeology Project began its first season of a multidisciplinary effort to reexamine the previously excavated site of Corral Redondo, near the town of La Victoria [...]
Drawing in the Margins: Painting A Fuller Picture of The Ancient Southwest
The Gallina people inhabited an area of high elevations with inaccessible mesas, razorback ridges, and deep canyons (Photo 1). This rugged landscape was one of the reasons early archaeologists called them “isolated,” “backwards,” or even [...]
From Primates to Plants: Forest Ecology in the Rungan
Receive $300 off the tuition for the Indonesia: Rungan Forest Ecology Field School for applying by 5pm Pacific Standard Time on March 15th, 2019. From the beginning of July until last week we have been [...]
Wexford Town, Ireland: Not Just an Anglo-Norman Site… Also A Viking Stomping Ground!
Students are drawn to our Carrick field school for a whole host of reasons – including the opportunity to work within an outdoor museum and live in homestay accommodations making familial connections to Ireland. However, [...]
Connecting the Disciplinary Dots in Field Research
From primate behavior to artificial intelligence to human cognition, we covered the gamut with Evolutionary Anthropologist and Cognitive Psychologist, Dr. Chris Krupenye. When we talk to prospective students about IFR field schools, we frequently encounter [...]
What did IFR students find this year?
From Israel - Tel Abel Beth Maacah: “This bearded male figure head made of faience (a kind of glass derivative), with a decorated headband and distinct coiffure, is being held for [...]
Human Connection, Past and Present
I’ve been working with community members in Dos Mangas since 2006. The community has steadily built an audience for ecotourism through careful management of their forest resources and investments in village infrastructure. Critical to these [...]
A Day Living and Working in the Forest
It’s 6:30am and the rustle of sleepy people and groans next to me confirms it’s time to get a move on to make sure I’m ready to pounce on breakfast before the good stuff disappears. [...]
A Perspective from an IFR Vera Campbell Scholarship Winner
Students who attend IFR field schools come from all walks of life and have unique reasons for joining a program. Some attend a field school in order to determine if archaeology is a career option. [...]
Communicating Through Action: Breaking Down the Language “Barrier”
The decision to study abroad is an adventurous and transformative one. You choose to leave your home – the place you are familiar with, the people who know you best, and the culture you [...]
The Border Trilogy
In the aftermath of Trumps executive order to separate illegal immigrant children from their parents on the U.S. – Mexico Border, the U.S. government is scrambling to reunite the families. The Wall Street Journal reported [...]
The Story of Amache: Security vs. Civil Rights
Sense of Place for the Displaced The Amache field school explores a location where Japanese immigrants to the US and their descendants were incarcerated at a time of international strife. We have primarily approached this [...]
Thinking Outside the Box
Mav·er·ick (/ˈmav(ə)rik), a noun, refers to an unorthodox or independent-minded person. Maverick Archaeologist, a pronoun, refers to scholars who are pushing the intellectual envelope of archaeology and changing the way we think and understand the [...]
Heading to the Capital!
Every year the IFR offers two SAA Travel Award scholarships, to give undergraduate students the opportunity to attend the most prestigious academic conference for archaeology in North America, the Society for American Archaeology. In addition to [...]
SAA Travel, Paper, and Poster Awards
Each year, thousands of archaeologists and students from around the world gather at the most important archaeology conference in the United States-- the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) annual meeting-- to share their most recent [...]
Thinking Big, Thinking Synthetic Archaeology
The IFR is proud to become an institutional partner of the new Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS). The CfAS is the outcome of a workshop held at the School for Advanced Research (Santa Fe, NM) [...]
New field school trains students in archaeology database creation
Archaeologists have been enthusiastic early adopters of digital technology. Much of the data presently collected in the field – from Total Station to remote sensing, images and analytical instrument output – is now born digital. [...]
Hot ‘n Sticky
It's getting warmer, so we're looking backwards Global temperatures are predicted to rise by anywhere from 2 to 6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. As our planet moves into a warmer future, [...]
The story of stuff, the story of us
“Rock and Stone: Material Culture and Cultures of Making” is a multidisciplinary field course that aims to study the natural resources of pre-Alpine mountains and its immediate surroundings. The theoretical question driving the program is [...]
Salvaging Heritage
Melting away the evidence One of the major themes of the Arctic Vikings Field School is to explore the long-term history of climatic change in Greenland and how people in the past adjusted to those [...]
Anthropowhat?
Is data on a vacation? As of late, climate change has been quite the raging topic among the heated…or rather, burning, polarization occurring in politics. What might be the most concerning is that data is [...]
Increasing College Tuition, Field Schools and You
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that once again, college tuition is increasing (see here). Citing College Board Senior Policy Research Scientist Jennifer Ma, the article states, “The price increases [for 2017] are moderate, but [...]
IFR Board Member Wins MacArthur Grant
Jason de Leon, a Founding IFR Board Member, was announced yesterday as a recipient of the 2017 MacArthur Foundation Award. Also known as "genius grants," the awards are given annually to individuals who show exceptional creativity [...]
50,000 years in 34 days
A typical meal in the sky “Wait, where did you say you’re going after this?!?” asked the baffled man sitting next to me on the plane. At this point in my journey [...]
IFR Board Member Giving to the Archaeological Community
The backbone of the Institute for Field Research is our accomplished Board of Directors. The IFR board conducts an annual peer-review of every single IFR field school to ensure that the highest quality of research and [...]
Solving a Historical Riddle (circa 1250 BCE, Shire, Ethiopia)
Before Aksum there was Mai Adrasha... Mysteries still exist; discoveries are still to be made. In a remote valley in Ethiopia, 45 miles west of Aksum – once the seat of Ethiopian Kings – [...]
Experience of Field Schools for Students of Archaeology
Archaeologists typically get their first hands-on research experience through a field school. Field schools, therefore, are crucibles for our profession. Not all field school students eventually become professional archaeologists, but all who participate have formative [...]
IFR 2017 Scholarships
The IFR announces its multiple 2017 field school scholarships in seven different categories! We would like to highlight our Opportunity Scholarships, covering the full cost of field school tuition and airfare. Students are [...]
Jason De León recipient of the Margaret Mead Award
IFR Board Member, Jason De León, "is the 2016 recipient of the Margaret Mead Award for his scholarship, including the book, The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Sonoran Desert Migrant [...]