AMHERST, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - A dozen college students from across the country took part in a field school program to get hands-on training in bioarcheology and forensic anthropology. Western Mass News witnessed what these students were up to and what makes this program unique.

For Boston’s Isabelle Myers, she has a big goal in mind: to give back to the community. She wants to do that through forensic anthropology, “a lot of marginalized communities are underrepresented in criminal cases, and if there’s anything I can do with the skills that I already have.”

A master’s graduate in anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and a bachelor’s graduate in the same field at the University of Pittsburgh, she wanted to get experience not many field schools in this country offer: hands-on training and analysis of excavating a human skeleton, “the forensic aspect is really interesting. It’s working with law enforcement and any sort of criminal cases,” Myers said, “It’s almost impossible to learn all of the specifics just doing it in the classroom.”

That is where UMass Amherst came in. Since 2002, the school has held a six-week summer course called the bioarcheology and forensic anthropology field school. Every year, twelve students from around the country, including a small handful of UMass students, are selected to participate.

Advisor Dr. Sarah Reedy told Western Mass News they are drawn for this class specifically based on what they are studying, and those looking to go into grad school can use this project to help get them into those programs, “the first couple of weeks, we spend in the classroom, and we do a lot of intense osteology training. We also teach them basic archaeological skills like mapping, how to set up a unit, (and) what types of things they would be looking for.”

But that’s not all. For the second two weeks, the students work hands-on at the taphonomy lab to indicate where a possible burial of human remains could be and fully excavate it. Our crew witnessed some of their work on Thursday. Don’t worry, the remains were plastic. The methodology entering this phase: low stakes, higher reward.

“If they mess up, it’s okay because this isn’t a real crime scene (and) this isn’t a real burial. But they are learning how to do it so many of these students will be employable to go on to do archaeology work, to work for an archaeology firm,” Dr. Reedy, though, said a big takeaway from this kind if work is how precise it is and how difficult it can be.

For Myers, though, she is ready for the challenge as she hopes to pursue a PhD in this field, “working with a team is really important in stuff like this. We kind of keep each other motivated and make sure we all stay together.”

After this week, both teams will write a 75 to 120-page report about their excavation and burial. They will then create a brand-new scene for next year’s field school participants.

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