Tag Archive for: archaeology

SOU's Chelsea Rose on National Geographic series

SOU archaeologist returns to TV for National Geographic series

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University research archaeologist Chelsea Rose – who was on the cast of a 2013-14 archaeology series on Oregon Public Broadcasting and featured in a 2017 book intended to pique girls’ interest in archaeology – returned to TV screens this summer as host of a show about Wild West history for the National Geographic Channel.

Rose appears on an episode in season four of the series “Drain The Oceans,” an Australian and British documentary series whose previous seasons have focused on underwater archaeology. The current season shifts to terrestrial archaeology, with an emphasis on the West.

Rose’s episode – whose U.S. premiere was Aug. 2 on the National Geographic Channel – features segments on the ghost town of Bodie, California, 19th century steamboat wrecks and the Little Bighorn battleground.

“This show has a good reputation for portraying archaeology in an accurate manner, so when colleagues who had been on previous seasons suggested me as an expert contributor for the Wild West episodes, I was happy to comply,” Rose said. “Plus, Bodie has been on my bucket list since I was a kid!”

Bodie, a 19th century gold-mining town, is now a California State Historic Park and well-known tourist attraction near the Nevada border. The “Drain The Oceans” producers worked with park staff and archaeologists to reveal the site’s hidden stories, including the role of women and the town’s Chinese residents.

“Since so much of the town is preserved, it is an amazing dataset that relates to many of the archaeological projects we work on at the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA),” Rose said.

“Being able to see the artifacts and buildings associated with 19th century gold mining, as part of a relatively complete landscape, helped me to better understand how these resources would have been experienced by Oregonians.”

Much of Rose’s archaeological work involves using artifacts to reconstruct the lives of Chinese immigrants in the Western gold-mining and railroad-building communities of the 1800s.

Rose’s first stint on an archaeology-based television series was for both seasons of the OPB national series “Time Team America,” which was produced in Oregon but shot on locations throughout the U.S. She was one of six scientists who teamed with the show’s host to uncover historical secrets that had been buried underground.

She was one of three U.S. archaeologists who were featured in the 2017 book, “Archaeology: Cool Women Who Dig,” by California author Anita Yasuda. The book, which is available to order on Amazon.com, was intended to give 9- to 12-year-old girls a peek at work and life in the field of archaeology.

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Archeological work on the Buck Rock Tunnel

SOULA archaeological project receives national BLM recognition

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The Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) has been honored for partnering with the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Ashland Field Office on an archaeological exploration of the Buck Rock Tunnel southeast of Ashland. The collaborative project received one of three nationwide Heritage Heroes awards this year from the BLM.

“SOU held an archaeological field school at the site in 2019, and the partnership has been working with students and the community to research the history of the Oregon and California Railroad and the abandonment of the Buck Rock Tunnel since 2016, with a particular emphasis on the Chinese railroad workers that constructed it,” said SOU archaeologist Chelsea Rose, who has worked on the project with BLM archaeologist Lisa Rice.

“This project has been so successful that … we have expanded the partnership and created the Southern Oregon Chinese Archaeological Project, which focuses on Chinese heritage sites across the Medford District of the BLM, and will include both railroad and mining sites.”

The Buck Rock Tunnel – south of Greensprings Highway and off of Buckhorn Springs Road – was started by the Oregon & California Railroad on both sides of a ridge in the early 1880s, but was never finished. The O&C was purchased by Southern Pacific Railroad, which opted for a different route to California.

The ongoing archeological project includes surveying and excavating the site, and recording findings, to offer a broader view of the Chinese laborers who worked at several railroad and mining sites in southern Oregon. SOULA and the BLM are also presenting their work on the Buck Rock Tunnel project on Thursday (April 29) as part of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s “Collaboration is Key” Oregon Heritage Virtual Summit. The project was recently featured as part of Unearthing Oregon, a collaboration between the Oregon Historical Society and SOULA.

“The Buck Rock Tunnel Project partnership organizes programs for students and the public each year,” the BLM said in announcing the award. “SOULA field schools provide anthropology students from Southern Oregon University with important training in archaeological recording and historical research. Local residents also participate in survey and excavation at the site.

“This multi-year project accomplishes valuable research and historic resource identification and evaluation. It also provides public education and interpretation opportunities, allowing the BLM to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.”

The Heritage Heroes awards are presented each year by the BLM’s Division of Education, Cultural and Paleontological Resources. This year’s other winners are the Cooper’s Ferry Site Partnership on Nez Perce tribal land in Idaho and the work of a volunteer site steward at a rock art location in Utah.

Rose’s work on behalf of SOULA was also recognized a year ago, when the Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project won an Oregon Heritage Excellence Award. That project, led by Rose, is a grassroots archaeology partnership of federal, state and local agencies that examine the Chinese diaspora – or dispersed population – in Oregon, and challenge stereotypes that have been historically assigned to the immigrants.

SOULA staff work on Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project

SOULA wins Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for Chinese immigrant research

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(Ashland, Ore.) — The Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) has won a 2020 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for its work on the Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project. Students worked with faculty on the project as part of a Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN) summer archaeological field school in 2019.

“The (Oregon Heritage Excellence Award) recipients represent the extraordinary efforts to preserve Oregon’s heritage,” said Beth Dehn, coordinator for the Oregon Heritage Commission. “They also serve as models for others on how to develop new ideas, approaches and innovations.”

The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project is one of only 10 projects to receive the award. The grassroots archaeology partnership of federal, state and local agencies examined the Chinese diaspora – or dispersed population – in Oregon, and challenged stereotypes that have been historically assigned to the immigrants.

The project is led by Chelsea Rose of SOU Laboratory of Anthropology, who partners with archaeologists from state and federal agencies on archaeological sites across Oregon.

The ongoing project has involved digging, interpreting and touring nine archaeological sites where Chinese immigrants worked and lived; and searching historical records such as censuses, community records and data from the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day. Research findings have been publicized through lectures, tours, theses, digital “story maps” and will be presented in an upcoming volume of the Oregon Historical Society’s quarterly journal. Local involvement with volunteer projects has been encouraged through the cultural heritage program Passport in Time and other public archaeological events.

“It is exciting to see how far this project has come, and how much can be accomplished when agencies work together toward a common goal,” Rose said.

SOULA started the partnership with the Malheur National Forest, and it has since expanded to include Oregon State Parks, the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Historical Society, and other local and regional organizations.

The lead editors of the Chinese in Northwest American Research Committee – Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson – wrote one of three letters recommending the OCDP for the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award.

“Very few heritage efforts in other places have been as effective and innovative,” the letter from Ho and Bronson said. “Nothing like it currently exists in California or elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The OCDP’s research subject is vast, still largely untouched, and of great importance to all Chinese Americans.”

The historic population of Chinese immigrants in rural Oregon was high, but there are few descendant communities because of anti-Chinese violence and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The OCDP offers Oregonians a deeper sense of their shared heritage by discovering and publicizing Chinese achievements.

Don Hann, project co-director with the Malheur National Forest, has used innovative Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology to document historical Chinese mining sites. LIDAR, which sends a laser pulse through the surface of the ground, has allowed OCDP archaeologists to map over 1,000 acres of mining complexes hidden in the forest within an accuracy of 10 inches. The new maps highlight a system of dams, reservoirs and ditches that provided water for mining.

These complicated water systems reveal a picture of 19th century Chinese immigrants as entrepreneurs who had experience organizing gold mining operations in foreign countries.

SOU students participated in the OCDP last year by taking the class SOAN 375. The four-credit, four-week course – the archaeological field school – introduced methods of excavating, mapping, recovering and recording artifacts from prehistoric or historic sites.

“It was an incredible project for SOU staff and students to be a part of, and we are continuing to work and expand our research across the state,” Rose said.

She and other members of the SOULA staff have also worked on the Cangdong Village Project, a Stanford-led transnational research project looking into the five-county area that was home to most Chinese Immigrants during the 19th century. SOULA partnered with the Hannon Library and PAR Environmental in 2018 to create the Chinese Material Culture Collection – a digital archive of artifacts commonly found on 19th and 20th century Chinese archaeological sites in the American West.

Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

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SOU archaeologist featured in new book as role model for girls

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NEWS RELEASE (online at https://goo.gl/36Zavo)
(Ashland, Ore.) — As a child growing up in Northern California, Chelsea Rose loved exploring outside and getting her hands dirty. Rose, a research archaeologist at Southern Oregon University, now finds herself in a position to serve as a role model to young girls interested in science, and she encourages them to do what led her to archaeology.
“My advice is to be curious, be brave, ask lots of questions and never pass up an opportunity to get your hands dirty,” Rose says.
She is one of three U.S. archaeologists featured in a new book, “Archaeology: Cool Women Who Dig,” which is aimed at 9- to 12-year-old girls who enjoy looking for clues about life in the distant past. The book, by California author Anita Yasuda, is scheduled for publication April 11 and is available to order now on Amazon.com.
Twenty pages of the 106-page book are devoted to telling the stories of how Rose became an archaeologist and some of her archaeological projects. Rose says she was chosen for the book because of the recognition she gained as a cast member on the PBS series “Time Team America,” which last aired in 2014.
She serves currently as research faculty member in the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology, where her focus has been on archaeology of the American West, including the dispersal of an early Chinese migrant population in Oregon.
“I love being able to be a role model for young girls interested in archaeology,” Rose says. “I know I don’t look like your average everyday scientist, and I think it is important for young women – or anyone, really – to discover that if they have an interest or passion for a certain subject, then there is a place for them in that field.
“If all you see is pictures of male scientists in white lab coats (or fedoras and bull whips in the case of archaeology), it is understandable that young girls might not think they belong,” she says. “But they do!”
Other archaeologists featured in the new book are Alexandra Jones, founder of the nonprofit Archaeology in the Community; and marine archaeologist Justine Benanty, a cofounder of ArchaeoVenturers. Both are based in Washington, D.C.
Yasuda, the new book’s author, has written more than 100 books for children and adults, including “Astronomy: Cool Women in Space.” The archaeology book is part of the Nomad Press “Girls in Science Series,” which also includes titles from various authors about “cool women” in astronomy, technology, forensics, engineering, aviation, marine biology, zoology, architecture and meteorology.
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About Southern Oregon University
As a public liberal arts university, SOU focuses on student learning, accessibility and civic engagement that enriches both the community and bioregion. The university is recognized for fostering intellectual creativity, for quality and innovation in its connected learning programs, and for the educational benefits of its unique geographic location. SOU was the first university in Oregon—and one of the first in the nation—to offset 100 percent of its energy use with clean, renewable power, and it is the first university in the nation to balance 100% of its water consumption. Visit sou.edu.