Classics Chair Awarded $500K NSF Grant with CNSM colleagues
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Classics chair and professor Paul Scotton is part of an interdisciplinary 色中色 team that was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the . Scotton, along with professor Lora Stevens-Landon and post-doctoral researcher AJ White, both from the Earth Science department in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, will use the funds to create and lead programs designed to increase archaeological training opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds
The project brings together the humanities and hard sciences, giving student experiences that combine fieldwork with laboratory analyses. Participants will engage in hands-on excavation, non-destructive geophysical imaging, and data analysis while conducting fieldwork in Lechaion, an ancient site in Greece, which was an important harbor and commercial hub for nearly 2,000 years starting in the Bronze Age. Scotton, an expert in ancient architecture, is director of the .
鈥淲hen people think about archaeology, they think about excavating buildings, which is definitely what Paul is doing. What we鈥檙e doing is a bit different,鈥 said Landon. 鈥淲e鈥檙e basically digging in the mud and looking for these things that are more invisible that indicate that people were there, how many people were there, potentially how they were using the space.鈥
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Scotton, who started at 色中色 in 2005, said that the work at Lechaion will extend long past the grant and jokes that his grandchildren might make discoveries at the same site, 鈥淥ur grant is three years, but what we鈥檙e doing here is decades in the making.鈥
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