The Oklahoma Archaeological Survey will offer hands-on experience for students pursuing careers in archaeology this summer.

The survey, which is a division of the OU Anthropology Department, will conduct the field school from June 14 to July 21.

The field-school participants will excavate the remains of a 2,000-year-old bison kill at the Certain site, located near Elk City.

K. C. Kraft, a graduate assistant who is doing his doctoral dissertation on the Certain site, said after students finish the class, they could determine whether they want to become archaeologists.

"It's one thing learning about procedures in class and then camping out and getting Oklahoma red dirt on your hands," Kraft said.

"Evening classes will teach mapping techniques, camera use, and the local environment-for example, how indigenous people used local materials in the killings."

The Certain site was found in 1970, by L. E. Certain, the landowner. The area contains many arroyos, or gullies.

The site has three arroyos that contain bison bones. Groups of ancient plains hunters would herd the bison into the dead-end arroyos and then slaughter them.

The first field school at the site was taught in 1993 when two of the arroyos were excavated and studied. The Certain site field school was suspended in 1994 because of a lack of funds, but this year, students will be able to gather more information from the last of the three arroyos - Trench C.

The Certain site is located in the Rolling Bed Plains, which form eastern Beckham County. Certain reported the site to OU.

The Anthropology Department monitored the site for 22 years before it began excavating.

"The site was not excavated before because it was not in danger of destruction. It was naturally preserved," said Leland Bement, archaeologist at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.

But area erosion caused concern in 1992, when the site was in danger of extensive damage.

"We had to get the information out before the site was destroyed by the erosion," Bement said.

Archaeological information is taken from its bed with household insulating foam. Kent Buehler, laboratory manager of Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, said the bones have to be prepared before being taken out.

"Before transporting, the bone has to be stabilized so it doesn't fall apart," Buehler said. "We apply a glue first and then spray the foam around the bone.

"Once the bone is back in the lab, it is freed from the foam and measured.

"We send samples for carbon dating, and the rest will later be housed in the permanent collection of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, once the new facility is built," Buehler said.

Buehler also said people are welcome to visit the site once the field school begins. For more information on tour days, and directions to the site, call Lisa Whitman at 325-7211.
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