College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) students Sarah Hassam and Sofia Arias have been awarded the 鈥檚 Cornelia Futor Memorial Student Research Grant.
Sarah Hassam, master鈥檚 world history student and IDEx project manager, engaging in 3D work in Malta. (Photo by Davide Tanasi)
Both Hassam, a master鈥檚 world history student and current project manager for the Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) at CAS, and Arias, an undergraduate anthropology student, will use the grant to assist with their upcoming field research endeavors this summer.
The Time Sifters Archaeology Society is a non-profit association of archaeologists and community members in Sarasota and Manatee counties who provide the grants to any Florida university student pursuing a major in anthropology or focusing on archeology.
The grant aims to assist with costs associated with such things as student travel to a distant archive or collection, attending a field school, or accomplishing deeper artifact analysis through various testing protocols.
Hassam鈥攚ho鈥檚 area of research focuses on women, marginalized communities and theater in the Roman World, specifically on art and material culture鈥攈as already gained expertise in 3D digitization through her work with IDEx.
She will be assisting Dr. Davide Tanasi, director of IDEx and professor of history, this summer to work on 3D digitization of the archeological units, related findings, and skeletal remains at the Villa del Casal in Piazza Armerina, Sicily鈥攁 summer school hosted by ArchLabs and Universit脿 di Bologna鈥攁n antique Roman villa housing the largest mosaic collection in Southern Italy.
She will also oversee the work on re-excavating a prior excavation of a Roman domus for the Melite Civitas Romana Project鈥攕ponsored by Heritage Malta鈥攚hich was originally excavated in the late 1800s and into the 1920s. Hassam aims to update documentation of the original excavation and reevaluate artifacts found from the site.
She will be leaving in early June, spending three weeks in Malta and two weeks in Sicily.
鈥淚 was really surprised and so happy [to earn this grant],鈥� she said. 鈥淚t makes a huge difference in being able to afford any of these opportunities. It really is the clincher of being able to go to Sicily or not, so it was a big deciding factor when I received this.鈥�
Sofia Arias, undergraduate anthropology student, measuring an arrowhead found from surveying the location of USF鈥檚 future football field. (Photo courtesy of Sofia Arias)
Arias, who is focusing her anthropology path on archaeology, will be using the grant to further hone her skills of work she鈥檚 done with her USF mentor Dr. Nancy White performing surface-collecting and shovel-testing鈥攕kills she鈥檚 also put to use at USF in examining the location of the new proposed football stadium.
Arias also participated in fieldwork in northwest Florida at the famous Pierce Mounds complex, troweling and screening shell midden deposits about 1000-years-old and recovered shreds of pottery and animal remains that provide more information about what people were eating in those days.
She will be traveling to the University of Wyoming鈥檚 field school 鈥楥lovis to Cowpokes,鈥� to survey and excavate a High Plains trading site near Laramie, Wyo. and engage in fieldwork at the La Prele Mammoth site to map and excavate at Wyoming鈥檚 first coal mining town. At La Prele, Arias aims to look for evidence of early human activity, identify artifacts, and gain insight into the lives of early Native Americans.
鈥淚 am so grateful; it makes me really excited for my future endeavors in archaeology and motivates me to keep doing this,鈥� she said. 鈥淢ore people believing in and supporting me means the world.鈥�
She embarks on her journey in early June and returns in mid-July.