2023 Archaeology Field School
HINCKLEY MOUNDS EXCAVATION
The 2023 Archaeological Field School is currently underway in our own backyard at the Hinckley Mounds located in west Provo, Utah. The research being conducted is a continuation of a long standing interest in the precolonial history of Utah Valley by faculty and students in the Department of Anthropology at Brigham Young University. Students are learning basic skills in map reading, GIS and GPS technology, excavation, pedestrian survey, and resolving general field problems. The 2023 Field School will help increase our knowledge about the Fremont people who lived in Utah Valley (A.D. 750-1300). The project also has the potential to provide exciting new information about the Fremont people who experienced village life in this water-rich valley.
As mentioned above, several archaeologists have conducted excavations at the Hinckley Mounds. These include Julian Steward (1935), Ross Christensen (1947), Dee Forest Green (1961), Dale Berge (1966), and Ray Matheny. They have yielded evidence of structures, material remains (figurines, ceramics, bone, lithics, beads, etc.), and even human remains. The excavation areas for 2023 fieldwork include an above-ground structure partially excavated in 2015 (and 1946) and a rich deposit just south of Mound 1 at site 42UT111. The site lies in a field on the Hinckley Farms just east of the Provo airport. John Hinckley, Sr. and his late father, G. Marion Hinckley, have done an excellent job in preserving this site, and John Hinckley recently won the Outstanding Achievement Award from Utah State History for his efforts to preserve the archaeology on his land.
SCHEDULE A SITE TOUR
The field school will occur over the Spring 2023 semester, which runs from May 2-June 20. If you are interested in a tour of the site (held each week Tuesday-Thursday), click the Eventbrite link below to sign up:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hinckley-mounds-site-tours-tickets-622785126077?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
You should expect the tour to last approximately 25 minutes, and you should wear study shoes as you will be walking over uneven terrain in the dirt. There are also a lot of mosquitoes, so you will want to use insect spray before you come.
WANT TO VOLUNTEER?
While the field school is primarily dedicated to the instruction of our current undergraduate students, we are opening a few time slots over the course of the semester for other students and the general public to volunteer and participate in the excavation. You can sign up for an open slot by clicking on the link below and entering your infomation on the Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zetEN-ph56iB4tN1_Y0z4A47zDutHpCCP6jzaa0Qjv4/edit?usp=sharing
For further information, please contact the director, Dr. Michael Searcy (msearcy@byu.edu) or the co-director, Scott Ure (su@byu.edu).
Download directions to the site: Hinckley Mounds Map
Watch this video of the 2015 field school that highlights some of the technology we were testing while excavating at the Hinckley Mounds site: