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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1987)
1 Page 6/The Battalion/Thursday, December 3, 1987 Cotton Bowl Classic Reserve Your Tuxedo Early For New Years Classic Black $39 a " 10% Discount ior students COIOGERQ’S Just Call Us '‘Col jos” Park Place Plaza Texas Ave. S. at Southwest Pkwy. Next to Winn Dixie College Station 693-0709 HBUMY [ME I happy hour Friday 2-6 movie rental over 4,000 titles $2.49 Children’s 99$ Everyday • Adult Movies $2.49 $2 00 off all LP’s and cassettes $8.98 and up all CD’s $13.98 and up all books 25% off 30% off all hardbacks (excludes remainders and sale books) OPEN: Sun.-Thurs., 10*10 Fri. & Sat., 10*11 Culpepper Plaza, College Station 693-2619 Congratulations to Texas A&M University's National Champions Wool & Mohair Evaluation Team COACHED BY: DR. JAMES BASS II Horse Judging Team COACHED BY: DR. GARY D. POTTER Livestock Judging Team COACHED BY: DR. JIM SANDERS SAM JACKSON Meats Eavluation Team COACHED BY: DR. JEFF SAVELL CURT TERRY Poultry Judging Team COACHED BY: DR. W. F. KRUEGER A reception honoring these distinguished Aggies will be hosted by the Department of Animal Sci ence on Friday, December 4 at 3:00 p.m. in the Atrium of the Kleburg Animal and Food Science Center. Archaeologist works to uncover significance of ancient cultures By Anne Neidinger Reporter Discovering arrowheads and other ancient artifacts while wan dering around a farm pasture or creek bank was not an uncommon childhood occurence for Dr. Harry Shafer, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M. While growing up in rural Texas near Temple, Shafer had the free dom to spend time at creeks and river banks looking for and accumu lating prehistoric materials. His dis covery and excavation of a human skeleton on a creek bank as a teen ager resulted in a deeper under standing of archaeology for him. Shafer, who specializes in archae ology, developed that fascination into a commitment to discovering and interpreting the ways of ancient peoples. He excavates sites once in habited by ancient cultures and ex plains their significance through his writings. He uses his experience to help educate students at A&M about anthropology. When he donated the skeleton he found to the Strecker Museum at Baylor University, Shafer was in vited by museum officials to join the Central Texas Archaeological So ciety, an amateur advocational group that often had professional archaeologists speak at the meetings. “I joined it and that’s where I met my first professional archaeologists,” he said. “I began to find out what ar chaeology was all about and my in terest went far beyond collecting ar tifacts. I began to accumulate and cultivate a more specific interest.” Although this interest intensified, Shafer did not immediately pursue a degree in anthropology. Instead he majored in business at Temple Ju nior College and later managed a young men’s department in a store. While working in Austin for the Texas Highway Department, Shafer was able to maintain correspondence and form friendships with profes sional archaeologists there; and by this time, he had joined the state ar chaeological society. In 1962, he was offered and ac cepted a job working with the ar chaeological research program at the University of Texas as a field person. “That let me know I wanted to pursue archaeology as a career,” he said. “That’s when I went back to school.” Shafer said working part time from 1962 to 1972 at the research program while attending UT helped him get experience in the field and in writing technical reports. Dr. Vaughn M. Bryant, professor and department head of anthropol ogy at A&M, offered Shafer a one- year visiting position at A&M in 1972, which he accepted. After fin ishing his dissertation in 1973, he took ajob as a professor at A&M and has been here ever since. “I didn’t really hesitate that much when offered the position, because I wanted to get involved with an aca demic program and I knew that I could continue my research here,” he said. Shafer said the anthropology de partment at A&M was still in its in fancy, and he wanted to get involved with building the program. “I liked it over here,” he said. “I was given a lot of freedom to de velop my own interests and to be a part of building a program that grew from a department that offers a bachelor’s degree ... to one that of fers a doctorate. “So we’ve gone from nothing really to a full-fledged department in liberal arts. It’s been fun to be a part of that building process.” Photo by Sam B. Myers Dr. Harry Shafer, A&M professor of anthropology, studies some artifacts. One way Shafer has contributed to the growth of the department is through his involvement in various anthropological field projects that have brought recognition to A&M. Shafer has participated in archae ological digs such as the Hinds Cave project in Southwest Texas, the Mimbres Indian dig in southwestern New Mexico and the Maya Indian excavation at Colha, Belize, in Cen tral America. Shafer said the Hinds Cave pro ject in 1974-1977, which Bryant also participated in, was supported by the National Science Foundation and helped in the development of the anthropology department at A&M. “It was one of the most important projects in terms of building na tional awareness of a program that we’ve ever done,” he said. The Hinds Cave project was quite 'sical, Shafer said. Participants lad to camp on a remote limestone plateau, ana the hike down and back to the cave every day was a difficult climb. “We either shaped up or shipped out,” he said. “But we had to do it. It was the only way we could carry it through and get the information we needed.” The project site, which two stu dent field schools helped at in 1975 and 1976, was “beautifully preser ved,” he said. The organic materials in it were preserved for about 9,000 years, he said, and included sandals, bits of matting, netting and dry feces, which were to be studied for dietary profiles. “The Hinds Cave project was one of the most important learning ex periences I’ve ever had in archaeo logy, because I was working with col leagues who had expertise in other fields, such as zoology or ecology,” he said. “You learn a lot about peo ple adapting to particular environ ments in particular circumstances.” The Mimbres Indian project at the NAN Ranch in southwestern New Mexico was “the most character building project I’ve ever been on,” Shafer said. The project, going on for the past 10 summers and involving a field school, is supported by A&M, the Federation of Aggie Mothers Clubs, Earthwatch and the National Geo graphic Society. The Mimbres pueblo, almost 2,000 years old, con tains an abundance of ceramic art made by the people. Shafer said a person running a field school must take into account departmental goals, student needs and one’s personal research gains. “The Hinds Cave project and the NAN have served these goals well,” he said. Another project, the ancient Maya Indian site in Belize, increased A&M visibility in terms of international in volvement, Shafer said. From 1979 until last spring, Shafer has been in volved in stone tool specialization at the site in Colha, Belize. He said the Maya exploited raw materials there and specialized in the production of chip stone tools. “That particular project has been challenging because it requires an adaptation to third-world bu reaucracy,” he said. The Colha project, which in cluded graduate students participat ing in thesis research, was difficult because it was situated in a jungle and supplies had to be maintained for a two- to three-month period, which was expensive, Shafer said. The dig involved other institu tions such as UT at Austin, UT at San Antonio, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of New Mexico, which added to depart mental recognition at A&M, he said. “It was an interesting experience, because it now helps me to better de sign projects in foreign countries for students because I know a lot of the bureacracy you have to go through,” he said. “Emotionally, it’s a lot easier to work in the United States.” Shafer managed to participate in projects and teach at A&M by travel ing back and forth at different times during the year. In 1980, he taught a two-course field program for a se mester at the Colha site. He also has worked on about 100 small projects in Texas and southern New Mexico when he worked as a research archaeologist in Austin. It was by working there that he was able to travel throughout Texas and see a lot of archaeology, he said. With that experience and knowl edge, along with the information from Hinds Cave, Shafer wrote the book “Ancient Texans,” which was published this year and is about the rock art and ancient people of the lower Pecos River. The rock art gives insights into the people’s belief sys tems and curing and healing rituals, he said. Shafer said the rock art is a “tea ser” to get people to read the book and learn more about the people who produced the art. Americans do not have an identity to the past, he said, which is an important legacy. The book, Shafer’s first, supports an exhibit at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, and is about the hunt ing and gathering people. “People are attracted to the rock art because it’s visual and assumes a certain degree of awesomeness be cause it’s so old,” he said. “Yet they don’t look beyond that to the people who produced it. If the general pub lic can learn to respect the people who produced it, particularly in that area of West Texas, maybe they will make an effort to conserve their ar chaeological past.” Shafer’s accomplishments are nu merous, but he said his greatest suc cess has been cultivating friendships and working with the staff he has been with over the years and seeing them become excited about, the same things as he. “It’s the personal experiences that have enriched my life,” he said. “Working in field with people, you really get to know who they are and you see them get to know them selves. You always see people grow up out there.” Shafer hopes to complete a book about the Mimbres Indians and the NAN Ranch project within two or three years. He has written for over 100 technical publications and chaired symposiums throughout his career. He is also the adviser for the Anthropology Society, a club in the department. tboiA LIGHT CWMIiDY COMMANDOS 4r MSC Town Hall Presents A Live Night Before a Dead Week Featuring Tim Settimi and David Master Friday, Dec. 4,1987 8 p.m. , Rudder Theatre Tickets $2 90 Available at MSC Box Office 845-1234 Thurs. Dec. 3,8 p.m. till 12 at Flying Tomato. Don’t miss your chance to win free Coors Light Comedy Comando tickets, t-shirts & hats. No purchase necessary LIVE V Call Battalion Classified 845-2611 BAP tfUTHA COPSE Friday Dec. 4 Student I.D. SI OFF Before 9 p.m.