By Anna Mayes
Elm Staff Writer
Pamela Holland, a senior at Washington College double majoring in anthropology and history, has recently been accepted to present her senior thesis at the tenth Experimental Archaeology Conference in Leiden, Netherlands.
The conference is hosted by the EXARC, an organization that, according to their website, is dedicated to “the investigation, contextualization, presentation and interpretation of archeological and experimental heritage.”
At the event, Holland will be doing a five-minute poster presentation of her thesis on the time and material costs of building a reed boat using locally available materials.
Holland hadn’t originally planned for her thesis to turn into experimental archeology. Last spring, after she took her idea to her professor Dr. Bill Schindler, he encouraged her to get the first-hand experience and build her own reed boat. After she accepted the challenge, Dr. Schindler encouraged her to go even further.
“He told me to take a look at the website for EXARC, which is an organization that focuses on archaeological open-air museums, experimental archaeology, ancient technology, and interpretation,” she said.
Holland saw that the organization was soliciting papers to be presented at their conference. With an academic focus on experimental archaeology, so she submitted an abstract of her thesis to be considered.
During the application process, Holland found many professors, from both of the departments that she is studying under, incredibly supportive. She credited one of her history professors, Dr. Ken Miller, and one of her anthropology professors, Dr. Aaron Lampman, for helping guide her through the final stages of writing her abstract.
“[Dr. Schindler] was out of the country when the deadline for my abstract arrived I turned to other WC faculty members that I am close with to help me finalize the abstract,” Holland said.
Holland is excited to travel to the Netherlands and present her work. She announced at the SGA senate meeting on Oct. 4 that she was accepted to present at the conference.
Holland said that this will be a learning experience for her, and that over the course of the conference, she hopes to be able to get a better idea of the current events in the field of experimental archaeology.
“I am very excited to see some of the other presentations that will be there,” she said.
Although this opportunity seems remarkable, she said that she feels like WC students always have these opportunities, and just have to take advantage of them. To her, that makes all the difference.
“I feel that as a graduating senior, this is the perfect culmination of my time here at WC, and I hope I represent the school well,” she said.