Did Indiana Jones get it right? Attend Archaeology in Your Backyard for a quick and dirty introduction into the study of human history and prehistory through excavation and analysis. Does this belong in a museum? Do archaeologists dig dinosaurs? Would you like to hear more about what archaeologists do, and how they learn from the past? Dr. April Watson will discuss what it’s like to work in the discipline, offering an inside look at the dirt of fieldwork and the tools of the trade while unearthing the interesting clues that archaeologists have dug upabout Florida’s past. We know that humans have been living in Florida for at least 10,000 years, long before the snowbirds of today. How did they survive? Where did they live? Can I take their stuff? Find the answers to all these questions and more! Dr. Alanna Lecher will also describe the upcoming archeology workshop series in which students will be introduced to real artifacts and learn standard archeology methods. Students will have the opportunity to sign up for the workshop series after the seminar.

Dr. April Watson was born in Maryland and raised in Florida.  She received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Florida Gulf Coast University, and a graduate degree in Anthropology from Florida Atlantic University, with an emphasis on Caribbean archaeology.  Her research, culminating in the thesis, Predicting Archaeological Site Location in Cuba, focused on development of a predictive model for identification of archaeological sites in Cuba, but with application throughout the Caribbean.  She returned to Florida Atlantic University for her PhD, receiving her degree in Geoscience with an emphasis on Geography and GIS.  She is currently an Assistant Professor of Science at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida and Archaeological Project Manager at Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus.  She continues her research into prehistoric ceramics, particularly of Florida and the Caribbean, GIS modeling, and prehistoric human-environmental interactions.

Dr. Alanna Lecher as a native Floridian received her B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz.  With a research focus on human-environmental interactions and global change, she applies geology tools to archeology to discover how changes in the environment influenced human behavior.  Aside from geoarcheology, she also researches marine plastic pollution and groundwater contamination.  She is the Academic Program Coordinator for the Environmental Studies Program and an Assistant Professor in the major.  Students interested in the environmental studies program are always welcome to learn more in her office.