Knox Faculty and Students Discuss Archaeological Research

Knox College faculty and students who researched an archaeological site in Jordan this summer will present "Knox Archaeologists: A Symposium" at 4 p.m. Thursday, September 24 in Ferris Lounge, Seymour Union, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Knox College History Club and Classics Club.

Students and faculty from Knox and other colleges conducted excavation and analysis at the site of an ancient village, Tall Dhiban, near the modern city of Dhiban, south of Amman, Jordan. They studied how the settlement changed over its 5,000 year history, with particular focus on use of food and water resources.

The Knox faculty in the project were Katherine Adelsberger, assistant professor of environmental studies, and Danielle Steen Fatkin, visiting assistant professor of history. Knox students in the project were Abigail Harms, a junior from Topeka, Kansas; Courtney Tichler, a sophomore from Fulton, Illinois; Anne Ford of Scituate, Massachusetts, who graduated from Knox in June with a major in theatre and a minor in ancient Greek and Roman culture; and Sara Patterson of Geneseo, Illinois, who graduated in June with majors in chemistry and history. Other researchers were from the University of California - Berkeley, and the University of Liverpool.

Adelsberger and Fatkin received a $12,000 grant from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest's Faculty Career Enhancement program to support their involvement in the project.

The researchers chronicled their work in a blog, http://dhiban.wordpress.com/

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.