Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015 - (Page 40)

exploring career options Archaeologist Inna Moore, RPA Senior Archaeologist and GIS Specialist Brookington Cultural Resources Consulting Inna Moore had planned to major in marine biology at the College of Charleston (South Carolina), but her plans took a turn when she unexpectedly loved the required geology course she took. After discovering that geology involves every field of science, from biology to chemistry to physics, she switched her major. Today, Moore is an archaeologist who uses her specialized geological knowledge to find and preserve history that is buried underground. What was your first job in this field? As a student, I helped some geology professors with research, doing survey data collection of shoreline erosion control. I also did some identification of foraminifera, single-celled protists with shells, to help figure out the age of the geology at the beaches. Those were just summer jobs, but they gave me hands-on experience with surveying equipment. That experience led to my first job out of college, with a land surveying company. I worked on that crew for about five months before coming to work at Brockington and Associates as a field technician. I was part of a team that conducted archaeological surveys on properties before they could be developed. How long did you do that work? Six or seven years. It was a lot of out-of-town work, a lot of living in hotels during the week and then coming home on the weekends. I eventually got tired of being out of town and wanted to work more in the office. After taking geographic information systems (GIS) classes at night, I shifted into doing graphics. After we do a survey, we have to create a report to submit to the review agencies. That report might include aerial images showing the location of the tract and the sites, maps showing where we dug holes, historic maps, photographs, plans of the site, profiles of any features we might find. I worked on those graphics. 40 imagine Interview by Melissa Hartman What do you do now? After working my way up through the graphics department, I went back to school for my master's degree, a requirement for becoming a registered professional archaeologist (RPA). I did my master's in environmental science, focusing on GIS and remote sensing, which includes satellite data, ground-penetrating radar, 3D scanning, imagery gathered by drones-any type of data collected remotely. Today I'm in charge of the company's remote sensing program, but I also still do archaeology project management. Can you give me an idea of what the process is like, from when somebody first calls your firm to conduct a survey? In South Carolina, when someone, say a developer, applies for a permit from Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, depending on where the land is and what known historic sites are nearby, it may require an archaeological or cultural resources survey. That's when the developer would contact us. We would go to the site and dig 30-centimeter shovel test holes, every 30 meters, across the entire tract, and screen the dirt for artifacts. If we find artifacts, we'll go back and dig on a 15-meter grid. Once the fieldwork is done, the artifacts come to the lab for analysis. All that information is given to the project manager, who then decides whether the site may be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Our report, with our results and recommendations, goes to the State Historic Preservation Office for review. If the site is not eligible for listing on the National Register, the developer can move forward with the project. If it has potential to be eligible for listing, the client has to either excavate the site before developing it or leave it alone. What happens if they decide to excavate? We go back to the site and do five-meter shovel test intervals and create density maps, showing where certain types of artifacts are located. From there, we'll dig test units, which are usually one-by-one-meter blocks. We may also use a backhoe to scrape off the top black layer of dirt to get down to the sterile subsoil. Any features dug by humans into that sterile Nov/Dec 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015

Big Picture
In My Own Words Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
National Treasure Volunteering at the National Archives
Driving My Future, Exploring the Past The many rewards of genealogy
Past in Focus National History Day
People-Powered Movements Studying revolutions at Phillips Academy Andover
Hooked on History From paleontology to conservation science, four graduate students share their research
This is History My summer at Crow Canyon
The Benefits of Majoring in History
Making History My journey to the inaugural International History Olympiad
Historians in Training The Concord Review Summer Program
The Ultimate Game
In My Own Footsteps Putting my choreography in the spotlight
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with archaeologist Inna Moore
One Step Ahead Be your own priority
Planning Ahead for College Choosing the best college for your major
Students Review: University of Washington
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2015