One Student’s Enriching Journey to Belize
Nojol Nah Maya Ruin in Blue Creek Belize
Blue & Grey Today | It’s early autumn, and for returning Hood students, this season is filled with preparations: saying goodbye to family and friends and saying hello to a brand new semester. Amidst the chaos that is move-in day are the questions: “How was your summer?” “What classes are you taking?” “Is it true that Meyran’s prized basement has been turned into dorm rooms?”
For most college students, the answer to this first question is as boring as the question itself. “I babysat for my neighbors.” “My parents drove me insane.” “I found out that an internship means getting coffee for my boss.”
But for Hood senior Maureen Marton, boredom had no part in her summer plans. An Archaeology major with a Classics minor, Maureen transferred to Hood from the University of Virginia. This past summer, along with one other Hood student, she traveled to the jungles of northern Belize, where she participated in an archaeological dig. Archaeology majors at Hood are required to fulfill an internship in the field.
The dig, sponsored by the Maya Research program at the University of Texas, aimed to explore and better understand ancient Mayan culture. With help from department chair Dr. Jennifer Ross, along with a scholarship from Hood, Maureen set off for the Nojol Nah site in Blue Creek. In the subsite where Maureen worked – named “Pito” by her field team after the Mayan word for Toucan – the archaeologists and students worked under the hot sun from about 7:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon.
The team bunked in cabanas with no electricity, an experience Maureen described as “roughing it to the extreme.” While many of us dread rolling out of bed for our 8:30 classes, Maureen and her team woke each morning at 5:30 and left for the site at 6:30 to begin the day’s work.
When asked about a typical day on the job, Maureen said, “It was unbelievably humid. Each day was probably 100 degrees but it felt like it was 116 degrees.” Most people would wonder why anyone would ever brave the jungle to toil all day under the hot sun. In many cases, archaeologists spend weeks at a dig site without finding anything.
But for Maureen’s team, this was not the case. “Everyday we were coming back with Ziploc bags full of stuff,” she said. Items like pottery shards could be found in plenty. At the mention of her favorite discovery, an obsidian blade, Maureen’s eyes widened with excitement. “Just finding an object that no one has seen for 1,200 years is pretty nice to see and discover,” she said.
Clearly, this was a student passionate about her learning experience. A resident of Alexandria, Egypt for two years of her life, Maureen knew she wanted to be an archaeologist since she was nine. With her Classics minor, her more specific area of interest is Classical Archaeology, the study of ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and Etruscans.
In the future, Maureen would like to work for Sotheby’s or Christie’s Auction House selling antiquities. Since Maureen is about to set foot in the real world and pursue her career, I asked if she had any advice for other archaeology majors. An apparent fan of Hood’s program, she gushed energetically. “I would say talk to your teachers. They are full of so many awesome resources. As soon as I asked I was just bombarded with different options. It’s nice to talk to someone who’s already been there.”
Now, Maureen has ‘been there,’ and as she graduates from college, she has many options before her.
