Researcher of the Week: Erin Edwards

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:13:40 -0400

Meet Erin. She is an Anthropology major with a minor in Judaic Studies. Her summer research took her to Alba Iulia, Romania, an archaeological excavation of a Roman temple dedicated to the god, Mithras. Mithraism was known for its mysterious practices in the Roman Empire.

What research experiences have you had?
I participated in the Apulum Mithraeum III Project in Romania, summer 2013, as a supervisor assistant working with students to develop archaeological excavation techniques (i.e. single-context recording, natural strata differentiation, section/plan drawing, etc.). Through this project I was able to research Mithraism through current literature and archaeological excavation. In the summer of 2012, I interned with the Lost Towns Project in Edgewater, MD learning archaeological techniques in the field at both Colonial and Native American sites, and processing the artifacts in a lab afterwards.

Who did you work with on this project?
I was the only student from UMBC, the American students that came with us were from Princeton University, where one of the directors is a professor, and the Romanian students were mostly from Babes-Boylei University in Cluj, Romania where director, Dr. Mariana Egris, teaches.

Do you get course credit for this work? Paid? How much time do you put into it?
The excavation itself was completely funded by Princeton University and I also received an Ancient Studies Department Summer Scholarship of $2500.00 to travel to Romania and conduct my research through this archaeological project. I was not paid to be in Romania and I spent four weeks there.

What academic background did you have before you started?
My Ancient Studies major prepared me for the archaeological aspect of this excavation through courses such as Latin, Archaeological Method and Theory, and the Archaeological Field Experience Internship. I have also taken a class on Roman history, however, I had never read about Roman cultic religions until a year ago and so I have done independent research on the topic so that I could apply it to the archaeological project and even the other Roman sites that we visited in Romania, such as the Roman capital and gold mines.

What was the hardest part about your research?

The most challenging part about this research was creating my own reading list and preparing for the archaeological excavation. I plan to have a future career in archaeology and so the field work was the easy part for me, it was the reviewing and reading beforehand that was difficult because there would be times that I would not be sure if I was reading the best sources or understanding the core concepts of what I should be learning and how to connect it to the archaeology. Once I arrived in Romania and I ventured through the capital, Bucharest, I saw a great deal of Roman presence through archaeological artifacts in the Bucharest Museum and this was a pivotal moment for me when my readings and preparation fused with the Roman archaeology and it proved crucial for my own Mithraeum project.

Read about her research here...