Metin ErenThe 黑料网 Experimental Archaeology Lab is the world鈥檚 premier lab of its kind. There鈥檚 not a lab like it anywhere in the world. We can pretty much recreate any artifact from the last 3 million years of human evolution.
When you walk into the Experimental Archaeology Lab at 黑料网, you can expect to see some dust, some ancient weapons and to smell an interesting scent permeating throughout the suite. When asked by students from other disciplines in the building, it鈥檚 just 鈥渂urnt popcorn.鈥 For the students in the lab, it鈥檚 the bone material that they鈥檙e working with as part of a new section of research in an incredibly prolific research lab in Lowry Hall.
Founded in 2016 by Professor Metin Eren, Ph.D., the Experimental Archaeology Lab is where students and professors can recreate and then reverse engineer ancient technologies to figure out how they work.
鈥淲e can pretty much recreate any artifact from the last 3 million years of human evolution, whether it鈥檚 stone or pottery, or metal weapons or bone weapons,鈥 Eren said. 鈥淲hatever we want to make, we can recreate it. And then through engineering and physics and sometimes chemistry, we reverse engineer these ancient technologies.鈥
There are a wide range of tools and materials available for students and researchers to use, including kilns, a ballistics range and a forge.
Michelle Bebber, Ph.D., assistant professor and co-director of the lab, added that they can always help students find something to build or make. 鈥淲hatever their interest might be, we can figure out an experiment for them to do, and they can start getting their hands dirty. We have all basically the raw materials they need and tools they need to make, and then we have the ability to test it,鈥 Bebber said.
Why would they need to recreate ancient tools? How does that help students understand the past better than reading about it?
鈥淥nce we figure out how all these tools work, we can build models of how technology evolved over the last 3 million years. And that鈥檚 really exciting, too, because technology in the past is the ancestor of technology today,鈥 Eren said.
Experimental archaeology has old roots, but the scientific, quantitative and evolutionary approach pioneered at 黑料网 is new, and Eren and Bebber stress the importance of the students getting their hands dirty and doing experiments to test their theories.
鈥淲e approach the past not just in sort of a documentary fashion, which is normally what archaeology is. You dig something up, you describe it, you write about it and move on. We are really trying to understand how culture, or technology in the past, changed over time, and how it functions, and why do people make these decisions. By using this very carefully controlled scientific method, we can actually get into the motivations behind ancient people鈥檚 behavior, which I think is really interesting,鈥 Bebber explained.
A Melting Pot of Academia
The lab attracts students from diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds, often coming from fields that aren鈥檛 science based. Bebber has an undergraduate degree in art and said she often meets art students who are interested in the things they鈥檙e making but don鈥檛 think they鈥檇 be good at science.
鈥淲e get them learning about science, and maybe that sparks an interest and stimulates them to do things they thought maybe they couldn鈥檛 do,鈥 Bebber said.
Eren said the lab is 鈥渢he ultimate melting pot of academia,鈥 because not only do they have students from varied backgrounds, but they also co-author papers with faculty from biology, geology, materials science, engineering and aeronautics.
鈥淲e put a lot of value, a tremendous amount of value, on what we consider academic fields that a lot of folks don鈥檛 consider academic fields. We鈥檝e had students who were professional woodworkers or tattoo artists, and a lot of folks wouldn鈥檛 consider that as part of the academy, but those skills directly transfer to the recreation of artifacts that then we test. We can bring in what folks wouldn鈥檛 consider traditional academic things into the realm of science and demonstrate the value in a way that those students then feel like they鈥檙e contributing in a way that they didn鈥檛 before,鈥 Eren said.
Bebber said that there is a lot of similarity between art and science in ways people might not consider.
鈥淪cience is a creative process. People think working in a lab or doing chemical equations, that鈥檚 science. But coming up with testable ideas and being able to develop a research design that鈥檚 going to answer that question, you have to be creative. You have to have novel ways of thinking outside of the box to answer some of those questions,鈥 Bebber said.
The Importance of Northeast Ohio
People might not realize it, but Northeast Ohio is important to Stone Age archaeology. As Eren explained it, since glaciers were sitting on top of Ohio, it made Ohio a demographic blank slate because hunger-gatherers couldn鈥檛 live on top of a glacier. When the glaciers receded 14,000-15,000 years ago and people moved to the Northeast Ohio landscape, researchers can know for certain that those were colonizing humans.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 say that in other places in the world,鈥 Metin explained. 鈥淲hen those glaciers moved out and we found those first archaeological sites, we knew for certain that we were dealing with Stone Age colonizers. And this process of Stone Age colonization is vital for understanding human evolution because our species, Homo sapiens, moved out of Africa over 200,000 years ago and colonized the world. So, to understand how our species did something that no other primate species did, we need to study that process right here in Northeast Ohio.鈥
What would you like to know about early Northeast Ohio?
People have lived in what's now Northeast Ohio for 13,500 years. What are your questions about these earliest inhabitants? Ideastream Public Media needs your feedback for an upcoming story in collaboration with Metin Eren, director of the Experimental Archeology Lab.
Studying archaeology in Northeast Ohio has long been a passion for Eren. He knew he wanted to be an archaeologist in his teenage years, seeing it as a way to pursue his passion for both science and history. His mom saw an advertisement in The Plain Dealer newspaper about the Cleveland Museum of Natural History having a field school, which is an excavation for students. She encouraged him to contact the museum, so he did. Usually, the students on these digs would be college students, but as a high school student, he still reached out and eventually met Brian Redmond, Ph.D., the curator from the museum.
鈥淚 think he was a little skeptical having a high school student who had never done archaeology before join his dig, but he let me. And by the end of the excavation, I was even more in love with archaeology than I had been before, and my career just kind of took off from then,鈥 Eren said.
From there, he kept his relationship with Redmond and the museum, working there for a summer internship while he was in college. 鈥淭o get paid for what I love to do, it was a dream come true. And I spent the whole summer in the laboratories, and it just reinforced everything that I loved about science and history. And doing it in my hometown, you can鈥檛 beat that.鈥
Eren continued his relationship, saying that Redmond really took him under his wing and even published papers with him. He published papers with Cleveland Museum of Natural History staff while he was studying at Harvard University as an undergraduate, which helped him choose his own path for graduate school. He went to Southern Methodist University and by then was traveling all over the world for his work, in China, India, Africa and the Rocky Mountains.
He ended up working in England for years, focused on Neanderthals and humans鈥 evolutionary cousins. But then a new opportunity came along.
鈥淭o be honest, Northeast Ohio to me is the greatest place on earth. I love it. I got sick of watching the Cavs at three o鈥檆lock in the morning, and so I was always looking for a chance to come home, and I was always in touch with the museum. And one of my specialties is the Stone Age people of the lower Great Lakes in Ohio in particular. So, an opportunity to come home and study the Stone Age in my home region 鈥 if it ever came up, I was not going to miss that chance. And I was really fortunate in 2015 when a job opened up at 黑料网, and I just knew that was my job,鈥 Eren said.
Metin ErenThe partnership that we have in research between 黑料网 and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has led to breakthroughs on human evolution and how our species colonized the planet. We wouldn鈥檛 be able to study the behaviors of these colonizing hunter-gatherers anywhere else, but we can in Ohio, and we do it because of this collaboration between the museum and 黑料网.
Keeping the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Connection
When Eren was offered the job at 黑料网, it came with something he had been dreaming about for a long time.
鈥満诹贤 amazingly just said, 鈥楬ere you go, build the lab of your dreams.鈥 And I was able to build what we now call the 黑料网 Experimental Archaeology Lab. And with our lab, we still continue a really close collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History because the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has just this tremendous collection of artifacts. So when we make replicas of artifacts, we come to the museum to study what the real artifacts look like, and then we recreate them in our lab in Kent. And then usually we destroy them in some way by shooting them or breaking them in a lot of different ways,鈥 Eren said.
Over the years, 黑料网 has had a long relationship with the museum, and it continues today with Eren and Bebber both acting as research associates.
黑料网 anthropologists came to the museum to study the fossils of ancient humans. In the early 1990s, 黑料网 graduate student Barbara Barrish, who was also employed by the museum, led the excavations at the Paleo Crossing site, a Stone Age site in Wadsworth, Ohio.
鈥淲e see students and professionals going back and forth between the institutions just constantly. And I think that exchange of ideas is one of the reasons why both institutions are so successful,鈥 Eren said. 鈥淭he collaboration that 黑料网 has with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has led to incredible discoveries. It鈥檚 led to a tremendous amount of learning for students.鈥
Investing in Students鈥 Futures
Eren and Bebber both work closely with students in the lab, co-writing papers and doing research together. Eren said that he learned the importance of mentorship from Redmond at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and he tries to pass that on to his students.
鈥淚 like working with the students because they don鈥檛 yet realize that what we鈥檙e doing now is such a good investment for the future. They don鈥檛 realize that publishing a paper as an undergraduate is like investing in Microsoft when Microsoft first started: the dividends come years later, but they鈥檙e huge because if you鈥檙e publishing as an undergraduate, and you start that tradition of contributing to science, it snowballs. I like setting up our students for the future, them not quite knowing it yet, but we can see that they鈥檙e going to go far. That鈥檚 cool,鈥 Eren said.
Bebber said she enjoys working with the students because of their enthusiasm and interesting ideas.
鈥淭he students鈥 interests, their enthusiasm, their wacky ideas ... and showing them, yeah, we can. We can do that. We might have to modify your ideas a little bit but seeing them grow 鈥渋s always rewarding,鈥 Bebber said.
This kind of collaborative work environment with senior researchers is clearly benefiting the students of the lab. There is currently a 100% success rate in getting laboratory student members full tuition waivers and scholarships to the graduate schools of their choice. Students have gone all over the world to continue their study of archaeology, including several current lab members who decided to continue their graduate study within the lab itself.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e a 黑料网 student and you鈥檙e coming to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to do research, it鈥檚 going to change your life because you鈥檙e going to see things that are hundreds, thousands, millions of years old. You鈥檙e going to work with the top minds in your field of choice. You鈥檙e going to have experiences and see things that you wouldn鈥檛 see anywhere else. And then you take those experiences back to 黑料网, and you can look at your own research in a brand-new way. You look at your classes in a brand-new way,鈥 Eren said.
Metin ErenExperiencing professional science, both in the laboratories at 黑料网 and in the laboratories at the Cleveland Museum, is just a really powerful equation for the next generation of scientists. I can鈥檛 think of a better foundation for your early career.
Looking Forward
Eren stressed that the success of the lab is directly correlated to the investment it has received from the university.
鈥淭his is a testament to what happens when a university administration invests in research. And hundreds of papers later, over a million dollars in grant funding later, it鈥檚 now the premier experimental archaeology laboratory anywhere in the world,鈥 Eren said.
But they still spend a lot of time writing grant proposals to consistently bring in funds for the lab to increase their research, time Eren wishes they could invest with the students. They鈥檙e working on new research with current students in the lab about bone technology, a whole new avenue for them 鈥 and cause for the new aromas of their work.
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Eren and Bebber are also excited about a paper they鈥檙e finalizing about new theories surrounding technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e closing in on a holistic, general theory of how technology evolves and how technology originated, which is important because technology is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Other animals use tools, but we鈥檝e taken it to such a level that鈥檚 different. Archaeology allows us to have this long-term look at technology. We鈥檙e working on the entire trajectory of human technology, and we鈥檙e closing in on, I think, something big. Theoretically, we鈥檙e not there yet. But there are ideas that are starting to come together and percolate, which, when it happens, will be exciting,鈥 Eren said.
Overall, Eren is proud of the lab and where it鈥檚 gotten since its inception in 2016.
鈥淣ortheast Ohio has a long tradition of looking at questions involving human evolution and archaeology, and we feel really proud to carry on that tradition and doing it in a way that hasn鈥檛 been done before. Experimental archaeology as we do it at 黑料网 is still relatively new as a field, and we鈥檝e played a large part in forging it as its own discipline, and we鈥檝e made just tremendous discoveries over the last eight years through this lab. And there鈥檚 more exciting stuff that鈥檚 coming,鈥 Eren said.
Metin ErenIn archaeology, I get to pursue humanity鈥檚 primordial soup, right? I mean, just the technology that we have all around us, it started with really simple stone tools 3 million years ago. To study technology in its simplest form and see how that technology evolved over millions of years, I don鈥檛 know. I can鈥檛 think of a better job.