{"id":2550,"date":"2026-06-26T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:50:13","slug":"week-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/2026\/06\/26\/week-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Marino\u2019s Dastardly Whip Heist and Other Stories from Archaeological Field School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Teela Watson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legend has it Professor Marino is secretly a thief. And in the folklore of the University of Akron Anthropology Department, there exists a story of her most devious heist ever: the time she stole Doctor Timothy Matney\u2019s whip. This is how the story goes\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every great archaeologist owns a whip at some point in their career. The whip has itself become a symbol of power and prestige in the archaeological community. It is the mark of a good scientist. Dr. Matney is a good scientist, and own a whip he does. The story of how he got it has been lost to time, but several other stories \u2013 stories of how he used it \u2013 still circulate in the Department of Anthropology. It is said that he used the whip to swing over a deep chasm, narrowly escaping a deadly explosion in Turkey, and that, when he fought a hungry cougar in a one-on-one duel, it was only using the whip that he defeated the cougar and won the fight. Yes, it is said that the whip saved Dr. Matney\u2019s life many times over the course of his adventures. It was his prized possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, until Professor Marino interfered. She was a stealthy thief, and at midnight one November night, she snuck into Olin Hall and headed for the Anthropology Department lobby, where the whip was kept. They say she was dressed in black, wearing a fedora, and she was perfectly silent as she crept through the building. When she arrived in the Anthropology Department, she saw the priceless whip, displayed on a shelf on the wall. She snuck to the shelf and took hold of the whip, admiring it for a moment before slipping it into her magical bottomless handbag. Then, she escaped into the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Professor Marino steal the whip? Nobody knows for sure. Maybe she wanted revenge on Matney for spilling his coffee in the archaeology classroom. Maybe she could use the whip to battle the snakes that invaded her dig sites. The most likely reason is that she wanted the prestige it gave her. It was the material proof of her greatness, both as an archaeologist and as a thief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whatever the reason for the theft, when Dr. Matney returned to Olin Hall the next morning, he was distraught to find his beloved whip missing. He would never see the whip again. Professor Marino was so sneaky that the authorities never caught her. They say that even now, the stolen whip is displayed proudly in her study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there is another story, one unrelated to thievery or whips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legend has it there were once two brave people living together in twentieth century America. These people, with great courage, braved the hardships that faced them as an African American couple in the mid 1900s. They came from across the country to live here in Akron, Ohio, and they eventually settled in one of the first integrated neighborhoods in the area: Wheelock Cuyahoga Acres. Although the couple mostly lived in a home closer to the city, they came to Wheelock often, and were an important part of the community of people that owned property on the neighborhood\u2019s primary street, Honeywell Drive. They were involved in the church, and the husband was a devoted pianist. The couple even created a garden to serve their community. They built a house on Honeywell Drive, and in time, they filled the house with music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, the first story \u2013 the one about the whip \u2013 was completely made up by me. There was no duel with a cougar, no magical bottomless handbag, and no heist. And not every great archaeologist has a whip \u2013 in fact, very few do. Professor Marino doesn\u2019t have one, and she\u2019s a great archaeologist. She is, however, certainly not a thief. Yes, the first story was all fabricated fiction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The second story, on the other hand, is entirely true. It is the story of the Prather family. And in week six of archaeological field school, we continued to discover more of that story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The view from the path to the site on Wednesday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After discovering the second corner of the Prathers\u2019 house foundation in week 5, we were excited to get back to work this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the heavy rain made it so that we were unable to work in the field. This meant that we would be working in the laboratory \u2013 Monday became our first lab day of the season. We spent the day cleaning artifacts we had previously collected from the site. The cleaning technique we used the most was drybrushing, which is simply using a toothbrush to brush dirt off of objects. This is how we cleaned artifacts such as foil, styrofoam, and rusted metal. We used water and a wet toothbrush to clean artifacts such as glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eden cleaning artifacts in the lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
A tray full of artifacts in the lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday we had beautiful weather and thus were able to spend the day in the field. Frequent volunteers Jim and Katie joined us; both of them were field school students in previous years, and they are always a welcome addition to our crew. In the morning, we created unit D.5 \u2013 an extension of unit D next to the Northeast corner of the foundation. This extension was created to prove that the piece of foundation we found was indeed the corner, and to give us a better idea of the shape of the foundation, as this section didn\u2019t lie in line with the first corner. Jim, Katie, and I spent the day digging in unit D.5, first by shovel skimming, then by troweling. This excavation did prove that what we had found was the corner. Eden trowelled in a section of unit A – the original unit where students a few years ago discovered the first corner of the foundation. She found enough cans and other artifacts to fill several artifact bags!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eden, David, Ranger, and Jim at work in the units<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Killian and David extended unit D.5 further to the south, again hoping to get a better understanding of the foundation\u2019s shape. The rest of us troweled in units D and A. We found many artifacts, including pieces of vinyl records.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A piece of a vinyl record found on the Prather site
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We started in the field on Thursday, troweling away in units D and D.5. At about nine o\u2019clock in the morning, it started raining, and we had to pack things up in the field and head to the lab for the rest of the day. In the lab, we continued to clean all of the artifacts we had found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a week full of cleaning and troweling, but also full of interesting conversation. In both the field and the lab, we had plenty of meaningful discussions, and plenty of silly ones. Topics ranged from the Civil War to the Muppets, and all of that interesting talk helped keep us entertained while we worked. We talked about what our field school would be like as a television show, and what kind of children\u2019s cartoon we would make about archaeology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the field, we like to tell stories; nothing passes the time like imagining all sorts of entertaining things! Even the story about Professor Marino being a thief came from a discussion we had in the field. That\u2019s all for week 6; as field school continues, we\u2019ll keep troweling and talking, and we\u2019ll see you next week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
David and Killian working at the Prather site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Teela Watson Legend has it Professor Marino is secretly a thief. And in the folklore of the University of Akron Anthropology Department, there exists a story of her most devious heist ever: the time she stole Doctor Timothy Matney\u2019s whip. This is how the story goes\u2026 Every great archaeologist owns a whip at some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4925,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}