August 9, 2024
The AIA sent ten students to the field this summer with $2000 Jane C. Waldbaum Field School Scholarships! This year’s cohort brought a wide variety of archaeological interests and academic backgrounds. Please join us in welcoming Emma Iracondo.
Name: Emma Iracondo (she/her)
School: University of Georgia
Field School: Vesztö-Mágor Conservation and Exhibition Program, Hungary
Miles Traveled: 5155.45 miles (about 8296.89 km)
Bio: Emma Iracondo is a junior at the University of Georgia studying Anthropology and Classical Archaeology. She plans to attend The Vésztő-Mágor Conservation and Exhibition Program in Hungary and is excited to learn how site preservation and conservation can impact archaeological excavations.
The multi-year conservation and mitigation program focuses on the Vésztő-Mágor tell in southeastern Hungary. The site is the largest prehistoric tell on the Great Hungarian Plain with about 7 m of stratified cultural layers dating to the Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age, and is part of an archaeological and historical park – the Vésztő-Mágor National Historical Park (henceforth, Park). The Park features a unique, in situ exhibition of an excavation trench into the tell with stratigraphic profiles and exposed features and objects, an archaeological museum in a wine cellar dug into another portion of the tell, and a partially reconstructed medieval monastery on top of the site. The 19-x-4.5-m in situ trench was opened in 1986 in the central part of the tell that later was covered with a permanent, closed structure to facilitate public access.
The Park is an integral part of the local community and the program will help ensure that it will be preserved as a thriving center for local identity and regional congregation. Additionally, the Time Will Tell: The Vésztő-Mágor Conservation and Exhibition Program will promote and encourage the preservation and conservation of tells and their presentation to the public elsewhere in the world, and will establish best practice guidelines for conservation procedures in similar in situ contexts.
Since its inception in 2007, the Waldbaum Fund has supported undergraduate juniors, seniors, and first-year graduate students as they venture into the field for the first time. The fund helps make it possible for them to participate in this vital part of their archaeological training by contributing to travel costs, accommodations, and tuition. Your contribution can make a significant difference for these young scholars. Donate today to support the future of archaeology at archaeological.org/donatewaldbaum
