Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Antrhopology, has visited the Carribean and Western Pacific Islands countless times, all during his field work as an archaeologist in anthropology.Though his job is not quite like the idea romanticized in the Indiana Jones movies, he said he does have friends who have been chased by looters or fired upon. He enjoys the “travel and getting to meet new people wherever you go and work,” he said.In particular, he remembers a discovery he made on the island of Palau in 2007. The Discovery Channel show “Bone Detectives” was filming while he excavated. “We found this skull,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. With the cameras still rolling, he removed the sand to find a part of a 2-year-old’s skull inside the first skull, which had “clearly been placed there on purpose,” he said. According to Dr. Fitzpatrick, burying the remains this way was a mark of loving memory, something most people forget to look for amidst the dust and artifacts.”It’s easy to sort of lose context, to forget the fact that these are real people,” he said. But, emotional discoveries such as this one, show that ancient peoples were “concerned about the same things we are: survival and family health,” according to Dr. Fitzpatrick.Research in the field has characterized his work during all his thirteen years in college.”Anthropology is one of the longest; it takes a lot of field work,” Dr. Fitzgerald said.His research includes studying in the Caribbean, England, Washington, Barbados, Okinawa, Panamanian islands, and the West Pacific.”Island archaeology is kind of my specialty,” he said.The study of islands answers “questions about colonization and new sea-faring technology,” according to Dr. Fitzpatrick. “It’s important from an archaeological and historical standpoint to have a better understanding of why people went out to these places and how they evolved culturally over time,” he said.According to him, islands are a great place to do that. Each is a “microcosm of how people develop culturally, not having contact with other groups,” he said. ”In a real general sense, [we are] trying to understand how people were doing things in the past and how that affects us today,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said, which brought him to a paradoxical realization. ”Even though there are so many differences, one of the things we see is that [ancient peoples] really are no different than us,” he said.His study also focuses on how humans impact the environments, particularly a previously uninhabited islands.”People bring things they need to survive,” he said. “This inevitably leads to impacting the environment. Wherever humans step foot, we tend to not do thing in a sustainable way.”This largely alters the view of damage done to the environment. The Earth’s current state is, most accurately, the “endpoint of millennia of impacts,” according to Dr. Fitzpatrick.In all his studies, Palau remains his favorite place to visit.”It’s an amazing place,” he said, “with different endemic species, diving, kayaking, and archaeology.”Palau houses one of the oldest burial sites in the Pacific, dating back nearly 3,000 years. The different layers of artifacts cover an impressively large “sequence of occupation,” said Dr. Fitzgerald.Many of these artifacts, from the burial site at Chelechol ra Orrak found their way to the Archaeology laboratory in Park Shops, which holds skeletal remains to be analyzed by the Bioarchaeology graduate program.Undergraduates also work in the lab, particularly studying shells from the burial site.From 2002 to the opening of Park Shops, these artifacts remained in storage, according to Meagen Clark, a senior in bioarchaeology and human biology, who works in the archaeology laboratory and hopes to spend next summer at one of the field schools in Dr. Fitzpatrick’s study abroad program.”[Dr. Fitzpatrick] hadn’t been able to do anything,” said Mira Abed, a junior in international studies and polymer and color chemistry, who also works in the laboratory.Both Abed and Clark work to analyze Strombidae strombus gibberulus, a mollusk which served as a source of food for Palau’s inhabitants. By examining shells from different layers at the burial site, they hope to learn about the practices of the indigenous peoples over time. “If [the shells] are smaller, then it might be because they were overharvesting them [at that time],” Abed said.Abed enjoys the work in the laboratory, particularly, “finding out something about people who lived in the past that we don’t really know anything about,” she said. “It’s like looking into the past.”However, the lack of certainty in the work can be frustrating.”We can only make educated guesses,” Abed said. In terms of the shell project, the overharvesting could be a result of a sudden population flux or irresponsible handling of resources, she said.Archaeological research offers unique deterrents and rewards.”You have to have a lot of patience,” Clark said. “You’re never going to get quick answers, but in the end, it’s really rewarding. It kind of feels like you’ve discovered something, figured out a mystery. It’s amazing to look through what other cultures have left us and analyze how our culture reacts to that.”Also, Dr. Fitzpatrick’s involvement makes working in the lab even easier.”He’s extremely intelligent,” said Clark, “and it’s an honor to work with him.”