{"id":24061,"date":"2017-04-04T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=24061"},"modified":"2017-04-04T12:40:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T17:40:54","slug":"apsu-latingeology-student-headed-to-europe-for-roman-site-excavation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2017\/04\/04\/apsu-latingeology-student-headed-to-europe-for-roman-site-excavation\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU Latin\/geology student headed to Europe for Roman site excavation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – On a sweltering afternoon in Tallil, Iraq, a U.S. Army soldier named Elizabeth Wilcox paused on her way to the gym to examine what looked like seashells on the desert floor.<\/p>\n

Centuries ago, the Euphrates River had flowed through the area, surrounding a nearby stone structure some scholars believe was the Tower of Babel, but that channel of the river had long since turned to dust.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU student Elizabeth Wilcox. (Cassidy Graves, APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, it\u2019s a desolate desert,\u201d Wilcox said. \u201cThere were no signs of large bodies of water nearby. I knew the history of the place, but the shell brought to life this history.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that moment, Wilcox became curious at how geology can reveal history\u2019s lost secrets. Now, as an Austin Peay State University senior, studying Latin, Classical Civilizations and geology, hercuriosity is taking her to Romania, where she\u2019ll analyze soil at the site of an ancient Roman province.<\/p>\n

Wilcox is able to participate in this ground-breaking fieldwork because she recently won the Classical Association of the Middle West and South\u2019s (CAMWS) Dr. Peter Knox Award. The prestigious $2,000 award, named for the former president of CAMWS, is presented each year to one undergraduate student, one graduate student and one teacher.<\/p>\n

Wilcox, the undergraduate winner, will use the monetary award to attend an excavation field school in Romania. She will spend six weeks learning how to use Ground Penetrating Radar while she assists the excavation of the Roman site.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of students from some of the top archeological programs in the country applied for the CAMWS Award, but the awarding committee was impressed by Wilcox\u2019s proposal to conducting phosphorus analysis of the site\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about Liz is she had a very specific interest in the discipline, so I thought she stood a better chance,\u201d Dr. Tim Winters, APSU Classics professor, said. \u201cBut still, that\u2019s a lot of students at a lot of top universities applying. I\u2019m impressed. I\u2019m very proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Wilcox left the army after 14 years of service, she enrolled at Austin Peay with the intention of studying biology. But then she took a Latin class and \u201cfell in love\u201d with the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading Virgil and Cicero made me fall in love with the culture and love it more,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I went to Greece last summer with Dr. Winters.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her weeks in Greece, Wilcox met some of Winters\u2019 close friends, including Dr. Guy Sanders, director of The American School of Classical Studies in Athens\u2019 excavation at Corinth.<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s preparing to graduate from Austin Peay and then spend much of her summer in Romania, looking for artifacts related to the region\u2019s last Dacian king.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Dacians were nothing to be messed with,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they went to war, they had bill hooks that would slice off people\u2019s limbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she finishes her stay in Romania, Wilcox hopes to continue her research as a graduate student at the University of Kent in Canterbury England, and she credits any success she may have in this field to her undergraduate program at Austin Peay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought anything like this would ever happen,\u201d she said. \u201cI would have to say the Classics program\u2014Dr. Winters, Dr. (Stephen) Kershner, Ms. (Mary) Winters\u2014was such an asset to my learning here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Classics at Austin Peay visit www.apsu.edu\/classics<\/a> or contact Winters at winterst@apsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – On a sweltering afternoon in Tallil, Iraq, a U.S. Army soldier named Elizabeth Wilcox paused on her way to the gym to examine what looked like seashells on the desert floor. Centuries ago, the Euphrates River had flowed through the area, surrounding a nearby stone structure some scholars believe was the Tower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,262,825,30015,30012,30013,8106,30016,1240,16946,29543,26471,22163,29539,30010,10163,30014,30011],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6g5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24062,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061\/revisions\/24062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}