Catherine Maier is an undergraduate in Anthropology at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her passion for geology and archaeology led her to apply for the Groot Fellowship to join excavations at Wadi Qattafi and work with Dr. Gary Rollefson as part of the Eastern Badia Archaeological project.
The summer 2016 dig aimed to uncover two Neolithic houses where dozens of tools, bones, and ancient plant material paint a picture of a life in the late Neolithic. Catherine studied the basalt mesas and the way in which ancient people lived in the Jordanian desert landscape, as well as how the landscape changed over many thousands of years.
The Groot Fellowship gave Catherine her very first experience with Middle Eastern Archaeology. She found it “exhilarating- the geology, the ancient tools we found, and the dramatic experience of being in the Badia all made this adventure very fulfilling.”
Catherine hopes to visit ACOR again, as she had a wonderful experience. She is grateful to ACOR and the Groot Fellowship for their support to fuel her academic interests.
-Written by Whitman College student Emma Massie (June 2016).
The Groot Fellowship is named for Jennifer C. Groot (1951-1987), a field archaeologist who worked on many excavations in Jordan between 1974 and 1987. The Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship enables an undergraduate or graduate student from either the US or Canada to participate in an archaeological excavation or survey in Jordan. More information about Jennifer Groot’s legacy and this fellowship is available here.Â
