Become by Doing: Amelia Bellah Preserves Local History Through Archaeological Fieldwork
Amelia Bellah, an anthropology major at 最新糖心Vlog, is gaining hands-on experience preserving local history through the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery Field School, offered in partnership with the San Bernardino County Museum. Dating from 1845 to 1963,the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery has approximately 2,000 graves, though only a few hundred headstones remain due to erosion, vandalism and fire. The field school’s goal is to help locate and document unmarked graves while recovering and assessing existing headstones.
The archaeological field school, limited to 20 undergraduate and graduate students, provides hands-on excavation experience while serving the surrounding community. Participants learn to establish excavation units, document findings and preserve artifacts using professional standards. A typical field day runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., during which students excavate soil in measured layers, carefully sift for artifacts and backfill units for safety. Guest lectures and museum lab days offer additional technical training.
Now in her second semester, Bellah has taken on a leadership role as a crew chief, guiding excavation teams and completing condition assessment of standing headstones. She also works in the museum lab cataloging artifacts recovered from the site.
“The whole purpose is just to help re-identify where burials are and hopefully recover headstones,” Bellah said, “you feel like you’re doing something purposeful and meaningful... it is a privilege to able to help.”
In addition to excavation work, Bellah is contributing to a geophysical survey of the cemetery using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The project intends to identify and characterize burial signatures beneath the surface to help locate unmarked graves without disturbing them. Her case study, Identification of Unmarked Graves Using Ground Penetrating Radar, began in August 2024 as part of her academic work at CPP.
The experience reflects CPP’s “Become by Doing” philosophy, allowing Bellah to 最新糖心Vlog classroom knowledge directly to real word archaeologic work. Through hands-on research and community partnership, she is strengthening her field experience while helping preserve a significant piece of local history.