Worcestershire sauce and waterways

Jayela Lopez (she/her)
Hometown: Alexandria, VA
Major: Archaeology and Biology ‘24
Internship: Yellowstone National Park Archaeology Program

Jayela Lopez reflects on people of the past at the nation’s oldest national park

Yellowstone National Park is one of the most renowned national parks in the world, and this summer I have been given the privilege to live and work here as a part of the archaeology team. This position has been interesting for me because, much like many other people, I came into Yellowstone expecting to be blown away by the breathtaking landscape and dazzling (and sometimes frightening) wildlife. However, the work that I’ve done and the projects that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of have revealed an entire other perspective of this park: the history of the people that traveled through, lived, and visited this land. 

For some context, the oldest evidence of humans at Yellowstone dates back to almost 9500 years ago, and this region has continued to have relatively regular occupation all the way to the modern day. Across this wide span of human history, my experience and interests coming in had focused primarily on the “prehistoric” (or pre-contact) period, which archaeologically refers to the period of human history in the Americas prior to European contact. Despite my interests, the nature of the federal government and the cultural resource maintenance requirements that the archaeology team helps to uphold don’t allow us to be picky about the time periods that we get to study. 

This turned out to be more of a blessing than I had anticipated. Through the guidance of other members of my team, I’ve learned about one of the major advantages of “historic” archaeology: diagnostic material. In archaeology, diagnostic material refers to any artifact or feature that has some defining trait that can be used to trace back to a particular individual, company, and/or time period. A glass bottle is more than just a glass bottle. It can be a wine bottle sent to an army camp during the late 19th century. Or a bottle of Worcestershire sauce dropped near where the hotel lodge kitchen once stood. Diagnostic material is the cornerstone of archaeology because it tells a story of the object and of the people who consumed and produced it, which is often the only line of evidence that we have out in the field. (Note: if you are interested in learning more about diagnostic material there are tons of online resources detailing ways of identifying historic artifacts with markings on them!)

Even though fieldwork and diagnostics opened my eyes to the wonders of historic archaeology, when given the opportunity to pursue my own independent research, I jumped on the opportunity to look at the prehistoric landscape at Yellowstone. I am currently working on a project that is looking at obsidian sourcing. For this project, I chose to look at two regions connected by the Yellowstone River, hoping to find patterns in the flow of objects (and therefore people) between the two. I chose obsidian as the proxy for this because obsidian sourcing is a reliable way of determining from which quarry obsidian pieces come from. It is even more helpful considering that the largest and most widely used obsidian quarry in the country, aptly named Obsidian Cliff, is found at Yellowstone. My research is also comparing obsidian sourcing across sub-time periods ranging from as early as 9000 years before present to just around 300 years ago, with the hope of showing how different culture complexes at different times might prioritize one source over another. I view this project as a way to explore the connection that two of Yellowstone's most popular regions had to the rest of the park and the greater Yellowstone Area in the Rocky Mountains. The various rivers, lakes, and waterways that are present in these regions can tell a lot about the settling habits and movements of people, and I believe that looking at obsidian sourcing could be the key to viewing those trends through material goods. While my time here and working on this project is limited, I hope that by completing this project it can serve as a key resource for others (or even myself) down the road who choose to explore prehistoric trade and culture in Yellowstone.

Archaeology at Yellowstone, as I hope I’ve illustrated, can take on many different forms and involve many different things. As a member of this team, our job is to pull all that we know together and shed light of the past in the present. So, next time you find yourself at Yellowstone, or any national park for that matter, enjoy the scenery and the animals but don’t forget to remember the people and the vast history that you as a visitor get to be a part of (but please don’t take any artifacts because that is VERY illegal).