―Texas A&M University is, you know,・・・―

先日、ＴＡＭＵを訪れた学生さんから体験レポートを書いてもらいました。学校の様子、保存処理ラボでの体験、ハリケーンＲｉｔａなどなど。

ＴＡＭＵのキャンパス内

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮ

Texas A&M University (TAMU)は私が大学１年のころからの憧れの大学でした。そこには世界的に著名な団体、Institute of Nautical Archaeology （INA）があり、Nautical Archaeology Program（NAP）とともに水中考古学の授業を教えている。高校時代に新しい考古学に興味を持った。水中考古学である。これはトレジャーハンターな海底探検などとは全く違い、学術的な考古学の一分野で水没した遺跡や沈没船の調査を行う。ＩＮＡで将来勉強したいと考えているので、大学在学中に一度ＴＡＭＵを訪れて見るべきだと思った。

FIRST VISIT

２００４年の夏休みにこの計画が実行された。海外へ行くのは初めてだったが、なんとか無事にＴＡＭＵの隣町、Ｂｒｙａｎにたどり着くことができた。私はＲａｎｄａｌｌ　ＳＡＳＡＫＩ氏の家に滞在することになった。彼のルームメイトであるジョージが大学まで連れて行って教授や他の生徒などに私のことを紹介してくれた。
大学は今までに見てきた学校で一番規模が大きいものであったため、大学を探索してみた。また、教授（Ｄｒ．Ｗａｙｎｅ　Ｓｍｉｔｈ，Ｄｒ．Ｋｅｖｉｎ　Ｃｒｉｓｍａｎ，Ｄｒ．Ｃｅｍａｌ　Ｐｕｌａｋ）と話す機会や、クラスにも参加することが出来た。Ｄｒ．Ｃｒｉｓｍａｎには保存処理ラボに連れて行ってもらって保存処理の勉強が出来た。
アメリカの滞在中、平穏なときを過ごし、また、町の人々がとても親切であったので、ＴＡＭＵはとても良い環境にある大学であると感じた。大学の規模は大きく、また、学内にはいろいろなレストランやお店があり、生活に必要なものは大体学校のそばで買うことが出来る。しかし、町には公用交通機関があまりないため、学校へ来る前に事前に知り合いなどに連絡を取っておくことを進める。車がないと生活しにくい場合がある。

Ａｎｔｈｒｏｐｏｌｏｇｙ　Ｂｕｉｌｄｉｎｇの中にＩＮＡがあります。

COMING BACK TO TAMU

２００５年の９月にＴＡＭＵに戻る事を決めた。今度は“水中考古学の父”と呼ばれる教授に会うこと、クラスに参加すること、そして卒業論文に必要な文献を集めることを目的とした。約２週間ほど滞在する予定である。
大学ではＥｖａｎｓ　Ｌｉｂｒａｒｙ(大学のメイン図書館)やＮＡＰ図書館で資料集めを行った。ＮＡＰ図書館では水中考古学、海洋文化、船など様々な資料・文献があった。とくにジャーナルをくまなく調べた、特にInternational Journal of Nautical Archaeology(ＩＪＮＡ), Das Logbuch, The Mariner’s Mirrorなどである。Ｅｖａｎｓ　ＬｉｂｒａｒｙはＮＡＰ・ＩＮＡのあるビルの隣にあり、最初はコレクションの数が多いため迷ってしまった。
また、クラスに参加することや、保存処理ラボで作業することも出来た。　Ｄｒ．Ｓｍｉｔｈの“水中考古学入門”や“考古学者のためのビジュアルグラフィクス”などのクラスに参加した。Ｄｒ．Ｓｍｉｔｈは穏やかな性格で、また生徒を笑わせることが得意な教授だった。彼のクラスは興味深く、またインフォーマルであった。Ｃａｐｅ　Ｇｅｌｉｄｏｎｙａ沈没船の話などでは遺物や船の構造などを分かりやすく解説していた。このクラスは学部生のためのクラスで、水中考古学に興味のある生徒はぴったりの授業である。

保存処理ラボの前にあるアンカー

保存処理ラボはＲｉｖｅｒＳｉｄｅ　Ｃａｍｐｕｓにあり、メインのキャンパスから車で１０-１５分ほどの距離にある。１日目は二つの仕事が与えられた。一つは遺物パズル（？）で、もう一つは遺物の表面の余分なシリコンオイルを除去する作業である。遺物パズルでは幾つか組み合わせを見つけることができたものの、慣れが必要な作業だと思った。次の作業は有機物を薬品につけ、シリコンを洗い流す作業であったが、細かい破片などもシリコンでベトベトであったため、扱いにくかった。次の日、何か他の仕事が無いかと聞いたら、快く別の仕事を与えてくれた。新しい作業は小さなドリルでコンクリーションを少しずつはがしていく作業である。金属が長い間水に浸かっていると、コンクリーションと呼ばれる硬い殻のようなもので覆われてしまう。この殻を除去しないことには保存処理は進まないのである。コンクリーションをドリルで壊していく際、遺物の表面を傷つけないよう注意を払いながら作業を進めた。このように地道な作業ではあったが、非常に興味深い体験ができた。

ドリルを使い遺物に付着したコンクリーションを取り除く

ジョージ・バス教授(水中考古学の父)とは昔から会ってみたいと思っていた。彼がＩＮＡを設立した本人である。去年はバス教授が大学にちょうどいなかったため会うことが出来なかった。彼は私を見つけては丁寧に挨拶をしてくれて、彼のオフィスでしばらく話をすることが出来た。
運が悪いことに、ハリケーンＲｉｔａのおかげで帰りの飛行機の日程を変更しなければならなかった。Ｈｏｕｓｔｏｎ行きの道路は混んでいることが予想され、また航空会社の電話もなかなかつながらなかった。

ハリケーンＲｉｔａに備えて買い物(主に食料品)を買いあさる人々

CONCLUSION

ＴＡＭＵはとても良い大学であり、また、ＮＡＰも勉強のしがいがあるプログラムだと思った。このほかにもアメリカ、オーストラリア、イギリス、イスラエルなど世界では水中、海洋、海事史考古学など学べる大学はいろいろある。しかし、私個人の感想としてはＴＡＭＵが一番自分にはあっていると思った。

本文

INTRODUCTION

Texas A&M University (TAMU) has been the institute of my desire since I was a first-year college student. There is the most excellent establishment in the world named INA: Institute of Nautical Archaeology. And then, INA provides some classes and courses in its program NAP: Nautical Archaeology Program. When I was a high school student, I got interested in a new archaeology; underwater archaeology that is by no means a treasure hunting or underwater adventure, but an academic field of archaeological study about submerged sites or sunken ships. Therefore, I thought that if I wished to study at INA I should go to Texas and visit TAMU someday within 4-year college life.

FIRST VISIT

On summer vacation in 2004, my plan to visit Texas was put into practice. That was the first time I went overseas and visit the States. Although, on my way to Texas, I had some troubles and difficulties such as being captured by a homeless, I could arrive at Bryan without any danger. While I was in Texas, I stayed in the house of Mr. Randie J. Sasaki, who is a builder of this Site. I was a kind of , you know, his henchman. Then, roommate George kindly took care of me while I was staying there. He took me to the school and introduced me to his friends and professors.
In TAMU, I tried to look around as many building as possible because the university was the grandest and largest I had ever seen. I got soon curious about this college. Besides, I joined some classes and talked with 3 professors: Dr. Wayne Smith, Dr. Kevin Chrisman and Dr. Cemal Pulak. Dr. Chrisman took me to Conservation Research Laboratory and I had an opportunity to see a kind of conservation process. I will explain the detail about class and lab work later.
Nothing terrible happened in College Station and Bryan. Texas A&M University is very nice place, and people are pretty friendly and kind. The campus site of TAMU is so extensive that I could not visit all of the building even for 2 weeks. There are many kind of store like bookstore, convenience store, restaurant and so on. I had enjoyable time even in just looking around there. Possibly, you can find any item that you need in your campus life. The only uncomfortable thing in College Station is that there is no public transportation such as bus, train, etc. Therefore, if you want to visit Texas A&M University, it is better for you to make friends with anyone or make an appointment to the persons concerned in advance. Otherwise, you would have difficulty in traveling around. Automobile must be indispensable there.

COMING BACK TO TAMU

In next September 2005, I returned to TAMU in order to meet with “the Father of Underwater Archaeology”, attend some classes and collect some materials for my thesis. This time was 2-week stay, too.
In the campus, I spent almost all of the time to search for useful written sources in Nautical Archaeology Library and Evans Library. Nautical Archaeology Library in Anthropology Building has a plenty of books and journals not solely on nautical archaeology, underwater archaeology, maritime history but also on ships and nautical society. I mainly researched in International Journal of Nautical Archaeology(ＩＪＮＡ), Das Logbuch, The Mariner’s Mirror and so forth. Another one, Evans is just in front of Anthropology Building and it seems to be the largest library in TAMU. Because of its great number of books and its complexity of layout, first visitor may have trouble in finding and become frustrated, I guess.
Also, I had an opportunity to attend some classes and to experience conservation tasks in Conservation Research Laboratory. In this stay, Dr. Smith allowed me to join two of his classes such as introduction course of underwater archaeology and computer class. He is so cheerful and gentle. Everyone in the classroom could not avoid being made cheerful by him. Actually, his classes were very exciting and informative. In the underwater archaeological introduction class, he took Geridnia Sunken Ship as an example. Some of the artifacts retrieved from that site and the features of the ship were explained. That is likely to be a class for undergraduate students. If you are interested in archaeology and ship, this class must be absolutely beneficial, I think.
Conservation Research Laboratory is in Riverside Campus, 10 or 15 minute distant by car. On the first day in the laboratory, Randie-san gave me two types of job. One is like an artifact puzzle, another is artifact cleansing with silicone oil. In the former one, although I had to put not a few fragments of artifact together, I just completed two possible sets of fragment. I thought that that kind of task needed getting more accompanied. In the latter one, I cleaned dispersed pieces of wooden or leather artifact with silicone oil. Paying attention was required to that job because a chunk of the artifacts were terribly oil-stained and sticky. On the other day, I was let to do a more exiting job. I asked Jim ”Can I do anything for you?” and then, he said “Yes.” Next task was like concretion removing by tremble drill. Metal or wooden artifacts recovered from underwater are often covered with solid concretion. Hence, it has to be removed in the process of conservation. This job using a drill needed paying more attention so as not to scratch surfaces of the artifact over. But, concretion removing was considerably exciting and interesting to me.
I had wanted to meet with Dr. George F. Bass since I was a first year college student. He is called “the Father of Underwater Archaeology” and he also established INA in TAMU. On last year, I could not see him because he was not there. In this visit, I had a chance to meet with him. Probably, he unexpectedly found me in Student Room, and he politely introduced himself to me. I had a good conversation time with him for a while in his office.
Unfortunately, I had to reschedule my flight because hurricane Rita was just coming to Houston. On weekend, the route from Houston seemed to be very crowded and the telephone line to airline company was also busy. I had to spend the last 3 days in the house. That was a terrible experience.

CONCLUSION

Again, Texas A&M University is a very nice place and Nautical Archaeology Program in there is worth your while to study. There are several institutes in the U.S.A., Australia, the U.K or Israel where you can specialize in maritime, underwater or nautical archaeology. I am sure that TAMU is the best. But, be careful of the weather in the States, you know.

Submitted by Li Shuwen (Sep 2005)