LAST ARCHAEOLOGY CLUB FIELD TRIP OF THE YEAR: LA BREA TAR PITS AND LA COUNTY MUSEUM!!

The Cal Poly Archaeology Club took their final field trip of the 2023-24 school year to Los Angeles to visit the Natural History Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits! Following the usual grind through L.A., the club was taken on a behind-the-scenes tour of the anthropology and ethnology collections at the museum. They were able to see very cool artifacts and learn about the process of how artifacts are prepped for display. Afterwards, the club continued to tour the museum, spending lots of time at the dinosaur exhibits and the butterfly pavilion. That night, the Club camped out at Malibu Creek State Park, with students working together to prepare a campfire dinner and breakfast for everyone to enjoy surrounded by the beautiful park landscape The last stop of the trip was the La Brea Tar Pits, which did not disappoint!!! The club was met by archaeologists on site who brought them through a tour of the paleontology laboratory where technicians and volunteers clean and repair the excavated bones, including a recently unearthed mammoth skull! Students were then brought to the actual tar pits, and were able to watch the paleontologists at work uncovering fossils. There was even an opportunity for club members to see a tar pit up close, while learning about how the asphalt acts as a preservative for the bones, with some of them being over 40,000 years old! To wrap up the trip, club members strolled through the La Brea museum to see all the fossils on display and learn about what has been learned so far from the tar pits. This trip was very educational and super fun for everyone involved! if you are interested in joining and going on field trips like this next year, please reach out to the club’s new president, Sophie Fioravanti at sfiorava@calpoly.edu. Click link to photo album by Elliot Waters.