HICKORY - Tate Paulette’s findings may change what’s written in future history books.
Paulette, 27, is an archaeologist and doctoral student at the University of Chicago.
His passion for digging through dirt to find ancient artifacts has taken him from Scotland to Cyprus.
Most recently, Paulette traveled with other teams from the University of Chicago to work with the Department of Antiquities in Syria in the ancient city of Hamoukar.
Paulette was in charge of a square 10 feet long and 10 feet wide on the large mound of dirt that now covers Hamoukar. Workmen from a nearby village were hired to help during the dig. Paulette spent September and October digging through the remains.
His colleagues from the university found evidence that a battle destroyed the city around 3500 B.C. Some artifacts from the inhabitants’ daily lives were preserved.
The work at Hamoukar shows that elements associated with civilization developed there independently of the influences in the southern Mesopotamia. The latest findings suggest that the two groups may have had a violent confrontation at Hamoukar.
He took time in recent days to  discuss his work, his past and his future.

What was it like to be a part of the team that worked on the Hamoukar site?
This was probably the best dig for me. It’s an interesting site. We were there a little more than two months but we only dug for about a month and a half. I was working on the buildings we believe were from the third millennium. I was at the highest part of the mound and I found a big, public building of some sort. All the buildings were made out of mud brick. You’re digging in all the mud brick debris and that was definitely the biggest challenge while digging. We’ll keep working at the site. It’s like a puzzle, you keep getting pieces and try to fit them together.

When did you first become interested in archaeology?
I remember being in elementary school at Oakwood Elementary and in one of my AG (academically gifted) classes I made a big stone model of Stonehenge. I didn’t always know I wanted to be an archaeologist. I just had an interest in it and started taking classes in college.

Do you ever get bored with studying and going on digs?
No, not at all. There’s always something else to learn. I’m constantly trying to learn a new ancient language. I try to take anthropology classes. There are always different angles to take.

How do you relax?
I read a lot. It’s what I like to do. I have stacks of books I haven’t been able to get to yet. When classes start back, I have to focus almost all my energy on that. I am still in school. It’s a little different than having a normal job. You don’t ever get to stop, come home at 5 p.m. and say I’m done.

Is being an archaeologist your dream job?
I don’t know of anything else I would rather do.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I would love to by then have a job as a professor at a university. That would be ideal. Since I haven’t written my dissertation, I don’t know exactly where I’ll be or what I’ll be teaching.

What do you hope your legacy will be?
I hope that I can contribute to overall picture we’re building of how human society works and how it worked in the past. I hope I can give people some sense of where we came from. I would like to contribute my little bit to that. I don’t really care about making a huge discovery. I’m more concerned with sharing with people how civilizations functioned. Whenever you find an artifact, the important part is the context you found it, where you found it and why it was there. That’s what archaeology is all about. We record the larger context of everything very carefully. The excavation itself is just the beginning.

lwilliamson@hickoryrecord.com | 322-4510 x5408 or 304-6915