Author Spotlight
Sophia Brockmeier
Junior Katherine Piraquive’s hands were coated in dirt.
Head down, brush and pickaxe in hand, she was chipping away at over 2,000-year-old dirt in central Spain.
Katherine stared down at a collection of 25 clay pot fragments buried in the coarse dirt and gawked at the pieces — she had just found a pot used by Ancient Romans over two millennia ago. A pot similar to the ones she had learned about in her AP European History class was finally in her hands.
She named the pot Marvin.
Later that evening Katherine would give Marvin his “first bath in centuries” with flowing warm water and soap.
She had the opportunity to discover Marvin through her two and a half weeks in Carrascosa del Campo, Spain from June 26 to July 13 through the program ArchaeoSpain — a field school and summer program. Acting as an archeologist for the summer, Katherine uncovered artifacts and combined her love for history and Spanish with eighteen other teenagers.
“Marvin was our baby,” Katherine said. “We loved him. It set the tone. You’re out there for the second day, it’s hot, you’re digging in the dirt. You’re like, ‘What am I doing?’ And then you find Marvin and you’re like ‘That’s why. That’s why I’m doing this.’”
The Pulpon-Spain Roman fortress, Katherine’s dig site for the program, was three hours away from Madrid, and contained dozens of rooms the size of East’s cafeteria.
After digging up Marvin, Katherine found hundreds of artifacts including rabbit and goat bones, iron pickaxes, a wine-yielding amphora, centuries-old dried seeds and ancient dice.
Based on her findings in one corner of the Roman fortress, Katherine was able to infer that the Romans had gambled and drank in a room that was also used for storage.
Such discoveries occurred on weekdays when Katherine would dig from 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the hot sun and learn more about the history of the Romans. She has always considered history one of her favorite subjects, reading history novels for fun and taking classes like World Regional Studies and AP European History at school.
Katherine’s friend, junior Sophia Yanics, remembers Katherine helping her with her World Regional Studies class during their freshman year.
“I remember we had a history class together and I would be like, ‘I don’t want to do this work,’” Sophia said. “She would say ‘Come on, it’s fun’ and talk about more interesting sides of it. So not only did she get to talk about what she loved, but she also helped me.”
But Katherine’s love of history didn’t start when she began Mr. Klein’s World Regional Studies class. According to her mom Christina Piraquive, it started when she was a little girl first starting to read.
“When a lot of kids her age were reading [young adult fiction], she would pick out various books about different civilizations or conflicts going on in the world,” Christina said. “So I think she really is interested in learning about what’s happening in the world, but also what has happened, so learning about the past.”
The ArchaeoSpain program offered an opportunity for Katherine to apply her love for history in a new country; she found it a perfect fit for her summer.
She learned how to identify the artifacts and safely remove them from the ground without damaging them from the two founders of ArchaeoSpain — Catalina Urquijo and Dr. Dionisio Urbina.
“They had this little trick to identify if [a fragment] was a bone,” Katherine said. “I think it’s just a joke, but they would make you lick it. If your tongue stuck, then it was a bone. But if it didn’t, then it was a rock. Some kid did it but he got sick the next day.”
Teenagers from the United States, United Kingdom and China joined Katherine in Spain after an application process including a teacher recommendation letter. Katherine and her peers took part in activities such as trips on weekends that heightened her Spanish skills.
Toledo, Segobriga and Cuenca were some of the cities where she was able to talk to small shop owners and locals in Spanish — applying her knowledge from four years of Spanish throughout middle and high school.
“I was totally nervous thinking about conjugations and grammar,” Katherine said. “But I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not that bad.’ I can understand what they’re saying and I can reply in a decent way, which is really cool.”
After gaining more Spanish and historical knowledge at ArchaeoSpain, Katherine’s certain that she wants to study anthropology in college.
“I think it was a great idea for her to be on this trip,” Christina said. “I’m really just proud of her that she took a chance to find something like this and go out on her own and really do it. I think it’s a great skill to learn and get her ready for when she goes to college in a couple years.”
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