The science of reading relics to fashion a picture of the past depends not only on training but also on a certain affinity for material things - a gift, blending analysis and imagination, for seeing patterns. There's an art to the science of archaeology.

Professor of Anthropology Patricia Urban, who has spent nearly 20 years excavating pre-Columbian sites in Honduras, has that artist's eye. She is not only an expert in analyzing pottery but also exceptionally skilled in making site maps: conveying in two-dimensional form the disordered three-dimensional arrangements of remnants (staircases, terraces, walls) that, to the unpracticed, seem to be simply strewn around the landscape.

Students benefit from Urban's expertise first-hand through the Kenyon Honduras Program, which she directs jointly with her husband and Kenyon colleague, Professor of Anthropology Edward Schortman. The semester-long program offers coursework in anthropology and Latin American culture, honing of Spanish language skills, and hands-on fieldwork. The students design their own projects in cultural anthropology or oversee portions of the ongoing digs at El Coyote, a site from the Late Classic era (500-900 C.E.).

Urban, whose on-campus course offerings cover topics ranging from Maya hieroglyphs to women in Latin America, won the prestigious Mayfield Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology in 2000. But she sees her greatest contribution in personal terms. Through the Honduras program, she says, "We expose students to potentially life-changing situations." Some of the participants have gone on to graduate school in anthropology, but none forget their contact with Honduran families or the self-confidence engendered by their projects. "The database we're developing will always be good," says Urban, "but our real legacy is our influence on students' lives."