When you think of archaeology, you might think of the desert. Egyptian tombs covered in the dust of the swirling sand outside.

You might think of long-forgotten battlefields, where spent bullets still lie buried in the ground.

Or, maybe right on Michigan State University. Where you are at school. Studying archaeology.

The best part? The discovery all started because students wanted a hammock near their residence hall.

MSU workers were installing posts for the hammock, when they ran into something hard underground. So they contacted the school’s Campus Archaeology Program (CAP).

Michigan State University’s first observatory, circa 1888. Photo by Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections

Immediately the department began trying to find out what was beneath the ground. After some digging, and consulting of old maps, it was determined that the discovery was the site of the campus’ first observatory that was built nearly 150 years ago in 1881.

That could have been easily dismissed if we hadn’t had some historic maps and knowledge of that area,” said Stacey Camp, director of the Campus Archaeology Program.

“People are really curious about the past. They’re very invested in this campus and its history and being able to share a little bit of its history and my knowledge with people is just very rewarding,” Camp said.

The original observatory was built by Prof. Rolla Carpenter, who taught astronomy. 

“In the early days of MSU’s astronomy program, Carpenter would take students to the roof of College Hall and have them observe from there, but he didn’t find it a sufficient solution for getting students experience in astronomical observation,” said Ben Akey, an MSU campus archaeologist and anthropology doctoral student in a press release.

“When MSU acquired a telescope, Carpenter successfully argued for funding for a place to mount it: the first campus observatory.”

Akey said that the observatory was likely demolished in the 1920s.

The cobblestone foundation of the observatory, which was originally built in 1881 Photo courtesy of Michigan State University

The location of the old observatory will become a dig site for students to earn course credit, also allowing them gain excavation experience.

“We anticipate having 18 to 20 students work on the project and get great experience doing archaeology,” Camp said.

I love watching students connect with artifacts and try to tell a bigger story about humankind with those objects.”

And what’s waiting to be found, who knows? “Maybe there’s pencils or pens or other things that students have left behind,” Camp said. “Maybe there’s parts of a telescope that were left behind. We don’t know until we dig.”

The discovery, Akey and Camp both agreed, allows the students and public a chance to see how the school’s current program got its start.

“I think it really demonstrates our very humble beginnings,” Camp said. “And how we’ve now come so far, where we have all kinds of amazing scientists here on campus and a planetarium.”

Watch below for a look at the site where the old observatory was discovered.

Sources: People | Smithsonian Magazine