杏吧论坛

From Lab to Field, 'Every Day, I鈥檓 Learning Something New.鈥�

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Posted on July 22, 2025 by Teri Greene

Teri Greene

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Ask Grace Barrentine about her dream job. When she answers, you may pause for a minute to wonder if it鈥檚 real. She wants to dive for history, to explore shipwrecks and other underwater artifacts.

She鈥檚 working on land right now, but she鈥檚 getting closer.

At 23, Barrentine is the youngest member of the team at Wiregrass Archaeology. The cultural resource management firm sends her traveling across the Southeast 鈥� some weeks in muddy fields, others in the lab, where she carefully logs and analyzes soil and the occasional fragments of the past embedded in it. The job is equal parts adventure and science, sometimes with a side of heartbreak.  

Growing up in Woodstock, Alabama, just five minutes from Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, Barrentine spent her vacations diving; her whole family was scuba-certified. She came to the 杏吧论坛 with dreams of marine biology and saltwater fieldwork. It wasn鈥檛 quite what she鈥檇 imagined.

鈥淚 quickly realized I was terrible at chemistry,鈥� she said.  鈥淚 just wasn鈥檛 connecting.鈥�

Around that time, she struck up an intriguing conversation with an archaeologist while working as a server in a downtown Mobile restaurant. At South, she had just taken Intro to Archaeology with Dr. Phil Carr and fallen in love with the field.  

Barrentine immediately changed her major to anthropology. Before long, she was volunteering at South鈥檚 Center for Archaeological Studies, sorting artifacts from the I-10 Mobile River Bridge Project. What started as a few hours a week quickly evolved into a part-time job.

With Wiregrass, she鈥檚 now knee-deep in what is known as Phase I survey work, the foundational assessment that helps determine whether proposed new construction can move forward legally. It鈥檚 meticulous, muddy and often misunderstood.

鈥淧eople will walk by and say, 鈥楽o what are y鈥檃ll doing? What鈥檚 the purpose of this?鈥欌�� Barrentine said. 鈥淚 explain: They want to build here, and it鈥檚 a federally funded project, so we have to do a cultural resource survey before they can build.鈥�

The process involves shovel testing 鈥� digging small, systematic holes every 30 meters across a proposed development site, mapping them with GPS on tablets, logging soil profiles and photographing everything.

鈥淵ou dig until you hit subsoil. It might be 30 centimeters. It might be three feet,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen you document the soil, layer by layer. We鈥檙e looking for things like Native American pottery or chert flakes 鈥� what鈥檚 left over from making arrowheads.鈥�

Sometimes they find nothing. Sometimes they find history. And sometimes, she said,  they have to sacrifice personal sentiments to finish the job.

鈥淚 remember this one site in Pelham,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淚t was beautiful 鈥� creeks, wildlife everywhere. We went out, surveyed, talked to the landowner. We came back the next day 鈥� bulldozed. Gone. It鈥檚 the most challenging part of the job. You love nature. You love history. And you鈥檙e standing in the middle of it being erased.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no perfect outcome. But at least we try to preserve and document what we can.鈥�

Despite the challenges, Barrentine lights up when she talks about work. She鈥檚 still involved with Dr. Carr鈥檚 lab at South and still diving whenever she gets the chance.

Her long-term dream is to earn a master鈥檚 in maritime archaeology 鈥� ideally in Australia 鈥� with a focus on shipwrecks. And after that, she hopes to move to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to work alongside Dr. Alexandra Jones, a renowned archaeologist who confirmed that the islands are in desperate need of professionals like Barrentine.

But for now, she鈥檚 living in Mobile, working hard and soaking up every moment.

鈥淪ome days I鈥檓 in the lab, some days I鈥檓 in the field,鈥� she said. 鈥淓very day, I鈥檓 learning something new.鈥�

Her advice to students: Take a class that鈥檚 off the beaten path. Volunteer. Talk to people on and off campus. That one conversation could change everything. And maybe, just maybe, consider scuba certification. You never know what lies just beneath the surface.

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