As a pre-med Neuroscience major, Teri Hamer ’07 didn’t think much about history or art. Still, she enrolled in an archaeological dig of a medieval castle in Belgium and made a heart-stopping discovery.

The Egg Harbor Township, N.J., native spent four weeks last summer in a trench at Walhan Castle in the town of Louvian-La-Neuve. She sifted dirt, cleaned cobblestones and marked the layers of soil. Dubbed the “Trench Doctor” by her dig-mates, Archaeology and Art majors from other colleges, Hamer hit a hard chunk of dirt two feet below the surface that needed a second opinion.

The key to the castle. “It looked like a clump of dirt and I realized I found something,” she says.

When she cleaned the rusty object with dental picks and toothbrushes, Hamer realized she unearthed the key to the castle – an ornate 6-inch key with designs around its edges.

“I never thought of history as its own science before, but I learned how important it is to look at and learn from the past,” she said of the significance of her experience.

Hamer ’07 analyzes potteryHamer also uncovered a 15th-century bronze coin, while her classmates found rosary beads, pottery, and a grenade and cannon. Hamer will earn credit for the course, which was offered to Honors students across the country through Eastern Illinois University.

“I’ve been on the science track since I got to McDaniel, so I was looking for something different,” Hamer said. “McDaniel College offered me that experience.”