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University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
02/08/2024 | Press release | Archived content
UCF Graduate Uses Stories of the Past to Educate Current, Future Generations
For anthropology graduate Griffon Binkowski, the studies of humans and culture allows him to showcase the lives of those before us, providing information for future generations to learn from. Through his studies at UCF and as an educator at the Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC), Binkowski has conducted research and educated the public to provide insight into the lives of ancient peoples.
His studies focued on biological archaeology, which takes an anthropological approach to the study of the human body from modern and/or archaeological contexts.
The inspiration to get involved in the field came from a fascination with archaeology and ancient Greek and Egyptian societies in grade school, and an interest in storytelling and human connection that was nurtured through his work in theater and costuming.
"I kind of realized that my passion was telling human stories and letting people know that people of the past were just like us," he says. "They loved. They laughed. They had hardships, they had inside jokes, and the best way you can get to know people of the past is through the bodies of the people themselves. Their bones can tell you what people ate, what illnesses they had and where they moved to. If you see that they moved later in their life, it's like, 'Why did they move?' "
Through his studies at UCF, he's been able to investigate those stories. As a DirectConnect student, Binkowski he loved the accessibility being able to easily transfer from Valencia College to UCF. As a Florida native, remaining close to family (including his sister, who is a fellow Knight) was another reason he chose Knight Nation.
At UCF, one of the major projects he's worked on was through the Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project, a collaboration between the UCF Department of Anthropology and the 45th Space Wing of the U.S. Space Force. UCF and the Space Force examine one to two archaeological sites on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) per field season. The goal of these explorations is to further understand the cultural significance of various sites located within CCSFS and preserving site knowledge as sea levels increase. The project allows students to get hands on archaeology experience by participating in cultural resource management.
"It is a really big deal in archaeology because most of the time you have to pay a lot of money to go to a field school, but with this, it is the cost of a three-credit hour class and your professors come with you," Binkowski says. "You get real cultural resources management experience. You learn real archaeological techniques and you just get to be part of a really cool program that I haven't seen anywhere else."
Binkowski's honors undergraduate thesis involved research into ancient Maya citizens from Belize. With the help of his advisor, Lana Williams, UCF bioarcheologist senior lecturer, the study examined dietary trends in the area through X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a non-destructive analytical technique that measures the elemental composition of materials by analyzing the X-rays they emit when excited by a primary X-ray source. Using HHXRF to examine the teeth of the ancient Maya people, Binkowski discerned trends that indicated high marine resource consumption in a coastal region. There were also changes in the data to suggest migration of some Maya people to different areas.
"Through all the hard data there's a story there. That graph is different because of the very human reason, and not because numbers are complicated sometimes," he says. "It's the humanity, the human story that's buried within all of this numerical data that I really want people to focus on and see that archaeology and bioarcheology really connects us to our collective human past."
Through Binkowski's work with Orange County Regional History Center, he serves as the resident archaeology specialist, using what he's learned at UCF on ancient Florida subjects. He also educates a range of ages and develops public history curriculum. During the pandemic, Binkowski took a break from his classes due to medical reasons and served as a substitute teacher for Osceola County, which has helped him in his current role at OCRHC.
An example of this is a lecture he did on the history of Celebration, Florida, as part of a series at the center.
"One of my classes at UCF was on the archaeology of Disney," Binkowski says, "so I used that research, in combination with what I learned at the center, to develop my lecture, 'Celebrating Celebration: History and Perspectives.' "
After graduation, Binkowski will return to UCF for the graduate anthropology program, where he will be expanding upon his undergraduate research with Williams. Beyond that, Binkowski would like to get involved in what he calls, "edutainment," where his passion for archaeology and anthropology melds with entertainment to bring the past to the people in a consumable, relatable way.
"I want people to identify with people of the past, so I would love to develop some sort of program or experience that allows people to interact with archaeology in an ethical but also entertaining way," he says.