Field Schools and Scheduled Excavations in the Eastern USA

2011 (dates TBA). Warren Wilson College. In 1566, Juan Pardo left the Spanish town of St. Elena on the South Carolina coast and traveled into North Carolina in search of an overland route to Mexico. Archaeological investigations at the Berry site (31BK22), north of Morganton in Burke County, provide evidence for Pardo's expeditions through the Catawba River valley.

May 9-June 23, 2011. Michigan Technological University.Join the Industrial Archaeologists from Michigan Technological University, documenting an historic copper mine in the heart of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The Keweenaw is famous as one of the few places on earth where humans found abundant formations of "native" copper, ranging in size from pebbles to record-breaking boulders of pure metal. This will be the second season studying the ruins of the Cliff Mine and Clifton (1845-c.1870), the region's first profitable copper mine.

May 31-August 5, 2011 (2 sessions). Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, College of William & Mary. In 2011 the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will conduct its 27th annual archaeological field school in conjunction with the College of William and Mary. Two five-week sessions will focus on excavation of a site located within the College of William and Mary’s Historic Campus. Dates for the two summer sessions are:

July 15-August 16, 2010. University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Historic Pocumtuck Native American site, investigating evidence of Queen Anne's War.

May 27-July 3, 2008. George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation and University of South Florida. Students will excavate at Ferry Farm, a National Historic Landmark that is rich in history. The first American President George Washington grew to manhood here, moving to the plantation at age 6 in 1738, and leaving in 1752.

May 16-May 31, 2011. Syracuse University. Exploration of Harriet Tubman's House, a National Historic Landmark in Auburn, New York. Harriet Tubman is well known for her heroic acts in liberating African Americans from slavery and fighting for emancipation. She has been described as “America’s Joan of Arc” and “the Moses of her people”. Yet, the full story of her life is little known and her continued, lifelong, commitment to social causes and reform has not found its way into the pages of history – until now.

June 11-June 25, 2012 (two sessions). Cornell University. The Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine (New England) has a long history of human settlement from the late 16th century. Early communities were based on fish processing. Students will take part in ongoing archaeological research on the site of a fish processing station on Smuttynose Island, located adjacent to Appledore Island's Shoals Marine Laboratory. In this course you will learn about the past human communities that lived on the island (1650 to the late 19th century) and about marine organisms that were present in the environment during those periods.

June 6-July 15, 2011. APVA, the University of Virginia and the National Park Service. The fieldwork will be conducted at the Jamestown Rediscovery excavations on Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Focus of the excavations will be on uncovering the recently discovered remains of the 1607 James Fort and the adjoining 1608 James Town.

January 22-27, 2011 (ceramics workshop); April 15-October 27, 2012 (ten week-long sessions). Montpelier (home of US President James and Dolley Madison). Excavations in the 2012 field season will be focused on the "Tobacco Barn Quarter," an area just to the south of the Visitor Center and location of the field slave quarters. During the 2012 excavations, archaeology team members will be looking for the structural remains of the field slave quarters, identifying work yards, and discovering a myriad of ceramics, glasswares, and other objects used and owned by the slave community at Montpelier.

July 26 to August 13, 2010. Southern Maine Community College. Ongoing excavations at the home of 17th century merchant Robert Givens, in Pemaquid Falls, Maine.

June 5-July 8, 2011. Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest and the University of Virginia. Excavations are currently centered on the northern corners of Jefferson’s retreat house looking for the remains of two ornamental tree clumps and two oval flower beds planted in 1812 and 1816. These excavations are designed to determine the full extent and arrangement of these plantings in order to restore them.

July 30-August 10, 2007. Southern Maine Community College. Sixth year of excavations at the late 18th century farmstead of prominent Pemaquid merchant Robert Givens.

May 30-August 5, 2012. St. Mary's City and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Field School in Historical Archaeology is an intensive, 10-week experience designed for students in American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, History, or Museum Studies. Lectures on history, archaeological methods, and material culture are amplified by hands-on experience in the lab and in the field. Students learn artifact identification by working with one of the best archaeological collections of colonial material in the country and participate in excavation, recording and analysis at one of the nation’s best-preserved 17th-century archaeology sites.