Field Schools and Scheduled Excavations in the Eastern USA

Berry Site (North Carolina USA)
June 4-June 29, 2012. 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.

Bioarchaeology Method (Location TBA)
May 20-June 28, 2013. University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Description to be posted soon.

Cliff Mine Survey Project (Michigan, USA)
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.

Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia, USA)
May 29-August 3, 2012 (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.

Edgefield (South Carolina)
May 26-July 8, 2013. University of Illinois, Urbana. This field school will focus on investigations at the "Pottersville" site (also called "Landrumsville") within the area of the "Old Edgefield Pottery District," and will provide training in the techniques of excavation, mapping, artifact classification and contextual interpretation. Students will work in supervised teams, learning to function as members of a field crew, with all of the skills necessary for becoming professional archaeologists.

Ferry Farm: George Washington's Boyhood Home (US)
May 21-June 22, 2012. 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.

Harriet Tubman House, Auburn, New York
May 13-May 30, 2013. 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.

Isles of Shoals (Maine)
Not offered in 2013. 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.

Jamestown (Virginia USA)
June 4-July 13, 2012. 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.

Montpelier (Virginia, US)
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.

Pemaquid Falls (Maine)
2012. Southern Maine Community College. Ongoing excavations at the home of 17th century merchant Robert Givens, in Pemaquid Falls, Maine.

Poplar Forest (Virginia, USA)
Summer 2013. 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.

St. Mary's City (Maryland)
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.