Tag Archives | archaeologist

Not Just an Archaeologist

By on July 7, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Education

I am an archaeologist.

Right now I am also working toward a PhD at the  University of Cenral Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston, United Kingdom. My subject area is the historical archaeology of South Central California, and I am looking at how people create their sense of identity and attachment to place through the process of belonging. This means I am theorizing on what an Archaeology of Belonging is and can do particularly in colonialism.

Overview of Pueblo San Emigdio toward the San Emigdio Hills in Kern County California.

Originally my husband (who is also an archaeologist) and I came to the UK from the United States for a one year MSc by Research degree. We wanted to get a higher degree because we wanted to have a family at some time in the future. At the time we made the choice of coming to UCLAN, we were working in the field for a CRM company in California. Although we were not completely unhappy, it was time for a change. We had been field technicians for about five years, had not had a home in two as we were in near constant ten day rotations. When not working we would visit and stay with family. While working our house became the contents of two large blue totes and a red roller suitcase of books placed in exactly the same way in every hotel room we lived in. Life was good (we even had annual passes to Disneyland and would work a full day and have dinner and a ride at night) but we wanted to one day have a family as well. So we finally accepted the invitation from a colleague to study at the university he worked for. Equating more education with a more stable position in archaeology.

Why the background story? It’s important, as on the 29th of June during the Day of Archaeology, archaeology was but one aspect of my identity (a theme in my PhD).

Almost half way through the MSc and right before I was to start my field work last year, we discovered our future dreams of a family were to happen a whole lot sooner. I gave birth to my son in November, a couple of weeks after I graduated from my Masters. In January I started the PhD.

My Day of Archaeology consisted of:

General email round-up from the school email system to see if I have succeeded through Progression and Registration for my degree with the university. (Can’t forget about Facebook as a tool to keep in touch with family, friends, and old colleagues.)

Taking my son to Baby Club at the local Sure Start Centre. See how I include in my day attendance of a social group event, but have completely completely disregarded the countless minutes of my domestic work as a mother including cooking, cleaning, baby care (and those loads of nappies, expressing breast milk, and new baby solids which I made not bought). Maybe as archaeologist we fail to think and look at the mundane as we see it as too everyday, but it is the everyday rituals that show my identity in the archaeological record. Just something to think about, as I think about it more and more every day. What are the mundane things we miss as archaeologist that are / were actually so important to peoples in the past?

While my son takes naps in the afternoon I TRY and read for my literature review. Today it was Vicki Bell’s edited volume Performativity and Belonging. I am particularly inspired by Anne-Marie Fortier’s article “Re-Membering Places and the Performance of Belonging(s).”

 

The biggest bit of archaeology today was writing an abstract to present an oral presentation at the Theoretical Archaeological Group (TAG) for the 2012 Liverpool conference, on my work on developing an Archaeology of Belonging. It will be the first major conference in which I will be an oral presenter. I am a mix of excited and very nervous.

As I said: I am an archaeologist. But I am also a PhD researcher, a wife, and a mother.

 

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Community Excavations at Eastcote House Gardens, Hillingdon

By on July 4, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012

I’m Charlotte Douglas, public archaeologist for AOC Archaeology Group. I live in Edinburgh and am usually based in our northern office, but I spent Friday 29th and Saturday 30th June in London, helping our southern team in the delivery of a community project in Eastcote.

Eastcote House Gardens were once home to Eastcote House. Records suggest that there was a building on the site from as early as the 16th century. Eastcote House itself was demolished in the 1960s after falling into disrepair. The remaining park is maintained by the Friends of Eastcote House Gardens, and they, along with London Borough of Hillingdon (LBH) council, were recently awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help them progress their plans for the gardens. They aim to apply for further HLF funding in the future so that they can improve the gardens’ facilities, repair and improve the historic buildings, and excavate the site of Eastcote House. This preliminary phase of the project involved excavating four 2m x 10m trial trenches on the site of the house to confirm its location and assess the condition of the remains, as well as testing the community involvement and outreach. Paul Mason, one of AOC’s project managers, has been working closely with the Friends of Eastcote House Gardens and London Borough of Hillingdon council to ensure that the project turns out exactly as they want it. My role as public archaeologist varies from project to project but my main role at Eastcote was to deliver a programme of activities for local children when they visited the site.

A team of around 40 volunteers, mostly members of the Friends of Eastcote House Gardens, took part in the excavations which were directed by Les Capon and supervised by Chris Clarke of AOC. Saturday was the official Open Day, with the Friends offering tea and biscuits and bounteous local knowledge, and with AOC’s Fitz manning a finds-handling table under a gazebo clearly not designed to withstand a bit of a breeze! Many people visited the gardens to check out the excavations over the two days, and the end-of-day tour on Saturday saw about 60 people of all ages peering into the trenches and finding out about the weekend’s findings.

AOC’s Chris leads the end-of-day tour on Saturday

Around 65 local children participated in the excavations: Year 5 and 6 pupils fromWarrenderSchool, Ruislip, came to the gardens on Friday morning and Cubs and Beavers from the local Scout Group visited on Saturday afternoon. The children explored the gardens with Lesley from the Friends, learning about the gardens’ history and visiting the dovecote and the herb garden. Funnily enough, the part of the garden tour that seems to have stuck in their minds the most is the fact that the poo in the bottom of the dovecote would have been collected and used in the production of gunpowder! Their second favourite fact was that strong herbs were sometimes used in sauces in the past to disguise the pungent smell of off fish… Delicious!

The children also participated in an archaeology workshop, learning about archaeologists and excavation, and played a timelines game. My job is to make archaeology fun – to engage with the children in a meaningful way, so that what they learn sticks in the mind. And of course, it’s essential that they enjoy themselves! I encourage the children to ask lots of questions and to steer the conversation – if they’d rather talk about bog bodies than pottery morphologies, so be it! Activities tend to be interactive and informal, allowing the children to move around and make a bit of noise. The timelines game also involves doing a bit of maths. I was really impressed by how much the children knew about some of the historical figures and archaeological sites featured in the timelines game.

After completing the workshop and game, I took the children onto the site itself. Here they donned high vis vests (essential for any archaeologist) and gloves, and armed with trowels and sieves they carefully looked through the loose soil generated by the excavations, retrieving mostly metal, pottery and glass related to the house demolished in the 1960s. The children seemed to have a great time, and I always really enjoy having them onsite – not least because they often ask questions that make you scratch your head and think about archaeology differently! I often have a sore throat at the end of a day involving lots of school children from talking as loudly and enthusiastically as I can, but its great fun nonetheless.

In terms of the archaeological findings, the massively thick foundations (up to 4ft) of the house were revealed in each of the three trenches and the walls of the coach house in the fourth; two trenches also revealed the remains of a basement/cellar level. The discovery of a series of steps that led down to a vaulted cellar in Trench 3 promoted an easily imaginable flow of people around the building. Most of the brickwork appeared to be 18th century in date, but pieces of 16th century brick indicate that the remains of the medieval house are not too distant from our reach. The most significant finds recovered were fragments of pottery that date from the 14th to 20th centuries. These finds show the site to have been inhabited for over 700 years.

Trench 2: the major northern wall

The volume of attendance and participation in Friday and Saturday’s activities demonstrate the high level of local passion and support for the gardens and their past, and will surely bolster the Friends’ and LBH’s case in any further application for funding.

One of AOC’s archaeologists will present the results of the excavations at a public lecture sometime soon (date and venue TBC). For more information and event updates please see www.hillingdon.gov.uk

For more information on the gardens please see www.eastcoteparkestate.org.uk

 

 

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Danny Harrison: Senior Archaeologist on a Former Churchyard Site

By on July 3, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Historical Archaeology, Post Medieval

Friday was forecast to be an unseasonable bright and mild day as British summertime goes, with rain predicted for only half the day. I went into the office at the comparatively leisurely time of 9am, having been told the previous day that there were no sites I needed to attend. On arriving it seemed that phone calls had been received from a site, kindly but forcibly asking where the archaeologist was.  I then speedily received a Site Written Scheme of Investigation from a project manager, an address, a phone number to call when I got there and a had a brief meeting outlining what was to be done when I got there. I got together some boots and basic kit  and then hared down the road with all my clobber to catch a bus.

Thankfully when I arrived on site it began to rain, and luckily I was locked out for long enough to cool off for a bit. The site was without its foreman for the day, but the onsite contractors were anxious to get started on reducing ground in a churchyard for a building extension; though the building had been designed to have a minimum footprint intrusion, it was likely that some disarticulated bones might be found.

We began the ground reduction and soon found a large quantity of bones- which we carefully retrieved and placed in storage to be reburied. It became quickly evident that these bones had been deliberately placed in the area being excavated, probably by the builders when they disturbed burials during works nearby on site in the 1970′s. Among these bones we were very surprised to find a tiny lead coffin which had been placed with them. We carefully moved this with the bones to a safe place. On examination, we noticed an inscription on the coffin lid. I wrote this down and photographed it.The excavation went on all day, punctuated with refreshing showers.

When I returned to the office, I consulted a website archive with the colleague I had been providing cover for. I was very surprised to find the name on the coffin in the records. It seems that the baby- who had sadly passed away aged only 15 days, had been buried two days later and a couple with the same surname- possibly parents, were recorded as living on the same street as the church. The profession and surname of the man were closely associated with the area and its immigrant population, the man being a weaver of Huguenot descent. On further searching, I was pleased to see that this couple had a child two years after the death of the baby we found, who hopefully survived into adulthood.

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Definitely Not a Typical Day For Me!

By on July 2, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012

I am an archaeologist and would love to say I work as one but I can’t no jobs around where I live!  I was inspired to do a degree in Archaeology and Landscape History mainly by watching Time Team! Another success story for Mick Aston as I graduated in 2008.  I do a lot of volunteer work for various organisations including a lot of Heritage work for the Northamptonshire Museums and Historic Houses Forum.

I, along with another committee member, have been organising an Awards Ceremony in the county.  We have a VIP attending, one of the Royal family, and on Friday I met up with his personal protection officer and Northamptonshire Police, just to make sure the venue was secure etc.. All very interesting.  It has been a lot of work to organise.

The day before, Thursday,  I had the chance to visit the Time Team excavation in a local town which was rather fabulous, had a chat with Tim Taylor (what a nice man).  The day after the 29th, I had co-organised a visit for the CBA (Council for British Archaeology) East Midlands to the Prebendal Manor at Nassington which was a great success, lovely weather, lunch, Manor and walk to a site of an Anglo-Saxon burial ground.  We had 35 members attend the day and the star of the show was ‘cat’ sitting in the window of the 15th Century Manor!

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Not a Typical Friday: Not a Typical Archaeologist

By on July 2, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012

I have to admit, first off, that I’m not an archaeologist; not qualified as such and never dug in my life… (my experience is in historic building research and analysis; but that’s a different kind of archaeology I suppose!) My job title doesn’t suggest anything either – ‘Project Officer’ – I added the ‘brackets Historic Environment’ bit so people would (sort of) know what I do…

I am currently maternity covering for an osteoarchaeologist who has done a sterling job over the last couple of years organising local history and archaeology projects for the Tamar Valley AONB, getting people involved in looking at and understanding their local landscape.

Friday was not a typical day. Got to work at 8.30 and grabbed a lift with our new manager, Corinna, to Liskeard to a HELM training event on the NPPF (one of my aims of this blog is to get as many abbreviations and acronyms in as possible..!). I’m not really one for planning, policy and all that, but it was actually rather good. When I worked at EH I was constantly up to date with policy; now after 6 months in this job I’ve started to feel a little out of the loop, and it was good to get back on track with the terminology, paragraph numbers, and discussions about uPVC windows. AONB policy only came a up a couple of times but it’s good to be informed about the wider picture.

Back to the office for 2pm. What to do now on a Friday afternoon? Replied to some emails (nothing that exciting) and finished some guidance notes for my hedge surveyors. We are running a big project at the moment searching for significant hedges in the Tamar Valley. Most of our volunteers are involved as they have skills in species identification, and my job is to get them thinking about the history of hedges, and their contribution to the character of the landscape. The history section of the survey sheet has been puzzled over by some, and left blank a few times too! I’ve reassessed it and realised that some of the questions are a bit intense (we don’t have the resources to make every hedge survey ever done in West Devon and East Cornwall available to our volunteers, for example). I could spend hours pouring over old maps and interrogating the HERs, and being amazed by the patterns hedges make in the landscape, but I’m likewise impressed by the skills of the volunteers to identify up to 120 different species of plant in a 30m stretch of hedge!

My colleague (and some say half of the SB/SB double act) Simon came back from a site visit at 4pm; his daughter Jennie has been with us all week on work experience. Lucky her – beats working in a shop! Had a brief chat about what I’m up to this week as he is on Jury Service, and then decided to call it a day and get back home for happy hour in my local (it is Friday after all!).

Jennie took lots of photos of the Tamar Valley and posted them on our Facebook page. Why not take a look?  Where you can also find out more about the things the AONB team do …!

Samantha Barnes

Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Project Officer (Historic Environment)

 

 

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A Day in Monrepos

By on July 2, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Illustration, Prehistory

My name is Sonja Grimm and I’m an Archaeologist in MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution (Neuwied, Germany).

This was my Day of Archaeology 2012:

It’s graphs day today! Helped out a Dutch colleague with a map of the
distribution of the Havelte Group (a northern European facies in the
Weichselian Lateglacial) and made some graphs for the material chapter of
my dissertation. Maybe, I’ll start my first trials with QuantumGIS with
some maps later today.

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A Day in Monrepos-Archaeological Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution

By on July 2, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Journalism, Museum Archaeology, Prehistory, Science

I’m an archaeologist in Monrepos – Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution. Our Centre is located in Neuwied in Germany -between Frankfurt and Cologne. As mentioned above we are interested in everything related with the Ice Age. We consist in a group of scientists, volunteers, students and technical employeers.

Our building is an old castle that is still in the renovation period. Thats the reason why our Museum is closed since November 2010.

Since last year my daily work was in the museum or museum related. I did the guide tours for kids and adults. At the moment I’m doing the public relation work, mostly the Social Media like Facebook, Twitter and Co, beside other organisational things.

I think Public Relation is very important in the archaeological fields. So I’m really happy about the Archaeological Day 2012. If we are only doing our researches the rest of the world will not be interested what we are doing and we don’t get their support and they will not understand why our work is important for them. So we need more “mediators” between Archaeologists and the Public.

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Archaeology and Appaloosas

By on July 1, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Education, Historical Archaeology

Last year, several of my colleagues participated in the Day of Archaeology 2011 (Marks and Swords). I am excited and honored to contribute to this year’s posts. Today, I worked hard to keep up with my various and evolving roles as archaeologist, student, and assistant curator. As a research assistant and graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Idaho, I carry out a variety of tasks for a large historic archaeology project from Sandpoint, Idaho, a cultural resource project I began working on as an technician five years ago (holy cow!) with the companies CH2MHill and SWCA Environmental Consultants. Simultaneously, I am in the throes of thesis research and act as a museum assistant and curator for the Appaloosa Museum and Heritage Center in Moscow, Idaho.

Dakota Smith, a.k.a. Smitty, is a classic example of an Appaloosa horse and will reside in the pasture adjacent to the museum for the summer.

This morning I awake early to tend to Smitty, the Appaloosa horse-in-residence, main feature of the Appaloosa Museum’s live exhibit, and, I’m guessing, a somewhat unusual curation circumstance for a traditional museum. Then, switching gears, I drive to the University of Idaho to put in a few hours of deaccessioning artifacts from the Sandpoint Archaeology Project collection, the largest historical archaeological collection in the state of Idaho. Myself and several other students from the University of Idaho sort through boxes (… and boxes… and boxes…) of artifacts and execute the deaccessioning procedures carefully planned by the project’s principal investigators.

Deaccessioning is a process of officially (and usually permanently) removing items from a collection, museum, or repository, a practical curation necessity in the case of the extensive Sandpoint collection. Deaccessioned artifacts will find new homes in such educational resources as historical artifact comparative collections and teaching kits. For my master’s thesis I am collaboratively developing and evaluating historical archaeology teaching kits and lesson plans based on historical research and Sandpoint project findings. The deaccessioned historical artifacts will add an experiential element to the kits and provide materials for students to analyze.

Archival safe labels, bags, and boxes are used for storing artifacts.

It’s not yet ten o’clock in the morning and I must return to the Appaloosa Museum for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon. Though archaeological materials are not part of the museum’s collections, many of my curatorial tasks are similar to those performed at the archaeological repository for northern Idaho, the Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of Anthropology. As a new employee at a small museum I will learn a variety of often-specialized jobs such as collections management, exhibit design and maintenance, and give museum tours. Today’s tasks mostly include accessioning paperwork, data entry, updating website and social media information, greeting visitors, and answering questions. These tasks are all typical of museum work and many of the principles and processes are similar to those utilized in museums and repositories curating archaeological collections.

One aspect that is not so similar to archaeological work is the arrival of the second Appaloosa in residence for the summer, Snickers. Her arrival broke up my day and made Smitty very happy. As I write this, I begin to wonder if technically the horses should be formally documented as loans to the museum… though the horses’ owners belong to the Appaloosa Horse Club, which owns the pasture behind the museum…

Snickers and Smitty settle in to grazing.

At the end of the (official) work day I head home to develop lesson plans for the archaeology teaching kits and begin to draft a syllabus for the teacher in-service I am planning for this fall. The syllabus is a requirement of the in-service proposal I must submit to the University of Idaho and, if all goes well, teachers will be able to earn a continuing education credit while learning about archaeology and the use of the historical archaeology teaching kits (to be modeled after the well-executed in-service offered by Project Archaeology through Montana State University). After several hours our awesome neighbors invite us over to listen to some live banjo music and I take a much-needed break.

This poison bottle, one of many recovered from Sandpoint’s restricted district, is an example of a type of artifact that will be utilized in teaching collections.

Well past midnight and much later than intended, I begin updating the projects page for the Idaho Archaeological Society’s (IAS) website. Next comes this post and finally, before I nod off to sleep, I will pick up where I left off last night by reading about Basque history in preparation for the upcoming IAS archaeology project, archaeological investigations at the Cyrus Jacobs/Uberuaga House. Members of the society will be excavating the well associated with the house next to the Basque Museum and Cultural Center in downtown Boise, Idaho. A perfect opportunity for publicly interpreting archaeological excavations!

If all goes well, this year will culminate in the completion of the large long-term archaeology project as well as my completion of the master’s program. As an archaeologist interested in public education and engagement, I am continually thankful to work with folks who are supportive of my teaching kit project and are enthusiastic about public education and involvement in historical archaeology.

University of Idaho

Further Reading: Sandpoint Archaeology Project

Excavated by cultural resource archaeologists between 2005-2008 prior to the construction of a byway, Sandpoint’s earliest historic district originally abutted newly-built tracks of the Northern Pacific Railroad and ancient shores of Lake Pend d’Oreille before the town expanded across Sand Creek. In the thousands of years prior to the influx of railroad, lumber, and mining industries in northern Idaho at the turn of the century, tribes such as the Kallispel and Kootenai seasonally inhabited the shores of Lake Pend d’Oreille and crisscrossed the region in a transhumance cycle. (Transhumance is a seasonal cycle of moving between traditional lands.)

Though Native Americans traversed the region for thousands of years before settlers, due to the explosion of material production following the American industrial revolution and Sandpoint’s location along the railroad the majority of recovered artifacts date to the occupation of Sandpoint’s historic commercial and restricted districts – including a hotel, pharmacy, jeweler, butcher, dance hall, brothel, bordello, and saloons – along with the Humbird Lumber Mill’s technologically transitional blacksmith and machine shop, a Chinese residence and laundry, and one of the town’s first jail. Analysis of these materials in conjunction with historical research will allow archaeologists to shed light on some of the lesser-known lives of townsfolk as well as add details to the history of the town’s development and role in the beginnings of a globalizing world.

As you may have already learned from reading other great posts, the life of archaeology extends far beyond initial research or field excavations. Since archaeologists finished excavations four years ago we have catalogued the artifacts, presented initial findings at professional conferences and public lectures, are finishing up the cultural resource report for the Idaho Transportation Department, developing content for the project web page, preparing the collection for curation, anticipating the project exhibit at the Bonner County Historical Museum planned for the end of the year and have completed a variety of other tasks, some of which are being discussed by my colleagues. We are only scratching the surface and are excited for many years of analyses yet to come.

This sign was recovered during Humbird blacksmith/machine shop excavations in 2008.


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An Archaeologist on Holiday

By on June 30, 2012 in DayOfArch2012

Street sign in Bath

This Day of Archaeology 2012 I was on holiday! My wife (not an archaeologist) and I had long promised to take a few days off at the end of what we knew was going to be an exceptionally busy June, so on this Friday June 29th we were taking the day off as part of a long weekend. What do archaeologists do on holiday, you ask? Well this archaeologist goes to the spa. Normally, I’m an archaeologist working jointly between local government and the university sector, and consequently I spend a lot of time cooped up in offices bent over a computer or in meetings about heritage policy and site management. As a result, a good way to rapidly unwind is for me to go to a spa, to move from pool to sauna and back again – and if the nearest/nicest spa to me happens to be in the historically rich and aesthetically pleasing city of Bath, then all the better for it. So, my wife and I got the train over from London and did *not* work on the train but actually read fun, non-work books (unusual in itself). We then pottered around the town pleasantly blending a bit of window shopping, real shopping and lunch, before spending the rest of the day in the wonderful ‘new’ spa complex in the middle of the city with its awesome rooftop pool from which we could laze around in the hot waters, gazing at the historic buildings and idly chatting about everything and anything under the sun. Drinks at a little bar we’d spied earlier followed (a martini being this diggers hit of choice), then dinner at a restaurant well recommended by the bar manager, before home to an early night in our hotel, full of food, snoozy and a hell of a lot more relaxed than the day before. It may not be every archaeologists dream day off, but it works for this one…

 

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Making Archaeologists

Making Archaeologists

By on June 30, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Excavation, Historical Archaeology
Matt Hagar, Beth Pruitt, and Lauren Hicks on the East Cove screen.

Matt Hagar, Beth Pruitt, and Lauren Hicks on the East Cove screen. Source: Kate Deeley

The weather report says that today is hot and humid. High 101° F.  Heat index near 110° F. The students of the 2012 Archaeology in Annapolis field school from the University of Maryland know that it will be a sweltering and tiring day as they walk through their morning haze to collect their equipment from storage. They also can’t wait to see what they will find today.

Two weeks ago, we were in Annapolis. In view of the Maryland state capitol building, we excavated in three backyards, exploring the connections of past tenants to the Naval Academy and to nineteenth century immigration to the United States. For the second half of the field school, we moved to the Wye House plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, home to a line of Edward Lloyds stretching back to the mid-seventeenth century. Here, the students chase the foundation walls of two slave quarters discovered last year.

South Long Green students.

South Long Green students. Source: Ben Skolnik

The site is separated into two parts. The South Long Green is located on the yard of the plantation, within sight of the Great House, and the home of the remains of a two-story brick slave quarter. The East Cove, where the students search for a building called the “Brick Row Quarter” on a historic map, is sheltered by a thicket of trees across the creek from the Long Green.

In running the field school, co-directors Kate Deeley, Ben Skolnik, and I recognize that we must perform a balancing act—prioritizing in turns the education of undergraduate students, our PhD dissertation research, and the communication of information to the public. It is a mixture of a classroom and training grounds. The instruction is as much somatic as it is intellectual, and the students have come a long way in their movements within the units, techniques with the trowel, and familiarity with the artifacts and their significance.

Richard Nyachiro with his measuring tape.

Richard Nyachiro with his measuring tape. Source: Ben Skolnik

The other element to add to the juggling show is motivation and good spirits, especially on a day like today.  The excitement grows as the brick rubble, glass, nails, and ceramic sherds coalesce into interpretations about where these buildings are situated on the landscape and in time. Despite this, the work is hard and the knowledge that Monday will be their last day to dig their units is beginning to settle in. Conversation is informal and playful—ranging from the childhood nostalgia of Pokémon to everyone’s top desert-island reading choices—and it helps the buckets of dirt go swiftly by.

Duncan Winterwyer with his root clippers.

Duncan Winterwyer with his root clippers. Source: Ben Skolnik

After lunch, the students are joined by Dr. Mark Leone and gather on the East Cove for the site seminars, which are held every Friday. The shade of dense trees is a relief.  One by one, the crew of each unit describes to the rest of the class the accomplishments and interpretations of that week. Using an extended folding ruler as a pointer, the crewmates take turns to indicate features, explain level changes, and point out soon-to-be-excavated artifacts.

It is a chance not only for the students to connect their unit to the others within the larger landscape, but also to proudly demonstrate their knowledge and achievements. They grow accustomed to fielding questions about the steps they took and the conclusions they continue to draw from their findings. After the students on the East Cove complete their tour, we move across the creek to the South Long Green.

Brittany Hutchinson with her shovel.

Brittany Hutchinson with her shovel. Source: Ben Skolnik

The students applaud their peers and create a rough circle in the shade of a tulip poplar tree. Though the environment is quite different, this is still a college class. There are weekly reading assignments, and each Friday afternoon the students discuss what they have read. The articles for today, focusing on race, class, gender, and identity in historical archaeology, are Barbara Little’s “She was… an Example to Her Sex” (1994), Maria Franklin’s “The Archaeological Dimensions of Soul Food: Interpreting Race, Culture, and Afro-Virginian Identity” (2001), and Theresa Singleton’s “Race, Class, and Identity among Free Blacks in the Antebellum South” (2001). The students direct the conversation, working through the topics of race, critical theory, politics, and the differences between an archaeology of gender and a feminist archaeology.

Like any other class, writing assignments provide a means for the students to individually articulate what they have learned. To balance this academic obligation with the project’s emphasis on  public outreach, the students contribute to the Archaeology in Annapolis blog. They demonstrate their comprehension of the work they complete in their units while also practicing their abilities to communicate this information to a general audience. Undergraduate Paige Diamond’s post, written today, highlights the discovery of the east wall of the two story quarter.

Julia Torres Vasquez and Molly Greenhouse create the American Plantation Gothic.

Julia Torres Vasquez and Molly Greenhouse create the American Plantation Gothic. Source: Ben Skolnik

Throughout the day, Ben pulls students aside to pose for “dirty archaeologist portraits.” He encourages them to take pride in their sweat-soaked, filthy appearance and take pictures with their field equipment. They take possession of this identity—archaeologists in the field. The portraits show the students as they are now at the end of the field school: trained archaeologists armed with the methods and knowledge that will allow them to contribute a unique perspective to this or any other field.

To see more archaeologist portraits from today, please visit our Flickr account. For more information about our excavations, please visit our blog.

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