January 2024 - Spring courses at CU
Two new course offerings for archaeology interested students at CU:
ANTH 4020.001: Historical Archaeology (covering the method and theory of historical archaeology divided into themes related to time periods and topics from the 1500s to today in U.S. history)
ANTH 7030: Settlement Ecology (graduate seminar on methods and theory for understanding why we do things where we do)
ANTH 4020.001: Historical Archaeology (covering the method and theory of historical archaeology divided into themes related to time periods and topics from the 1500s to today in U.S. history)
ANTH 7030: Settlement Ecology (graduate seminar on methods and theory for understanding why we do things where we do)
September 2023 - 10 student research assistants working on SEERA projects
Over the course of this academic year, we'll have 10 CU undergraduates helping out on three different projects: the settlement ecology of farming in the Town of Cazenovia, mortality patterns in Madison County from 1850-1880, and archival research on deathwork in Madison County.
August 2022 - Upcoming New Course for Fall at USC
This fall at UofSC, we'll be holding a joint grad-undergrad seminar course on landscape archaeology! This will allow students to learn the history of, methods, and theory of landscape approaches in archaeology.
February 2020 - Update: fieldschool cancelled due to COVID-19
Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the fieldschool after in-person summer courses were cancelled at Wake Forest University. Please, stay safe out there, everyone! Hopefully archaeology fieldwork will return next summer. Updates will be posted here on possible future fieldschools.
Planting Eastern North America's Lost Crops
During the spring 2018 semester, the ANT 374: North American Archaeology class is working with Wake Forest Campus Gardens and planting the Eastern Agricultural Complex, a suite of 5 plants domesticated by Native societies beginning around 3000 years ago. We are planting monoculture and polyculture areas to explore how they may have been planted and harvested in the past. On March 22, we planted little barley, maygrass, and erect knotweed in their own areas, and we broke ground in a more damp area to plant sumpweed and goosefoot next week. Thank you to Dr. Natalie Mueller (Dept. of Horticulture, Cornell) for supplying seeds and detailed instructions and to Nathan Peifer (Dir. of Campus Gardens) for giving us space and for horticultural expertise. Photos from our first planting are below.
2018 Fieldschool
The 2018 Fieldschool is quickly approaching. This summer, 9 students and I will be continuing research at the Redtail site, but in a new locality. Survey and test excavations last year suggested there may be another occupation area there. Our goal will be exploring that. The students will have an opportunity to plan the excavation from research question through excavation, getting a total methodological and theoretical training in field archaeology.
2016 Fieldschool
From May 24th - June 29th, 2016, nine students and myself collaborated for the Wake Forest University Summer Field Program in North Carolina Archaeology, or the Wake Forest Fieldschool for those who prefer brevity. During the five-week course, we focused on learning more about subsistence activities and lithic types at the 14th-century Redtail site (31Yd173). We also spent three days locating a 19th-century icehouse for a local landowner. It was a productive and fun five weeks with a great group of students. Photos below document our summer.
2014 Fieldschool Wrap-Up
On July 1st, we finished the 2014 fieldschool. The students did an excellent job excavating and surveying. In particular, their work helped to uncover a significant amount of important data about the layout of settlement features at the 31Yd173 site. Thank you to all the students!
2014 Fieldschool Updates
We are starting week 4 of our fieldschool. Over the first three weeks, we have continued excavations at a Late Woodland site (AD 1000-1500) in the upper Yadkin River Valley in North Carolina and searched for Archaic sites along the Rocky River. While the survey work wasn't overly productive--we were thwarted by fire ants at the site with the most potential--our excavations have been eventful. We have identified more possible structures and uncovered several features, helping us to better understand Late Woodland village and household structure.
Summer 2014 Wake Forest Fieldschool
From May 27 to July 1, Dr. Eric Jones will be running the 2014 Wake Forest Fieldschool. During the course, students will learn techniques and methods in non-invasive and invasive survey, GPS and GIS, excavation, mapping and recording, and artifact analysis. Work will be conducted at several sites in the western North Carolina Piedmont, including a Late Woodland (AD 1000-1500) site in the Yadkin River Valley and sites ranging from the Middle Archaic (~5000 BP) to the 1800s throughout the area. All of this is part of Dr. Jones' ongoing research, so you will be a contributing member of his research team. In addition, we will visit several important Southeastern archaeological sites, including Town Creek Mound and the site of Fort San Juan/Joara.
Students interested should email Dr. Jones at [email protected] for more information.
Students interested should email Dr. Jones at [email protected] for more information.
Fall 2013 classes
Over the course of the Fall 2013 semester, students from ANT 112: Introduction to Archaeology, ANT 374: North American Prehistory, and several anthropology majors conducted ongoing excavations at the 31Yd173 site. Work included removing more of the plowzone and exploring intact layers near a possible structure. The work by the ANT 374 students was featured on the Wake Forest webpage in December 2013. Check out the slideshow from this work below.