Archaeology Field School in Singapore and Cambodia

The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre (NSC) Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, is pleased to announce the 2nd NSC Archaeology Field School from the 30th May to 17th June 2013. Our first field school began in 2012 with support from the Republic of Singapore's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs as a way to contribute to an increased understanding of the ancient and intimate links that have connected Asian countries, and to emphasize the history of intra-Asian interactions over the past 2,000 years.

We are seeking students interested in pursuing a three-week intensive program of study in Singapore and Cambodia. The Field School will include lectures, archaeological laboratory analysis, as well as visits to archaeological sites and museums. Lodging and travel subsidies will be provided.* Applicants for the program should be enrolled in a postgraduate program or be in their final year of undergraduate study.

Preferred fields of specialization include archaeology, history, and art history. An important criteria is that the applicants must be citizens of East Asia Summit (EAS) countries. The 18 East Asia Summit countries are: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.

For the 2013 session, participants will have a chance to participate in the excavation of the Cheung Ek site, near the capital city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The area has thus far revealed an initial settlement date around 300B.C., along with a large concentration of 5th-7th century
kilns, and a 10th c. circular earthwork.

For more information and to download the application form, visit:
http://bit.ly/fieldschool2013

Completed applications must be received by 5PM (Singapore GMT+8) 1st May, 2013. All successful applicants will be notified by e-mail by 7th May, 2013.

* Depending on country of origin, successful applications will be awarded a travel stipend of up to SIN$1,000 (approx. US$800); plus a modest insurance and visa allowance. Air travel between Singapore and Cambodia will be provided. Full lodging and board will be also provided.
Please see our URL and FAQ for details.

Beman Triangle Field School, Wesleyan University

The Beman Triangle Field School at Wesleyan University in June 2013 that might be of interest to historical archaeology students. The field school will excavate at a nineteenth century free African American community on the Wesleyan University campus, known as the Beman Triangle. The 5-acre triangle of land was laid out by Leverett C. Beman (1810-1883) in 1847.

The neighborhood is the first known residential subdivision in Connecticut to have been laid out by a free black man for black homeowners. The project will be using archaeology to investigate the ways in which domestic life was related to the political lives of the community. Excavations in summer 2013 will form part of a long-term project bringing together archaeological research with literary history.

As part of the Wesleyan summer session, students may also combine the field school with another course offered on the Wesleyan campus during summer session, including offerings in history and English.

Details of Wesleyan Summer Session, including registration details, can be found here .

Further details about the Beman Triangle Project can be found here, 

Anyone with questions or who wants further information should contact Dr. Sarah Croucher: 

Historical Archaeological Field School in the Caribbean: Nevisian Heritage Survey Project in Fort Charles, Nevis

There are still places available with Monmouth University's field school in

Caribbean Historical Archaeology. Settled in the 1620s, Nevis is home to

some of the earliest English settlements in the Caribbean. This year's field

school will investigate the site of Fort Charles, the best preserved fort in

Nevis.

The fort was constructed in the early 1600s and remained in use until

at least the 1870s. This year's field school represents the first

archaeological investigations of this intriguing site and its 250-year

history. Our work this summer will provide a unique perspective on the

colonial history of the Eastern Caribbean.

Students will learn traditional and advanced surveying methods, how to

conduct pedestrian surveys, standard archaeological excavation techniques,

and how to identify, catalogue, and analyze artifacts. There will be weekly

lectures on Nevisian archaeology, history, and culture by project staff and

visiting experts.

The field school lasts for three weeks (May 18-June 8). 

Students seeking a place in the field school will need to submit an application and $200 nonrefundable deposit by March 29, 2013.

Civil War Maritime Mystery Men

Staffordshire Pottery of the American Antiquarian Society

The American Antiquarian Society has put together an online exhibit of Staffordshire Pottery of John Ridgeway called The Beauties of America. These pieces are part of the Emma DeForest Morse Collection, and are the blue transfer patterns. In addition to the photos, details and a bibliography are provided.

2012 Summer Field School in Maritime Archaeology - Bermuda

Image by europanostra via Flickr
Saint Mary's College-University of Rhode Island

2012 Summer Field School in Maritime Archaeology

The Summer Field School in Maritime Archaeology is a joint research
expedition conducted in Bermuda by faculty and students of Saint Mary's
College of California and the University of Rhode Island.  The field school
is a research-based learning experience that will expose students to a
variety of activities including archival research, artifact conservation,
remote sensing survey, and underwater documentation of historic shipwrecks.

The field school will be conducted in the three week period from July 16 -
Aug 8, 2012. Classroom work related to maritime history and maritime
archaeological field methods will comprise week one. Underwater research and
documentation of 16th and 17th century shipwrecks will be conducted in
Bermuda during the remaining two weeks. Students will receive 3 units of
upper division anthropology credit.

Course enrollment is limited.  There are no academic prerequisites, but all
participants in the field school must obtain both scuba and AAUS
certification prior to the beginning of the field school and must have their
own diving equipment (tanks and weights will be provided).  While in
Bermuda, students will participate in each of three research modules:
laboratory training in the museum's conservation facility, archaeological
survey and excavation and documentation of historic shipwrecks, and archival
research in the Bermuda Archives, located in the nearby city of Hamilton.
In addition, students will attend periodic lectures on such topics as
archival research methods, archaeological survey (magnetometer and visual
survey), site excavation and mapping, analysis of archaeological data,
conservation of waterlogged artifacts, etc.

For applications or additional information, please contact Professor James

M. Allan of the Saint Mary's College Anthropology Department

jallan@stmarys-ca.edu or Professor Roderick Mather of the University of

Rhode Island History Department rodmather@mail.uri.edu, who are the

co-directors of the program..

Coffin Handles from the African Burial Ground, New York City

Megan Springate has just published an article in the African Diaspora Archaeology Network, June 2011 Newsletter on identifying a possible British source of the coffin handles excavated at the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. The article also covers coffin handles from a Philadelphia African-American cemetery. The abstract is here, but there is a link to the full article as well.

St. Augustine, Florida Civil War Shipwreck Documentary Released

Buried in the ocean's sands off St. Augustine, Florida, “the Nation’s oldest port,” is a lost shipwreck, one of the last great maritime mysteries from America’s Civil War. The 150 year old shipwreck had several incarnations—first, that of a commercial trader, then an illegal slaver, and finally a feared rebel privateer. Join underwater archaeologists and forensic scientists in their pursuit to find the missing Confederate privateer, the Jefferson Davis.

One hundred fifty years ago, America was embroiled in a terrible Civil War (1861-1865). Early into that conflict, the Confederate government issued letters of marque, creating privateers that preyed upon Union shipping. Confederate privateers acted in support of an almost non-existent rebel navy. The most successful of those marauders was the brig Jefferson Davis. Lost on the St. Augustine Bar in August of 1861, underwater archaeologists from the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) are engaged in a search for this vessel. The Jefferson Davis started life as a merchant ship known as the Putnam, then slipped into a dark period as an illegal slave trader, and finally ended its career as the Union Navy’s “most wanted.” The quest to find this lost shipwreck is a journey into our shared maritime past.

Pepe Productions, a Glen Falls, New York multi-media company, announces the release of their new DVD documentary: "Search for the Jefferson Davis: Trader, Slaver, Raider."

The Jefferson Davis started life as a merchant ship built in Baltimore, Maryland and was originally known as the Putnam.  The vessel was then used as an illegal slave trader and finally ended its career as the
Union Navy's most wanted,  a privateer that seized nine prizes on its one and only cruise.

Pepe Productions spent two sessions in St. Augustine, Florida in June 2009 and April 2010, acquiring interviews and video footage with LAMP underwater archaeologists.  The documentary team also interviewed people in Charleston, South Carolina, in Baltimore, Maryland, and at the State Museum in Albany, New York.

The documentary also tells the story of William Tillman (also spelled Tilghman), an African-American steward aboard the schooner S.J. Waring.  The S.J. Waring was one of the vessels captured by the Jefferson Davis.  A prize crew was put aboard the captured schooner to sail the Long Island-built watercraft to a southern port.  Tillman, realizing he would probably be sold into slavery, seized a hand ax and killed several privateers.  He then succeeded in sailing the vessel back north and became a hero in the Union states.

The 50 min. long documentary is timely as it is released one month before the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.  The documentary was 25 months in production.

Underwater archaeologists Joseph W. Zarzynski (Wilton, New York) and Dr. Samuel Turner (St. Augustine, Florida) wrote the documentary script.  Peter Pepe directed the production.  Pepe and Zarzynski were also co-executive producers for the documentary.


Pepe Productions is the company that has produced two other award-winning shipwreck documentaries: The Lost Radeau: North America's Oldest Intact Warship (2005, 57 min.) and Wooden Bones: The Sunken Fleet of 1758 (2010, 58 min.).

To view the trailer and to purchase the DVD "Search for the Jefferson Davis: Trader, Slaver, Raider", visit the website . The documentary will also be available for purchase at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum gift shop and at other stores and gift shops around the country. Part of the proceeds generated from the sale of the DVD documentary goes to support the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, the underwater archaeology team of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.

For more information on the shipwreck search, contact Mr. Chuck Meide (Director, LAMP:  cmeide "at" staugustinelighthouse.org).

Archaeological Field School on Edgefield, South Carolina Pottery Communities

Archaeological Field School on Edgefield, South Carolina Pottery Communities
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Anth. 454-CF and 455-CF (6 credits; 6 weeks), May 23, 2011 to July 1, 2011

This field school will provide training in the techniques of excavation, mapping, controlled surface surveys, 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. Many students from past University of Illinois field schools have gone on to graduate study and professional field-archaeology positions. Laboratory processing and analysis will be ongoing during the field season. Evening lectures by project staff, visiting archaeologists, and historians will focus on providing background on how field data are used to answer archaeological and historical research questions.

** Historical Significance and Project Background

The first innovation and development of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery in America occurred in the Edgefield District of South Carolina in the early 1800s. It remains an enduring mystery as to how these new ceramic methods were developed in that place and time, and how the techniques of clay choice, temper, and glaze developed over the following century. These potteries employed enslaved and free African-American laborers in the 19th century, and the stoneware forms also show evidence of likely African cultural influence on stylistic designs. Edgefield potteries thus present fascinating research questions of understanding technological innovations and investigating the impacts of African cultural knowledge and racial ideologies on a craft specialization during the historic period in America. This project entails an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and archaeological study of the first development in America of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery forms, the development of tha
 t South Carolina industry over time, and the impacts of racism and African cultural influences on those processes.

The technological innovation of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery was introduced in North America by potteries operated by Abner and John Landrum in the Edgefield, South Carolina area in the first decades of the 19th century. These technological developments by entrepreneurs of Scots-Irish heritage played out in a landscape shaped by racial difference. Numerous African-American laborers, including "Dave the Potter" who added inscriptions to his vessels, worked at these production sites. Advertisements in local newspapers in the early decades of the 1800s listed enslaved laborers with skills in pottery production. African Americans most likely participated in all phases of the production process, such as: building and maintaining the kilns; digging and transporting clay; working and grinding raw clay in "pug" mills; chopping wood for fuel; preparing glaze mixtures, tempers, and clay pastes; turning the pottery wheels and shaping the vessels; and loading and unloading the kiln
 firings.

As local historians Holcombe and Holcombe (1989: 22) observed, the "District's ceramic entrepreneurs would never have been able to manufacture such large quantities of Edgefield wares without the slave participation." Indeed, in the period of 1800-1820, the recorded number of enslaved African Americans in the surrounding area had increased to comprise half of the Edgefield District's population. An illegal transport of enslaved laborers on the ship Wanderer delivered 170 newly-captive Africans to the Edgefield District in 1858. The production of remarkably shaped "face vessels" at local potteries have also been analyzed as presenting evidence of the influence of stylistic traditions from cultures of West Central Africa.

This project seeks to undertake detailed archaeological investigations of principal sites in Edgefield, conduct archival research, and start a multi-year community engagement and education program related to these subjects. Archaeological field schools and research teams at such pottery sites can explore both the production facility remains and the residential sectors for the enslaved and free African-American laborers. Primary research questions include: (1) examining the distribution of work areas and residential locations in each pottery site and analyze the degree of spatial segregation due to the impacts of slavery and racism; (2) understanding differential uses and development of those work and residential spaces, as reflected in archaeological features and artifact distributions, and the degree to which variations correlate with different racial categories associated with the occupants; (3) analyzing faunal and botanical remains to explore and contrast dietary and heal
 th patterns between residential sites and the degree to which variations correlate with different racial categories associated with the occupants; and (4) understanding the development and changes over time in the technologies of pottery production at these three manufacturing sites.

** Field School Overview
This six-week archaeological field school will focus on the site of Pottersville, where Abner Landrum started the first stoneware production facility in the Edgefield district in the early 1800s. We will excavate the kiln and related production areas and conduct surveys to locate the house sites of the craftspeople and laborers who created the Pottersville village surrounding that manufacturing facility. Instructors will include Prof. Fennell, U. Illinois doctoral student George Calfas, and archaeologist Carl Steen of Diachronic Research Inc., among others. The instructors and students will stay in local housing in the Edgefield area during this six week field school, and visit nearby archaeology sites and museums on weekend trips.

For additional information about this field school opportunity, please contact Chris Fennell by email at cfennell@illinois.edu, by cell phone at 312-513-2683, or check his faculty web page for background information on the multi-year archaeology project in Edgefield, South Carolina. You can also contact George Calfas at gcalfas2@illinois.edu.

To apply for participation in this field school, please download and complete a short application form, available at Archaeological Field School on Edgefield, and submit it to Chris Fennell by April 8, 2011. Accepted students should register for the related course numbers (listed above) for the summer session. Please note that all students must register for both courses (a total of 6 credit hours). Students from colleges other than the University of Illinois can register through our exchange program and receive transfer credits.

Isles of Shoals Archaeology Project, Maine

The Shoals Marine Laboratory (Cornell University /University of New
Hampshire) is offering its 4th season of a field school in archaeology on
Smuttynose Island, Maine, May 30, 2011 - June 20, 2011.
Session Dates: One week sessions from May 30 to June 20; sign up for 1, 2 or 3 week combinations

Application Deadline: May 23, 2011

Website: http://www.sml.cornell.edu/sml_cc_islandarch.html

Project Director: Dr. Nathan Hamilton, University of Southern Maine

Project Description

The rugged Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine (New England) have a long history of human settlement dating from the late 16th century. Early communities were economically 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 (prehistoric to the late 19th century) and about organisms (fish, bird, shellfish) that were present in the marine environment during those periods. Students live at the Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island and commute to Smuttynose Island by boat (10 min) each day. Three meals a day are prepared by the Shoals Lab kitchen; students live in comfortable double dorm rooms. The Shoals Lab island campus is shared with other students studying marine science, marine biology, oceanography and ecology. Course work will include documentation, reporting and completion of architectural, historic and prehistoric site survey and excavation forms suitable for historic preservation submission. Training in field logistics, scheduling, ethics, and public relations are also part of this course. The Register of Professional Archaeology Standards and Practice will be used as a guide.

Period(s) of Occupation: prehistoric through 1900

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: 7 days

Minimum Age: 16

Room and Board Arrangements

Room and board is included in the weekly fee and students live very comfortably in dorms at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine. All meals prepared by a chef; SML is famous for its delicious meals.

Cost: No added cost

Academic Credit
Name of institution offering credit: Cornell University
Number of credits offered: Optional 1.5 credits/week 
Tuition: $1351 / week

Contact Information 
Robin Hadlock Seeley, Ph.D 
Shoals Marine Lab - G-14 Stimson Hall - Cornell University 
Ithaca, NY 14853 
USA 
shoals-lab@cornell.edu 
Phone: 207-956-0815 
Fax: 607-255-0742