New!!! Student Project and Fieldwork Postings

Have you ever wanted to know what kinds of projects other students are working on, the problems they are encountering, and the strategies they are applying? In an effort to increase communication and interaction among student SEAC members, the SEAC Student Affairs Committee has added this page. The goal of this page is twofold. First, we hope that students will submit calls for volunteers and field assistants to their fellow students. Second, we hope that students with similar interests will find each other (hurray!), and that information swapping, peer reviews of manuscripts, and student-organized symposia will ensue!

If you are a SEAC student member and are interested in having your project included on the SEAC student web site, send a brief description (300 words or less), including goal of project, field project dates, and contact information (e.g., your name and e-mail address). You can send this information to me at: Cranford@unc.edu

Project Title: University of Kentucky 2008 Summer Field School - Carter Robinson Mound

The 2008 University of Kentucky archaeology fieldschool will be held at the late prehistoric Carter Robinson mound and village site in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. Excavations at the site began in 2007. Two Native American structures were uncovered, and geophysical survey suggests more are present. Excavations in 2008 will include identification of additional structures and testing of all structures.

This mound site contains the remains of a Native American village occupied approximately A.D. 1300-1500. This village may have been a center of trade for multiple surrounding groups in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Research questions guiding the excavations focus on identifying the presence and degree of hierarchy at the site, and comparing this with other sites in the region to see how frontier sites were different. Focus will be on the role trade played in relationships with surrounding groups.

The fieldschool will include field and lab methods. Fieldwork is scheduled during the first four weeks (June 5-July 3) in Lee County and labwork during the second four weeks (July 7-31) in Lexington, KY. Students may take either part (field or lab) for 3 credits, or the entire fieldschool for 6 credits.

Students will stay in a rented house in Lee County, and pay a weekly rent of $25. Students can camp at the site or nearby parks. In Lexington, students need to arrange their own housing. Dorm rooms may be available.

Volunteers are also welcome at the site and lab. For more information please contact Maureen Meyers at Maureen.meyers@uky.edu.

Project Title: Mann-Simons African American Archaeology Project

The Mann-Simons African American Archaeology Project seeks to illuminate African American life in nineteenth and twentieth century Columbia , South Carolina , in its full economic, cultural, and social diversity.  Primary data comes from documents, oral histories, and archaeological excavations at the Mann-Simons site (38RD1083), a collection of urban, middle-class African American households in downtown Columbia .  From circa 1825 until 1970, the Mann-Simons site was part a larger collection of properties owned by various members of the Mann-Simons family.  Property owners, entrepreneurs, and committed participants in Columbia ’s African American community, the Mann-Simons family established a tradition of achieving a diverse range of business and social aspirations and gaining access to the material privileges of citizenship.  As the first free African American household archaeologically investigated in South Carolina , this project offers a unique opportunity to contribute to our understanding of African American culture and identity on local and regional scales.  The primary objective is to understand the strategies employed by the Mann-Simons family and other African Americans to negotiate the complex and challenging world of urban antebellum life, as well as their adaptation to the changing world of the Jim Crow South.  Preliminary interpretation suggests that urban, middle-class African Americans in Columbia during the post-Reconstruction era employed three prominent and distinctive strategies to achieve personal and social aspirations: 1) the ownership and use of property, 2) a cooperative family structure and 3) the consumption of material goods.  Objectives for summer 2005 fieldwork are: 1) archaeologically investigate those areas of the site that will be irreparably disturbed by landscaping activities planned for late autumn 2005 and 2) define the archaeological integrity of the site.  Following this investigation, more detailed and specific goals can be defined. 

For further information, please contact: Jakob Crockett at the University of South Carolina , Department of Anthropology, Hamilton College Room 317, Columbia , South Carolina , 29208 .  Email: jakob.crockett@gmail.com

SEAC student members, send in more descriptions!

webmaster | 4/17/08