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Archives For November 30, 1999
COURSE: ANTH 493 Archaeological Field School, 8 s.h. of credit
DATES: Monday, May 18, 2015 through Thursday, June 2, 2015 (7 weeks)
TIME: 7:30 a.m. – 2:30/3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
PLACES: Dill Property (James Island), Manigault House (downtown), and one of the state parks (yet to be determined)
INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Barbara Borg (CofC), Ms. Martha Zierden (Charleston Museum) and Mr. Ron Anthony (Charleston Museum). Other archaeologists from the SC state parks system will also be working with us when we are working on one of their sites.
TRANSPORTATION: Students usually drive their own cars or arrange to ride with other students. If the state park we work in is farther away than CharlesTowne Landing (West Ashley) or Colonial Dorchester (Summerville) the park service will hopefully provide a van and driver. (This happened one year when we traveled to Hampton Plantation State Historic Site near McClellanville, SC). Students are expected to be on site ready to work by 7:30 a.m. (this is to avoid the heat later in the day, and you will be grateful for it).
This is an intensive, team taught field school (a 400-level course), the goal of which is to teach you all the basic skills of doing field archaeology. All special equipment will be provided, though there will be one required reference text to purchase. There is a hefty academic component to the course with articles to read and summarize (made availabale on the OAKS system), a mid-term ceramics identification exam, a synthetic hypothetical project exercise, and a final written exam. You must be able to do the homework on your own time, after the field day is over, so this means evenings and weekends. It is important to not over-schedule your life during field school. 60% of your final grade is field skills, and 40% is written work.
We dress sensibly for the temperature and the conditions, and no special clothing or shoes are required. Athletic shoes, shorts, T-shirts, and hats are usual, long pants if we are working in the woods, and a rain poncho or jacket. No sandals or flip flops are allowed for safety reasons. Students bring their own sack lunches daily. Water in coolers will be provided. No alcohol is allowed. Many students find the small rigid plastic coolers that hold food and drink (and that you can also sit on) to be very convenient, as we do not always have picnic tables. Rest rooms are “usually” within walking distance.
A field school looks wonderful on your resume, and if you hope to work in, or go to graduate school in, archaeology you will be expected to have attended at least one substantial field school. Field school teaches you how to work in a real research environment, and as a close-knit team despite occasional challenging weather extremes. Field school is a wonderful experience for most, but you have to be serious about your participation. You are graded on the skills you learn in field school, and there is little time to make up missed field days or written work. Committing to doing all the work and staying on schedule is essential for success. Those students who do this will find the field school to be a wonderful experience, we hope, and we have found this to be so over the past 20 years!
I hope this description finds some of you thinking seriously about field school. This particular field school will not be held again until Summer 2017, though there are other possibilities both on and off campus to complete a field school. Again, shoot me an e-mail if you think you might be seriously interested: Dr. Borg (borgb@cofc.edu)
In October 2014, an initial meeting of professional archaeologists interested in coordinating archaeological research in the Lowcountry was held. It was determined that such meetings would occur on a quarterly basis. The first such meeting for this year will be held at the Lowcountry Graduate Center (in North Charleston), room 234 this Friday, February 6th from 3:30-5pm.
For questions, comments please contact Jim Newhard, Director of Archaeology at the College of Charleston. (newhardj@cofc.edu)
Congratulations to the following archaeology students and faculty mentors, who have received support for research and professional presentations from the College’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities:
Academic Year Research Award
Alana Acuff (Anthropology) and Jami Baxley (Classics)
Mentor: James Newhard
Title: The Global Electronic Repository of Aegean Scripts (GERAS): post-processing 3D structured light scanning imagery
Research Presentation Grants
Olivia Adams (Anthropology)
Mentors: Maureen Hays, Kimberly Pyszka
Title: Landscape Archaeology and GIS: Understanding Cultural Adaptations and Tenant Farming in the Low Country, Hollywood, SC
Conference: South Eastern Archaeological Conference
Zak Bartholomew (Anthropology)
Mentor: James Newhard, Norman Levine
Title: The Development of a Legacy GIS for the Contextualization of the Linear B Deposits from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos
Conference: Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting
The Archaeology Club will be meeting this Thursday evening in Randolph Hall, Room 301B, at 5:30 pm. In attendance will be a number of archaeologists from the area, discussing internship opportunities for the coming semester.
2015 Field School
Field school participants will be introduced to the basics of field archaeology. They will learn proper excavation techniques, archaeological survey, principles of field conservation, record keeping, site management, and archaeological surveying. Opportunities for field trips to nearby archaeological sites, such as Selinus, Lamos, Perge, Anamur, Alanya and the Alanya Museum will be arranged.
Duration
Session I : June 15-July 14
Session II: July 15-August 14
Deadline: February 1, 2015 (Note: Preference given to those who submit their applications before November 20, 2015)
Costs
$3150 for one session, $5800 for both sessions. Price excludes tuition and fees if taken for academic credit.
Academic Credit
Academic credit is optional. Participants can earn 3 or 6 credit hours through the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Undergraduate- $782.75, resident or non-resident, price includes tuition and fees only.
You can read more here: http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/event.asp?ID=568
We will also pull some items from our collection to be displayed in the lobby outside of the auditorium that evening.
Satellite and Geospatial Imagery from the Avkat Archaeological Project.
You won’t always find James Newhard exhuming delicate artifacts with a trowel or handbroom.
For Newhard, director of the College of Charleston’s program in archaeology and associate professor of classics, the task of studying ancient civilizations is just as easily accomplished with the aid of geospatial 3D modeling, airborne drones, and 3-D or Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). He works to find archaeological applications for cutting-edge technologies. (read more here).