Field Course in Iroquois Archaeology
July 7-August 4, 2009
Overview
Anthropology/Archaeology/American Indian Studies 2220 is a four-week field school that offers hands-on training in archaeological methods through survey and excavation at Postcolumbian Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) sites in New York State's Finger Lakes region.
The majority of class time will be spent engaged in supervised fieldwork, supplemented by lectures introducing archaeological methods and Iroquois history and material culture.
Excavations will gather data on Iroquois residential architecture and domestic activities. Students will master field procedures, record-keeping, and interpretation of field data; study Iroquois material culture; and write a short research paper (7-10 pages) that uses data generated by the project to evaluate a topic of anthropological interest.
This will be the third season of excavation at the Seneca White Springs site (occupied circa 1688-1715) in Geneva, New York. White Springs was a nucleated village that housed 1,000-2,000 people. Excavations in 2007-2008 found copious domestic artifacts and preserved traces of Seneca features and trash deposits below a plowzone. An article about the 2007 field school can be found on the Cornell Chronicle's Web site.
The project director is Kurt A. Jordan, as assistant professor of anthropology and American Indian studies.
