This information pertains to Summer Session 2011. If you would like to be notified when information about Summer Session 2012 is available, please sign up for e-mail updates.
Find us on FacebookField Course in Iroquois Archaeology
July 6-August 4, 2011
The following information pertains to the last time this program was offered. If you would like to be notified via e-mail when new information is available, please subscribe to the Summer Session announcement list.
Overview
Anthropology/Archaeology/American Indian Studies 2220 is a four-week, three-credit 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 fifth 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 2007-2010 found copious domestic artifacts and preserved traces of Seneca features and trash deposits below a plowzone. Excavations in 2011 will concentrate on expanding understanding of residential architecture and confirming whether a palisade existed at the site. An article about the 2007 field school can be found on the Cornell Chronicle's website.
The project director is Kurt A. Jordan, associate professor of anthropology and American Indian studies.