Monticello-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School

The Program

The Monticello field school offers a hands-on introduction to basic excavation, recording, and laboratory techniques in archaeology. The course emphasizes a scientific, multidisciplinary approach to doing landscape archaeology.  It also provides the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research into the ecological and social dynamics that unfolded on Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  Technical topics covered include survey and excavation strategies as well as the analytical possibilities for ceramics, faunal remains, plant phytoliths and pollen, deposits and the sediments they contain, soils, and spatial distributions of artifacts across sites and larger landscapes.

Guest lecturers are drawn from a variety of disciplines including archaeology, geology, ecology, paleoethnobotany, zooarchaeology, and history. On-site instruction, lectures, and discussion sessions at Monticello will be complemented by field trips to related sites. Students will attend classes forty hours per week, with the bulk of that time spent working in the field and the lab. Reading assignments, lectures, and discussion sessions will cover both technical and historical issues. 

Research Focus
Our fieldwork addresses changing patterns of land use and settlement on Thomas Jefferson's, Monticello Plantation from c. 1750 to 1860, along with their ecological and social causes and consequences. Toward the end of the 18th century, spurred by shifts in the Atlantic economy, Thomas Jefferson and planters across the Chesapeake region replaced tobacco cultivation with a more diversified agricultural regime, based around wheat. Our research is revealing the enormous implications of this shift for what the landscape looked like and how enslaved African-Americans worked and lived on it. Significant questions remain about the ecological processes that were unleashed, how they were experienced by slaves and slave owners, and the importance of changing slave work routines in explaining social dynamics among enslaved and free people. Field School students will focus on two major efforts during the summer of 2012. The first is the exploration of how the domestic lives of slaves changed during the shift from tobacco to wheat cultivation. The second is devoted to documenting the ecological effects of agricultural change.

Requirements
The course does not assume students have previous archaeological field experience. An introductory course in archaeology will be helpful, but is not mandatory. Archaeological fieldwork is very demanding. Students should be in excellent physical condition and enjoy sustained, strenuous teamwork.

Cost To Participants
Tuition and Scholarship
All students in the field school will receive a Monticello Archaeological Scholarship from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. This tuition grant covers one half of the normal University of Virginia tuition charge. Taking into account this support, the total cost to students is expected to be about $1,095 for students who are Virginia residents and $2,250 for students who are not Virginia residents. In addition, all students will pay a $108 technology fee.

Room and Board
Air conditioned housing at the University of Virginia is available to Students at an estimated cost of $40 per night or roughly $280 per week for a single room. A double occupancy room is available for $26.50 per night or $185.50 per week. This option is available if at least two individuals make a mutual request. Meals are available at an additional cost through University dining services, or students can choose to prepare their own meals. Numerous summer sublets are also available in Charlottesville, but students will need to make their own arrangements.

To Apply
Send a one-page cover letter that outlines your interest in archaeology and a CV or resume that contains the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of three references. The application deadline is April 14, 2013. You can email your application to fieldschool@monticello.org. The snail mail address is: 

Monticello-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School
Monticello
P.O. Box 316
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

For further information about archaeological research at Monticello, visit our web site at http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/monticello-archaeology .

Or contact Fraser Neiman at (434) 984-9812 or fneiman@monticello.org.