Archaeological Field School

Monticello-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School

Archaeology of Chesapeake Landscape and Slavery
Anthropology 5589
6 credits

Six-Week Session: June 2 - July 11, 2025

Monticello's Department of Archaeology and the University of Virginia offer a six-week archaeological field school at Monticello. The field school provides six credits through the University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences. The Monticello-UVA Field School accepts applications from undergraduate students as well as postgraduates. A current or previous affiliation with UVA is not required to attend.

The Program

The Monticello-UVA 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 based on documents and oral testimony. 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 research 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.

In 2025, our fieldwork focuses on stratigraphic excavation to reveal how, over the course of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, enslaved workers created the artificial landscape surrounding Jefferson’s mansion. Our research precedes the construction of new paths to enhance accessibility for visitors.

Prerequisites

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 enjoy sustained, strenuous teamwork.

Tuition Scholarships and ICJS Fellowships from Monticello

Tuition rates are set by the University of Virginia and vary by residency status

All students accepted into the field school will receive a scholarship from Monticello worth half the UVA-mandated tuition.  Taking into account this subsidy, tuition for 6 credits is $1,410 for undergraduates and $1,653 for graduate students who are Virginia residents. For non-residents, tuition is $5,208 for undergraduates and $3,351 for graduate students.

In addition to the tuition scholarship, each student will receive from Monticello’s International Center for Jefferson Studies (ICJS) a Fellowship in Archaeological Field Methods in the amount of $2,000 to help cover the remaining tuition costs and living expenses. 

Room and Board

Air-conditioned housing at the University of Virginia is available to Students at an estimated cost of $49 per night or roughly $343 per week for a single room. Meals are available at an additional cost through university dining services. Most students 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 4, 2025. Please email your application to fieldschool@monticello.org.

For further information about archaeological research at Monticello, visit our website or visit us on Facebook .

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