Field School

Right now Archaeology in Annapolis is nearing the end of our six-week field school. Each year AIA teaches a class in archaeological field methods which offers beginners instruction in excavation methods, laboratory work, stratigraphic analysis, technical drawing, writing and interpretation. This year the last half of the field school was held at the Wye House in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Wye House is a plantation that was founded in the late 18th century by Edward Lloyd, a wealthy Maryland landowner. Wye House is a National Historic Landmark and is still privately owned by descendants of the Lloyd family. The field school is currently excavating in a location on the property called the "Long Green" where slaves to the Lloyds worked and lived. Frederick Douglass actually spent a few years of his childhood as a slave at Wye House. One of the best accounts we have of the property comes from one of Douglass' autobiographies, My Bondage, My Freedom, where he describes the landscape and living conditions in some detail. Students are excavating what we believe was a slave quarter. Through excavation we hope to confirm that this was in fact a domestic site for slaves and to further gain some insight into their everyday lives.

For more information on the AIA field school see the following link: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/school.htm

For information on field schools that are held throughout the country and all over the world check out the Shovel Bums website: http://www.shovelbums.org/component/option,com_sobi2/catid,10/Itemid,880/