Seeking Summer Field School Diggers
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TrowelMARK YOUR CALENDAR

What better way to spend your summer than digging into the historic past of one of New England's earliest settlements. Come join Dr. Neill De Paoli as he directs excavations in South Berwick, a picturesque town situated in southern Maine on the Salmon Falls River in June and July. (See below for dates and registration form)

 

 

South Berwick has historic roots that reach back to the early 1630s when a small band of English merchant adventurers established a trading post on the Salmon Falls River and a saw mill on the nearby Great Works River. Over the decades that followed, the town of Berwick emerged from these modest beginnings.

 

June 25-29, 2012
July 2-6, 2012
July 9-13, 2012

 

The focus of the South Berwick dig is in Old Fields, a semi-rural neighborhood that 330 years ago was a small hamlet of several homes, a tavern, meetinghouse, burial ground, town wharf, and expansive hay fields. The dig site is the former dwelling and tavern of Humphrey and Mary Spencer who occupied it from c. 1696 until 1727.

Historical documents also suggest this locale was one of Berwick's fortified garrisons during the conflict ridden 1690s and early 1700s. In 1690 and 1691, Wabanaki war parties in separate incidents attacked the Spencer garrison and two men working in a nearby field. This past season, the archaeologists uncovered the first evidence of an early structure that appears to be the Spencer home and tavern along with an array of glass wine bottles, stoneware jugs and drinking tankards, and clay smoking pipes. Field school participants will join Dr. De Paoli and his crew as they continue to unravel the story of life on New England's northern frontier during the Anglo-Indian wars of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

This experience is a great hands-on opportunity for upper level high school and college students seeking experience in historical archaeology, teachers in need of recertification credits, or history buffs interested in exploring an area with a rich colonial history.

The Program

Field school participants will learn basic excavation and recording techniques, laboratory procedures, and the identification of early Anglo-American material culture. The program will be highlighted by a ground penetrating radar survey of the site, a field trip to South Berwick's Counting House Museum, and weekly films and discussions. Participants may sign up for one, two, or three one-week sessions: Session 1: June 25-29, Session 2: July 2-6, Session 3: July 9-13. Space is limited to a maximum of ten enrollees per session. Participants must be at least 16 years old. The program will run Monday -  Friday, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM.

The Director

Dr. Neill De Paoli has thirty-five years of experience as a historical archaeologist, having directed archaeological projects in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. He is an adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College and has devoted most of his career to the study of English settlement and Anglo-Indian and English-French relations in early northern New England.

Tuition and Registration

Field school tuition is $175.00 for one session, $325.00 for two sessions, and $480.00 for three sessions. Registration closes on June 23, 2012. To register send the registration form with a non-refundable deposit of $75 by May 31st in the form of a check made out to the Old Berwick Historical Society. For more information or questions about the dig or area accommodations contact:

Dr. Neill De Paoli, 76 Northwest Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801, Phone: 603-766-0561,

 

Registration:  Mail to Old Berwick Historical Society, P.O. Box 296, South Berwick, Maine 03908

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Name____________________________________

Address__________________________________

Telephone:_______________________________

email:___________________________________

Please check:  Session 1 (6/25 - 6/29) ____ Session 2 (7/2 - 7/6)  ____ Session 3 (7/9 - 7/13) _____

Non-refundable deposit $75 enclosed_____  Final payments for all sessions due by June 23.

 

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