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Archaeology Programs

Week-long Archaeology Programs

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  1. Program Dates
  2. Program Schedule
  3. Archaeology Expedition Program
  4. NEW—Ceramics Workshop

The Montpelier Archaeology Department is active year round, doing everything from conducting surveys on the property, to excavating various sites, to processing artifacts in the laboratory. Excavations in the 2012 field season will be focused on the field slave quarters, an area immediately to the south of the Visitor Center. During the 2012 excavations, archaeology team members will be looking not only for evidence for structures and workyards, but also for artifacts that allow us to talk about the living experiences of the field laborers.

One of Montpelier's Archaeology Expeditions.

The Archaeology Expedition program has been operating at Montpelier for a decade-and-a-half, with many of the same volunteers returning year after year. We are, however, keen to add new faces to the program. All of the scheduled programs are designed to give participants actual excavation experience on an archaeological site working side-by-side with trained professional archaeologists. We have a staff of eight archaeologists who work with participants both in the lab and in the field, which means you have personal interaction with archaeological staff and this allows you to work on sensitive features, artifacts, and deposits that normally one would not get to handle. You are treated as a member of the research team and we step you through the entire excavation process. While you are here at Montpelier, you will be engaged in lectures, take tours of various archaeological sites on the property, and of course get a tour of the mansion.

There are a total of nine Archaeological Expedition programs in the 2012 field season:

Two Expedition Team Members work on the North Kitchen site.

The schedule of each program is as follows:

To plan your week-long archaeology experience, click here.

Archaeologist helps program participant to mend a Chinese Export Porcelain plate.

Ceramics Workshop

The Ceramics Workshop is a unique, week-long experience focused on the conservation and restoration of ceramics recovered during the archaeological investigations of Montpelier. Participants in the program receive hands-on training that will enable them not only to identify the various types of 18th and 19th-century ceramics but also—piece by piece—how to mend them back together. Along with lectures by staff and guests, this annual Expedition program offers an insight into the post-excavation study of artifacts and how they are used to interpret the past, and is one of the Montpelier Archaeology Department's most popular programs.

This year program participants willl be mending and restoring ceramic bowls, cups, and plates that were unearthed during the excavations of the slave quarters—one of the homes for the skilled African-American artisans of the Stable Quarter Complex—between the Visitor Center and the mansion (learn more: Stable Quarter). Many of these ceramics match items found during the excavation of the North West Yard and Dolley's Midden, trash deposits that date to the Honeymoon Years (1797-1801) and the Retirement Years (1817-1836).

For more information on this exciting hands-on program, please contact mreeves@montpelier.org, or call (540) 672-2728 ext. 160.