No experience is necessary as new volunteers are teamed up with experienced volunteers for hands on learning. International volunteers of age 18 or older are welcome, including volunteers with disabilities. Volunteer opportunities range from field excavations to laboratory processing of artifacts. This year we will be investigating the Bockmier pre-contact site, dated between 1200-1250 AD. This appears to be an Ancestral Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) village but also contains components from other time periods. The project is an archaeological field school where volunteers will learn site layout, excavation techniques, soil sampling, plan and profile mapping and processing artifacts (projectile points, pottery, tools etc.).
The workday is from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. The work is done in a friendly and supportive environment. Please understand that this can involve hard physical labor, including digging with a trowel or shovel, screening soil and carrying buckets of dirt. Lab work may involve detailed work with the hands. Each person will work at their own pace according to their physical condition.
The temperature can be quite hot or cool and rainy. BRING work gloves, work shoes and clothing, including a warm coat or sweatshirt, sun hat, rain coat, long sleeve shirts and pants as there will be mosquitoes. The work site can be dirty and muddy so multiple sets of work clothes are a good idea. Sunscreen and bug spray will be provided.