Join Us for the 2014 Archaeology Volunteer Season at Wiawaka!

HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY AT WIAWAKA

We are looking for volunteers to help excavate at Wiawaka Holiday House at the southern end of Lake George, New York. We will be documenting the early years of the Holiday House by looking at the materials the visitors, staff, and organizers left behind. Wiawaka Holiday House was founded in 1903 to provide affordable vacations for the working women in the factories of Troy and Cohoes, New York. My dissertation research looks at the intersections of class and gender in the early twentieth century.

No previous archaeological experience is necessary; you will learn archaeological techniques hands-on at the site. All equipment will be provided.

If you have no previous archaeological experience, please agree to volunteer for 3 or more days; 18 years of age or older only.

Accommodation and meals are available at Wiawaka Holiday House for a fee.* There is no charge to volunteer.

What can you expect?
This summer, we will be excavating in three areas of the site to document the experiences of visitors, summer staff, and of the year-round caretakers.

Excavation involves the following physical activities: shoveling, crouching or kneeling on the ground, lifting buckets of dirt to pour into a screen, shaking the screen to separate artifacts from the soil, and filling the hole back in once all the information has been recovered. We will spend 8 hours a day Monday through Friday excavating, taking one hour for lunch in the middle of the day. Instruction will include archaeological methods, note taking, and basic artifact identification and interpretation. Rain day volunteers are more than welcome to help process artifacts in the lab. Participants can either purchase lunch at Wiawaka* or pack a lunch to eat on-site. There is no smoking permitted anywhere on Wiawaka property.

Excavation Dates:
Monday to Friday, June 16 through July 11, 2014

Megan Springate, excavation director, is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland.

For information and to sign up for this unique opportunity, contact Megan Springate at mes@umd.edu

Find out more about the excavations at www.wiawakaproject.com and follow The Wiawaka Project on Facebook.

* Volunteers are welcome to stay overnight at Wiawaka for $75 per night prior to June 19. Meals are available only after June 23rd. After June 23rd, the room rate per person is $110 weekdays and $125 weekends, including meals. Volunteers who wish to purchase meals onsite after June 23rd may do so: $8 for breakfast, $12 for lunch, $16 for dinner.

The Wiawaka Holiday House website is http://www.wiawaka.org/

Regards,
Megan Springate, MA

PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology

University of Maryland

www.wiawakaproject.com