Brian Bates
escorts Dr. Patricia Cormier to the Archaeology Field
School site at Staunton River Battlefield State Park
Archaeology
Field School Receives Grant to Continue Work at Staunton River
Battlefield State Park
The Longwood Archaeology
Field School recently
received a five-year, $100,000
extension to its ongoing investigation of a Late-Woodland Amerindian
site in Charlotte County.
The extension
is funded by a federal grant for which the Virginia Department
of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) competed successfully last
year. The site, located at Staunton River Battlefield State Park,
has been studied by Brian Bates ('92),
lecturer in anthropology and director of the Field School, since
being discovered in 1997.
The investigation a
joint effort by Longwood, the Division of State Parks (of DCR),
and the Archeological Society of Virginia has yielded information
on daily life along the banks of the Staunton River from 1000
A.D. to 1450
A.D. (and was featured in the Spring 2000
issue of Longwood
magazine).
"The extension
will provide researchers with a unique opportunity to examine
what life was like in this part of Virginia for the people who
lived there just prior to European contact," Bates says.
The site, which
he calls an "outdoor laboratory for our students," is used by
the Archaeology Field School every summer, and members of the
Archeological Society of Virginia have volunteered on the project.
"Several thousand
visitors, including schoolchildren from as far away as Richmond,
have toured the site," he says. "It's open to the public while
work is in progress. We encourage teachers to bring their students
to the dig."
The research
was funded originally through a federal Intermodal Surface Transportation
Enhancement Act (ISTEA) grant, the same type as the recent one.
Last year a grant from Old Dominion Electric Cooperative provided
funding for fieldwork and for developing an interactive educational
CD-ROM, targeted at middle-school children.
To
learn more about the dig at the Staunton River Battlefield State
Park, visit
our online story at: http://www.longwood.edu/news/releases/dig.html
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