8Research Experiences for Undergraduates 888UMB

 

Archaeobiology at Sylvester Manor

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the
Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research,
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Summer 2003 - 2006 *

 

 

What : A seven-week program of geophysical testing, archaeological excavation and laboratory work focused on the collection and analysis of remote sensing data, Native American material culture, archaeobiological data, including animal bones, shells, macrobotanicals and pollen.

Where : The fieldwork takes place at Sylvester Manor,Shelter Island, New York, and the laboratory work takes place in the archaeology labs at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Sylvester Manor is a 250 acre site with extensive American settlement and a 1652-1735 agricultural plantation established to ship provisions to the Caribbean. UMass Boston is currently in its seventh season of work at the site. The primary goals of the research are to understand the patterns of cultural interaction and cultural change among the diverse groups on the plantation, and to reconstruct land use and landscape change through time. The UMass Boston REU participants will use six labs: 1) the teaching laboratory; 2) the processing laboratory; 3) the zooarchaeology laboratory, containing a faunal type collection and thin section equipment; 4) the paleoethnobotany laboratory, with equipment for extracting pollen and reference collections for the identification of archaeological wood, seeds, and pollen; 5) remote sensing/GIS laboratory, with equipment and software for the processing and interpretation of geophysical analysis; and 6) the wet lab, with a Flote-Tech machine for processing archaeological sediment samples.

* Please note there is no program planned for Summer 2007

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This page last updated on: March 8, 2007