Field Schools

Want to get in the dirt and try your hand at archaeology? Field schools are an excellent way to experience archaeology in action and find out if it's the career path for you! Most field schools take place in the summer and are administered by universities as part of a degree requirement; students from other schools can often participate for credit hours. Many field schools also offer opportunities for the non-student public to participate. Below is a list of field schools taking place in North Carolina. Please contact the university for information about volunteering, visiting or joining a field school.

If your field school is not listed and takes place in North Carolina, let us know! Email archaeology@ncdcr.gov with the date, location, contact, and website and we'll add it.

2022 North Carolina Field Schools

Local Siouan Project Field School

Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC-Chapel Hill
May 11 - June 26, 2022
Application Deadline: March 15, 2022

This summer’s field school will begin to assess several new areas along the Eno River in Hillsborough, North Carolina, that have significant potential to contain important Native American habitations during the late pre-contact and contact periods, revealing new insights into indigenous land use practices and settlement during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Contact: Dr. Heather Lapham, hlapham@unc.edu

Berry Site Field School At Fort San Juan

Warren Wilson College
May 31 - June 24, 2022
Application Deadline: May 13, 2022

This is your opportunity to explore archaeology in a new way. You will learn how to identify stone tools, pottery, and historic artifacts, among other artifacts. Your participation in the field school will help researchers discover new evidence of the interactions between 16th-century Native Americans and Spanish invaders in western North Carolina. No previous archaeological experience is necessary.

Contact: Dr. David Moore, dmoore@warren-wilson.edu

Field School in Historical Archaeology at Bath State Historic Site

East Carolina University
May 16 - June 20, 2022
Application Deadline: contact Dr. Charles Ewen before March 25, 2022

Bath was founded in 1705 and was North Carolina’s first town and port of entry. This summer’s dig will focus on the Palmer-Marsh house, Bath's oldest and in the colonial period its largest residence.

Contact: Dr. Charles Ewen, ewenc@ecu.edu

Archaeological Field School in the Cape Fear Region

UNC-Wilmington
May 23 - June 22, 2022
Application Deadline: April 4, 2022

UNC Wilmington will offer a field school in the Wilmington area. Our goal is to investigate the archaeological and historical heritage of the Cape Fear region, by excavating structures possibly associated with a mill at an antebellum/postbellum rice plantation along the Brunswick River near Wilmington. Over the course of the session, students will learn surface surveying, excavation techniques, record-keeping, mapping, and basic lab techniques, including flotation.

Contact: Dr. Eleanor Reber, rebere@uncw.edu

Field Project in Archaeology at Holly Bend

UNC-Charlotte
May 23 - June 29, 2022
Application Deadline: contact for information

Get sore, sunburned, bug-bitten, and dirty. This course can prepare the participant for entry level positions in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) jobs. Permission of the instructori s needed for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Contact: Dr. Alan May, jamay@uncc.edu