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.
2020 Summer Field Schools
Field School in Historical Archaeology Brunswick Town State Historic Site
Dates: May 18 - June 22, 2020
Location: Winnabow, North Carolina
Dig at Colonial Tavern! Brunswick Town, founded in 1729, was North Carolina's major port in the eighteenth century until it was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War.
Contact Dr. Charles Ewen, Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
UNC-Chapel Hill Siouan Project Field School at the Wall Site
Dates: May 13 - June 18, 2020
Location: York County, South Carolina
Excavations will be based at the Spratt’s Bottom site, a Colonial-period Catawba Indian town in York County, South Carolina (just south of Charlotte). This field school will continue the RLA’s Catawba Project begun in 2001 to understand the emergence and endurance of the modern Catawba Nation.
Deadline for application is March 15, 2020.
Contact Dr. Heather Lapham, Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
UNCW Archaeological Field School in the Cape Fear Region
Dates: May 20 - June 22, 2020
Location: Wilmington, North Carolina
Surviving chimney falls and other remains of slave cabins and sharecropper residences have been located on local, privately owned land that once belonged to an antebellum rice and naval stores plantation. We began to excavate the first of these cabins in our 2018 field season, and continued in 2019; prior to that, no slave cabin was excavated at any rice plantation along the Lower Cape Fear River, although some plantation houses and outbuildings have been investigated. The goal of our field season will be to map as many of the surviving cabin remains as possible, and excavate some of the slave cabins.
Contact Dr. Eleanora Reber, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC.
Warren Wilson College Field School at The Berry Site
Dates: June 1 - 26, 2020
Location: near Morganton, North Carolina
Get your hands dirty in this four-week summer field course involving archaeological excavation at the Berry archaeological site. You’ll learn all aspects of the investigation including excavation techniques, mapping, and specialized recovery techniques such as water-screening and flotation. This is an experiential course that allows you to develop the skills necessary to engage in archaeological fieldwork.
Contact Dr. David Moore, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC.