Students perform a wide variety of field tasks including surveying, excavating, mapping and recording. To locate the site, record elevations and establish a grid, the students learn to use a transit and to study basic survey techniques. Excavation requires students to recognize soil differences, to distinguish cultural disturbances and to identify artifacts. Back to top A central part of any field project is the mapping and recording of the excavations. Because archaeology disturbs the context of artifacts and features, it is inherently destructive and the archaeologist's most important job is recording the work so that important data are not lost.
Students learn to produce plan views of the excavations and profiles of the stratigraphy.
Because all of the excavations are part of the museum exhibits, students interact with the public to present archaeology to a wide variety of audiences. Guided tours of the site are given on a regular basis and each student is assigned a time as tour guide. A high point of the summer is Tidewater Archaeology Weekend where the public is invited to join in the research by helping to screen. During this event, students get a chance to direct others in the work and gain new appreciation for the public's interest in archaeology. Back to top Over the past three decades, the archaeological field school has contributed significantly to the history of Maryland and the development of Historical Archaeology.