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Summer Archaeological Field School
The Finger Lakes National Forest Farmstead Archaeology Project
Registration for Summer 2008 begins April 1
The Finger Lakes National Forest consists of 16,176 acres of forest and pasture located atop the "Hector Backbone", the large ridge between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. The national forest lies in the present towns of Hector, in Schuyler County, and Lodi, in Seneca County. The forest is managed by the USDA Forest Service via the Hector Ranger District, and is presently used for public recreation, cooperative livestock grazing, wildlife and timber management, education, and research. Prior to its role as public land, the territory making up the Finger Lakes National Forest was a patchwork of privately owned farmsteads. These farmsteads were established in the early to middle 19th century, and were abandoned and sold to the government by the 1940's. The remains of these farmsteads constitute an archaeological record of cellar holes, barn and outbuilding foundations, artifact scatters, and field boundary walls readily visible on the landscape.
The goal of the project is to utilize the diverse types of historic and archaeological information to develop a rich understanding of daily life of these farm families and elucidate how they changed as a result of larger national socio-economic transformations. Recent archaeological investigations of farmsteads and rural villages in numerous areas of the nation have made significant contributions to our understanding of the daily lives of 19th century Americans. Data derived from the archaeological excavation and historical research conducted in the Finger Lakes has allowed us to investigate changes in architecture and farmstead layout, household and agricultural production strategies, the use of space for productive and maintenance activities, and the material culture associated with farmstead sites in the Finger Lakes National Forest. The information generated by this research will be used to examine changes in life ways, land use, and economic practices during a period of rapid and dynamic changes in culture, agricultural technology, and regional economy between the early 19th century and the 1940’s.
Over five seasons, the SUNY Brockport Archaeological Field School has excavated eleven farmsteads representing a cross-section of upper, middle, and lower class farming families on the Hector Backbone. These farms also provide us with a wide range of social contexts, representing both the earliest and latest established farms in the area, farms continually occupied by members of the same family, farms which had several unrelated owners early in it’s history and then stayed in the same family for many years prior to the government buyout. In addition, a 19th Century schoolhouse and a sawmill have been investigated.
During the upcoming field season we will be excavating two sites: the Creighton farmstead and the Albright log cabin. The Creighton site was established in the early 19th Century and was sold to the Federal Government by the 1940s. The Albright log cabin was built about 1865 and abandoned around 1880 when the permanent structure was completed. This later house site was excavated in 2001. We will also be mapping landscape features at the Wickham farmstead with GPS units. Students will learn metal detector survey, site mapping, and basic techniques and skills of archaeological excavation and artifact processing.
Find additional information about the Summer Field School here (PDF file. Adobe Acrobat Reader required.)
