SIAP 2026 is JUST THREE WEEKS AWAY

 

I am so excited that after months of planning and working with many old friends, partners, and students we are finally poised to once again pick up trowels, dustpans, and sifters and get back to work uncovering sites that will shed new light on Bermuda's rich, complex history!  We return to the early days of SIAP, when it was as much a classroom as a research site, where I guided those interested in history and archaeology in understanding how old documents, rusty nails, pottery sherds, and post holes cut into the bedrock can be "read", and used to create new stories about individuals and complex anthropological processes. One UR  graduate and three undergraduate students will transform from newbies to archaeologists over the course of five weeks, joined by at least four Bermudians who have signed up following a recent ROYAL GAZETTE story and Bermuda National Trust outreach.

The incomparable Ewan Shannon is returning as lead field supervisor and we are very fortunate to have Valerie Hall, a soon-to-be University of Maryland PhD, running our lab. Valerie brings with her considerable experience from Historic Jamestown's excavations and expertise in faunal and bioarchaeological analysis. Our SIAP sites have produced a treasure trove of material with which to reconstruct Bermuda's 17th-century environment as well as early settlers' foodways (as Ty Tempalski's research has begun to reveal). Andrew Levin will also be ensconced in the lab studying the Oven Site Kitchen assemblage, particularly material linked to the enslaved Native Americans of Boaz Sharp's household.

Mr Bartram of Bermuda Government's Youth and Sports Department, Dr Charlotte Andrews, Dr Ian Walker, Jessica Carvalho and Peter Drew of Bermuda Government DENR, Adrian and Annette Cook, Samantha and Neil Moncrief, and Edward Schultz have proved true friends to SIAP in helping to lay the groundwork for a smooth start to the season - I am grateful to you all!

We still have opportunities for volunteering in the field and in the (much easier to get to) St George's lab, as well as need for borrowing equipment - wheelbarrows, wheeled carts, large shade/rain tarps, a mitre saw (for making new sifters and repairing old ones), an espresso maker (just kidding)... So if you want to participate or otherwise support us, please contact me! Michael.jarvis@rochester.edu.