Giving and Support

Archaeology is a complex, time-consuming endeavor that requires a large team of experts in different disciplines and student researchers. Field excavations are just the visible tip of a much longer process of site investigation, documentation, analysis, and publication; as a general rule of thumb, for every hour spent actively digging in the field, archaeologists spend another four washing, sorting, inventorying, databasing, analyzing, and conserving the artifacts we recover and interpreting relationships between the layers and features of our sites. Vital clues, past activities, and lost stories and perspectives are hiding in our data, but it takes a lot of work to detect and "surface" them.

Jamestown Rediscovery Trustees and Staff
visiting St. George's, April 2023

If you are interested in making a donation to support the Smith's Island Archaeology Project and its associated University of Rochester academic field school, we would greatly appreciate your support! I would welcome a conversation about your particular philanthropic interests, be it sponsoring the training of a student otherwise financially not able to participate, funding a graduate student site supervisor as they embark on an archaeology career, helping us conduct additional ground penetrating radar surveys to find new sites, or acquiring field and lab equipment ranging from simple trowels and wheel barrows to digital microscopes, an electrolytic reduction tank, or a ground penetrating radar.

Please contact Dr. Michael Jarvis to learn more about SIAP's present and future work, the program's particular needs, and for personal tours (in season) of SIAP sites and excavations.

U.S. and International supporters can use THIS LINK to access the University of Rochester History Department's Research Crowdfunding page.  Associate Advancement Directors Jenna Hiller (Jenna.hiller@rochester.edu) and Ashley Smith (Ashley.smith@rochester.edu) can also discuss tax-deductible personal and corporate giving opportunities to support fieldwork, expanded scientific testing, and student scholarships.  Heard of Endowed Chairs?  With SIAP you can endow a wheelbarrow, boat, or hammock!

Bermudians who wish to support SIAP fieldwork, training Bermudian students in archaeology, creating a new 21st-century archaeology lab in St. George's, or donate field and lab equipment items should contact Bermuda National Trust Head of Cultural Heritage Dr. Charlotte Andrews (Charlotte.Andrews@bnt.bm) or Head of Development and Engagement Dr. Dorte Horsfield (Dhorsfield@bnt.bm).