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 most visible part of a much longer process of site investigation, documentation, analysis, and publication: 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

Interested in making a donation to support the Smith's Island Archaeology Project? You can make (US tax-deductible) gifts

HERE

With the NEH Archaeology Fieldwork grant (2022-2024) now fully exhausted, we very much need support to more fully excavate the 1612 First Town site in the years ahead - an enormous undertaking.

Gifts also can support SIAP's role in training future Bermudian and University of Rochester archaeologists and creating study abroad opportunities especially for historically underrepresented minorities doing archaeology and historic research. 

If you prefer, I would welcome direct conversations about particular philanthropic interests such as sponsoring student training, funding a graduate student site supervisor as they embark on an archaeology career, conducting additional ground penetrating radar surveys to find new sites, and purchasing field and lab equipment ranging from simple trowels and wheel barrows to digital microscopes and an electrolytic reduction tank. Heard of Endowed Chairs?  With SIAP you can endow a wheelbarrow, boat, or hammock!

U.S. and International supporters can use to access the University of Rochester History Department's Research page.  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.  

Bermudians interested in supporting SIAP fieldwork, training Bermudian students in archaeology, creating a new 21st-century archaeology lab in St. George's, or donating 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).