The Alexandria Archaeology Institute:
A Learning Opportunity for Adults
Offered by Alexandria Archaeology, Office of Historic Alexandria
City of Alexandria, VirginiaSession I: June 10 – 13, 2010
Session II: October 21 – 24, 2010
$475/session
9 AM to 4 PM
Join City Archaeologists for a unique opportunity excavating the Shuter's Hil Site! Gain hands-on experience in site-excavation methods and record keeping. Learn how to use a transit; process and catalog artifacts in the laboratory; and interpret the information. The excavation site focuses on a late-18th-century plantation laundry and a mid-19th-century house. It is located behind the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and accessible by Metro . Illustrated lectures, presented at the Memorial, explain the history of the site and the development of the City of Alexandria . The field hours (approx. 15 hrs.) and laboratory (approx. 5 hrs.) may be counted toward the Virginia Archeological Technician Certification Program requirements. Registration fee includes morning coffee each day, an opening reception on the steps of the Memorial on Thursday evening, three box lunches, and a closing reception in the Museum Sunday evening.
Application Form
Please fill out the application form and submit it online, and mail your deposit to the address below. If you prefer, you may print the application and mail it and mail it with your check.
To secure your slot, a non-refundable deposit check for $100/session is required.
Make check or money order payable to the City of Alexandria and mailed to:Alexandria Archaeology Institute
105 N. Union St., #327
Alexandria, Virginia 22314Telephone: (703) 838-4399
FAX: (703) 838-6491
e-Mail: ruth.reeder@alexandriava.govThe balance of payment of $375 for Session I is due April 29, 2010
The balance of payment of $375 for Session II is due September 9, 2010.
Alexandria Archaeology
Alexandria Archaeology is a leader in community archaeology, conducting an ongoing program of research and preservation for the past three decades. Alexandria Archaeology studies and preserves archaeological sites and interprets them for the public through museum exhibitions, publications, classes, workshops and hands-on activities. Archaeological excavations in Alexandria have brought to light a wide range of sites spanning 13,000 years.
What began in the 1730s as a few tobacco warehouses, a tavern, and a ferry landing on a crescent bay of the Potomac River, quickly developed into the town of Alexandria , which was incorporated in 1749. It grew into one of the most important ports of the region. Located at the juncture of the industrial North and the agrarian South, it was originally included in the 10-mile square boundary of the District of Columbia . The City serves as a microcosm of American urban development. It reflects many of the changes in economic focus, ethnic diversity, patterns of land use, and social stratification that characterize urban environments.
Shuter's Hill: A Wealth of History
The brochure "Shuter's Hill: A Wealth of History" provides a summary of the history and archaeology of the site, based upon 13 years of research and excavation. Native Americans hunted and camped on the hill over a period of at least 5000 years. In 1781, merchant John Mills built an elegant frame mansion on the property, along with two small outbuildings used as a laundry and a gardener's house. He operated the plantation with the labor of nine enslaved African Americans. In the 1790s, the plantation was purchased by Ludwell Lee, a lawyer, politician, and planter. In 1799 Benjamin Dulany, a wealthy planter who lived in town on Duke Street , purchased the property as a summer home. The wooden mansion burned in 1842 and was replaced by a large brick house in the 1850s. At the beginning of the Civil War, Fort Ellsworth was built on Shuter's Hill as part of the Union Army's Defenses of Washington, and the Dulany mansion was occupied by the military. The brick mansion burned in 1905 and the hilltop was used for large community gardens in the mid-20 th century. Construction of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial began in 1921, and the Masons have supported the City's ongoing archaeological investigation on the property since 1995.
