[URBANTH-L]ANN: New Philadelphia Archaeology Field School

[Angela Jancius]

New Philadelphia Archaeology Field School
Co-sponsored by the University of Illinois, University of Maryland, and
Illinois State Museum

This NSF-REU sites program will help enhance undergraduate education in
scientific methods and analyses in an ongoing long-term project at New
Philadelphia. The primary goals of the project are to: 1) Understand the
town's founding and development as a multi-racial integrated town; 2)
Explore and contrast dietary patterns between different households of
different ethnic backgrounds by examining faunal and botanical remains; 3)
Reconstruct the townscape and town lot uses of different households from
different ethnic backgrounds using botanical data and archaeological
landscape features; 4) Elucidate the different consumer choices residents of
different ethnic backgrounds made in a frontier situation and understand how
household choices changed with the increased connection to distant markets
and changing perceptions of racialization within the society. The excavation
and analysis of artifacts and archaeobiology data will provide students with
a hands-on learning experience and mentoring process for students in an
interdisciplinary setting. Ultimately, these different data sets will be
integrated and the students will gain an understanding of the importance of
scientific interdisciplinary research as they examine the growth and
development of the town. This research will elucidate how individual members
and families of this integrated community made choices to create their
immediate environment, diet, agricultural practices, social affiliation, and
consumer choice.

Contact Information:
Christopher Fennell
Email: cfennell at uicu.edu
URL http://http://www.anthro.uiuc.edu/faculty/cfennell/NP/