[SEMCO] Archaeology Field School Offered at CCMNH

[Sheri D. Derosa]

May 19, 2000
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Carol Dumas, 508-896-3867, ext. 11



Archaeology Field School Offered This Summer at CCMNH

It's your chance to be an archaeologist for a week!

The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster is offering an
Archaeology Field School this summer, led by the Museum's archaeologist
Fred
Dunford on historic Wing Island, the site of an ongoing archaeological
excavation.

While Cape Cod won't yield any dinosaur bones (the Cape was formed just
20,000 years ago, well after the dinosaurs had vanished), stone tools as
old
as 9,000 years have been discovered on this site, named after John Wing,
an
early colonial settler, and pottery shards.  Since 1995, the Museum has
conducted an archaeological survey of the island. Dunford hopes to find
evidence of a salt works and John Wing's homestead.

Participants of this class will learn archaeological methods as they
participate in this search, excavate shovel test pits, and recover,
record,
clean and inventory artifacts. An orientation and overview of the entire

project will be held on the first day. Lunch will be provided daily and
participants will receive a complimentary copy of Dunford's book,
"Secrets
in the Sand: The Archaeology of Cape Cod."  Also included is an an
off-site
boat trip to Nauset Marsh, an inlet along the Atlantic shore of Cape Cod

inhabited by a village of 500 Native Americans and visited by explorer
Samuel de Champlain in 1605.

The field school will be offered July 24 to 28; and July 31-Aug. 4. The
cost
is $500 per person. The program is limited to 10 adults and requires
preregistration.

Call the Museum at 508-896-3867 to register or for more information.