Everyone stopped and stared at the men around the drum. Soon, a person came out into the sacred circle, and opened with a heartfelt thank you to our veterans. They danced around in a clockwise motion to deliver flags to their designated place inside the sacred circle. There were grass dancers and fancy dancers, jingle dresses, and shawl dancers everywhere.

We watched for a while, and then decided to check out the merchandise. Atlatls, necklaces, rabbit’s feet, medicine pouches of turtle shell, beadwork, furs, dream catchers, and shells filled the shelves and caught everyone’s eye as they passed. And everyone got a kick out of the dog lying in front of a shop, traditionally dressed in leather, complete with a fur mohawk and turtle shell medicine pouch. He just sat there staring back!

We moseyed back to our sitting area in time to catch the blanket dance, a dance to raise money for the people who sang and beat on the drum. They had to come from a long way. The women moved clockwise in the circle dancing as they carried the blanket. After that, a man played the flute and interpreted the music and origin for us. One was about a man hunting a deer, and he prayed to the Creator that he would use it to feed his family. On his forth arrow he struck the deer, and he buried its heart to return its spirit to the Creator. The songs were all very beautiful, and the man was extremely talented. After listening to some songs, we decided to leave and get some much needed coffee. I am so glad we got to experience this, and we hope to come back next year for more fun!

We left school on Thursday October 28th, at 6 o’clock in the morning!!! The five of us students and Dr. Dillian piled into the rented minivan and began our six-hour drive to Williamsburg Virginia, where the conference was being held this year. It was a fun drive, except for Meghan who is prone to getting sick on long car rides, poor Meghan. But, for the rest of us the drive was enjoyable and filled with good conversation from Dr. Dillian telling us of her many experiences in the field.

Once we arrived in Williamsburg we checked into our hotel where the conference was being held. That afternoon our group and other members of ESAF went to the historic site of Jamestown Virginia. We got a personal tour of the active excavations currently going on and we spoke with several of the head archaeologists working on the site, including Bill Kelso, who is the lead archeologist at the Jamestown site.

On Friday, we listened to many presentations on various topics revolving around archaeology that has been taking place in the eastern United States. That evening we practiced our presentations with Dr. Dillian and we attended the annual American Canadian Friendship Party. We were introduces to many working and retired archeologists, anthropologists, museum coordinators, professors, and many other people at this social event. We had a great time and it was the perfect opportunity for us, as students, to begin to network with important people in our various fields of interest.

Saturday morning we attended more presentations. Around noon, we began to set up for our presentations. I think most of us were nervous, but we were also excited at the same time, for this was the first time any us students had presented any kind of presentation at an academic level. Finally, it was time for us to present our presentations. First, Julia and Lindsey gave their presentation on the work our field school did at The Oaks in Brookgreen Gardens. Next was Meghan’s and Chris’ turn. Their presentation was on the old shipyard site that our field school worked at during the beginning of our field school. I was the last student to present. My presentation was on the work our team did at Yauhannah Bluff. Dr. Dillian ended our session with her presentation on the overall field school. Our presentations went great. I think everyone did an amazing job and I am very proud of our group. We attended the formal dinner that night for all of the ESAF members, which was delicious.

On Sunday morning we packed our things and listened to a few more presentations. Around 10:00 A.M. we piled back into the minivan for the journey home. Meghan had no problems on the way home because she slept for most of the trip. In fact, most of us slept on the way back, we were all extremely tired. The trip was a great opportunity. We students learned a lot and gained a lot of experience from this trip. We met new people and hopefully formed some lasting relationships. I would like to thank Dr. Dillian for all that she did including pushing us to go on this trip and present, getting us funding, and driving us “safely” there and back.

CCU's field school team at Williamsburg with Dr. Dillian (Left, front)

I’m thrilled to announce that our CCU field school students did an OUTSTANDING job presenting their papers this afternoon at the Eastern States Archaeological Federation meetings. We spent Friday evening practicing the presentations, and they were polished and ready to go for saturday afternoon. I received quite a bit of very positive feedback about the students, their presentations, and the anthropology program (my presentation highlighted both the summer field school and the current program, and our goals for the future of the program at CCU). Students also have been enjoying talking with scholars in the field (and have been buying lots of books in the book room).

We appreciate the chance to participate fully in a professional conference like this, and it was all made possible by funding through the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University.

Included here is a picture of us at Williamsburg (we also took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Jamestown excavations with Dr. Bill Kelso, who directs the work there).

CCU field school students at the ESAF banquet enjoyed the fruits of their labor with Dr. Carolyn Dillian after a successful session devoted to presentation of preliminary field school results.

The last few weeks have been pretty stressful getting ready for our first professional conference.  We’ve all been busy doing artifact analysis, preparing powerpoints, and rehearsing our presentations.  Before the sun came up on Thursday morning, we left for Williamsburg, VA to attend the Eastern States Archaeological Federation Conference.  I was feeling pretty nervous until I saw the room we would be presenting in.  I had been torturing myself with visions of a huge banquet hall, an audience of hundreds, and even (shudder) a stage.  But the room we were scheduled to use was an informal conference room that held, maybe, 60 people.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Thursday afternoon was spent touring the nearby site of Jamestown.  It was incredible to be taken around th site by the head archaeologist, Dr. William Kelso, who has been excavating there for the last 16 years.  We spent Friday attending presentations by archaeologists from all over the eastern states and networking with future colleagues (fingers crossed!).  When it came time on Saturday to give our presentations, everyone did a great job and it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Dr. Dillian kept telling us that the more times we gave presentations the easier it would get, and I guess she was right after all.  It was a great experience and I would like to do it again…but maybe not until next year!

by Julia Louise Mills

After all nighters in the lab and a month in the woods, this team still leads the pack.

Over the course of the class we have learned how to survey, excavate, map, analyze data, and do everything in between. I believe I speak for my fellow students once again in saying we had two amazing teachers, Dr. Ward and Dr. Dillian whose knowledge and company have been wonderful. Among the great experiences, we have been given access to other great sources of knowledge within the school and surrounding communities. We are thankful for all the support and enthusiasm that has surrounded the course.

Today’s reports were the culmination of all of our hard work in the field that was carried over into countless hours of time put in at the lab. To complete our reports we had to analyze all the artifacts that we have processed and cataloged from our various sites and put them into context. The reports also included the individual histories and locations of the sites and calculated date of artifacts. The goals of our reports were to process and analyze all of the information gathered from the site that will help others and ourselves understand more about the site. Such evidence could provide information about the time period, function, occupation, and various other facts that help to identify and understand the site.

After compiling our reports we presented our results to Dr. Ward and Ben Burroughs. Having listened to all of the reports it is amazing to hear how much we have all learned and experienced throughout this process. After the presentations, it was time to say see you soon to the field school members, but not goodbye as we will all undoubtedly have at least one of the newly offered archaeology courses. Thank you all for a great experience!

Documenting the artifacts in detail takes more time than expected.

which is now yesterday morning. Some of the team members are begin to show signs of hysteria.

We finally finished processing the last of the artifacts today. We began to write up the various sections of the preliminary report for the sites we visited during the field school. The final report must be completed by 1:00 PM today Friday the 9^th. We are all working very diligently. Various sections of the report have been completed, but there is still much work to be done.

I have taken a short break from my work to write this blog entry. Tomorrow we must give a presentation of our report to Dr. Ward. There is still a lot of work to be done so this is all I

People had nightmares about finding artifacts without labels.

have time to write for this entry. Be sure to check Friday’s blog to see how our presentation went.