The Fiske Center Blog

Weblog for the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Author Archives: John Steinberg

May 2, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Geophysics during the Archaeological Field School in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Panorama photo of Burial Hill

Geophysics will be part of the field school at Plymouth.  We plan to do some GPR and conductivity at Burial Hill during the first weeks of the field season.  Brian Damiata and I will be running the survey for the first few weeks of the field school.  You can see some of Brian’s work at Sylmar, Santa Monica, and Crows Landing.  Not only will students learn about collecting the data, but they will also learn how to analyze it with GPR Slice software.

It is not too late to register

April 26, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Archaeological Field School in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plymoutn in 1846 showing location of archaeological field school.

The Archaeological Field School in Plymouth, Massachusetts is collaboration between the Department of Anthropology and the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston. This summer’s work will help launch “Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey,” a broad project of site survey and excavation leading up the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Colony in 2020.  Much of the archaeological work will take place along Spring Ln near the Jenney Mill

You can learn more at http://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/summer_programs/field_study/archaeological_plymouth

April 25, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Field School in Historical Archaeology at Hassanamesit Woods

This summer the department of Anthropology in conjunction with the Andrew Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston will sponsor a field school in historical archaeology at Hassanamesit Woods in Grafton, Massachusetts.  You can learn more and enroll at http://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/summer_programs/field_study/hassanamesitt

April 10, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation

Eben Fiske Osby at the opening of the special preview of “Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation”

Steve Mrozowski, as well as other folks from the Fiske Center attended a special preview of the exhibition “Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation” on Tuesday night.  Eben Fiske Osby opened the event with a graceful speech

Stephen Mrozowski points to a picture of Alice Fiske at the NYU exhibit with bones excavated from Sylvester Manor.

If you are in New York you can see some wonderful artifacts excavated by UMass Boston Field Schools in the Bobst Library Gallery on Washington Square, at NYU.  They also have on display some wonderful documents that were in the vault.  These documents are now part of the NYU collection.

 

April 5, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Show Celebrates Sylvester Manor: On display at New York University beginning on April 10

Alice Fiske and Stephen Mrozowski

There is a short article in the East Hampton Star about our work at Sylvester Manor and the upcoming exhibition opening at NYU. For some reason the reporter got the impression that there was an NYU group doing work as well.  All the archaeological work at Sylvester Manor during March 2013 was done by The Fiske Center at UMass Boston, including the GPR.  You can see some of the results in a previous post.  NYU does hold the very interesting archives from Sylvester Manor.

April 4, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

NYU Bobst Library opening reception for the exhibition “Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation,”

 

In 2000 Alice Fiske and UMass Boston archaeological field school students.

New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library presents an opening reception for the exhibition “Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation,” curated by Jennifer Anderson, PhD., on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the Mamdouha Bobst Gallery, main floor, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South.

You can learn more at the NYU web page as well as the Sylvester Manor web page.  Most of the Fiske Center Staff will be there.

 

April 3, 2013
by John Steinberg
0 comments

Sylvester Manor Cemetery Survey: better preliminary results

A nicer version of the information in the previous post

My good friend Ray Dillman, a graphic artist who makes commercials and such has long lamented the poor training scientists receive in data presentation.  He had some time on his hands and made my screen shot of the GPR look so much better.  Thanks Ray and I hope the fonts in the jpg came out correctly.

If you are interested in learning more Wikipedia has a nice entry on GPR (and the pictures there are not much better than in my previous post).

Ironically we just finished a mini-course at the Fiske Center that was called “Charts, graphs, & tables” that I gave.  Needless to say, the focus was on content.  Maybe I should expand the course to include at least a mention of aesthetics.

April 2, 2013
by John Steinberg
1 Comment

Sylvester Manor Cemetery Survey: preliminary results

Split screen of a GPR slice and radargram with one of many potential graves pointed out.

To the left are preliminary images and results of the GPR survey.  Looks like there are multiple graves.  I have pointed out one.  It shows a strong reflector (at the red dot in the upper blue and red image) and has the distinct upside-down “V” associated with features like burials in the lower Radargram image.