Archaeology Camp

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Monday, July 30, 2012

Kevin Brown, Ph.D. and several York College students and recent graduates helped teach 26 kids, ages 9 to 12, about archaeology at a dig in Penn Park, the site of one of the largest American Civil War hospitals in the region.

The week-long Archaeology Camp (which ran from July 9-13), is organized as a joint venture between York County Heritage Trust and the York County Department of Parks and Recreation. Its goal is to give children an introduction to archaeology and the experience of excavating a real archaeological site.

Brown served as the program's consulting archaeologist and principal investigator, and his students participated as unit supervisors. Seniors Monica Rozelle and Nathan Burgess, and recent graduates Eric Strock and Daniel Griffin were all responsible for excavation procedures performed by units of three to four excavators.

"All of these students have taken my Intro to Archaeology class," explained Brown. "They were responsible for keeping archaeological records for their individual test units as well as making sure all artifacts were correctly bagged and delivered to the field lab for processing."

Although the dig was an educational program, the site had never before been excavated, and Brown is busy doing data analysis and interpretation on its results, which he plans to put into a professional archaeological report.