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Down and Dirty

With sun-dried dirt smudged all over his T-shirt and khakis, Adam Vandervort painstakingly sifted the newly dug dirt.

"The first week we really couldn't stand it," the fourth-year College student recollected.

But three weeks later, it wasn't so bad.

"You get used to it. You don't care if you're dirty, [and] you get to see everyone at their worst," Vandervort added.

Rising at the crack of dawn every morning since the first week of June, Vandervort and 13 other students have toiled away for upward of 40 hours a week in the sultry

Charlottesville sun.

They aren't in ROTC, or even preparing for the next 10K - they're archaeology students excavating a Monacan Indian village that began flourishing as far back as 850 A.D. And it's only a little more than a mile north of Charlottesville.

They're taking ANTH 381 "Field Methods in Archaeology" - field school, as it's more popularly known.

There is an Indian village in central Virginia that "we think the English knew about in Jamestown," said Jen Aultman, field supervisor and Graduate Arts and Sciences student.

"We think it's that village," she added, waving her hand in the direction of the two inconspicuous square holes covered by a dirty white tent.

While the area could easily be mistaken as an unassuming part of the bucolic landscape surrounding Charlottesville, the area likely was once a major Monacan cultural center.

Doing excavations here is often excruciatingly difficult, however.

"It's really hard archaeology. It's so humid and acidic, we don't see wood" or virtually any other organic material, Aultman said.

Consequently, successfully interpreting findings in the field hinges on analysis in the lab - and having a good eye.

"We don't see wood, so we have to interpret," Aultman said.

For example, a curious pattern of circular holes - post molds - in the dig area indicates evidence of posts, Aultman explained.

"There was some kind of structure here," she said.

Through the archaeology, Aultman said she hopes the role of the Monacans, who primarily lived in central Virginia, can be better contextualized within early American history.

"To understand what happened, you really have to understand the political dynamics" of the relationship the Monacans had with both the English settlers and other Indian nations.

For example, in the Monacan village, there are no European goods - evidence the Monacans had no trade relations with their European neighbors.

The archaeological site can perhaps shed some light as to why, Aultman said.

For the students, toiling away at the site has been a mixed blessing.

"I took Intro to Archaeology - you don't get a sense of what it is until you do it," Vandervort said.

Even more invaluable, getting their feet wet has helped students decide if they want to pursue a career in archaeology.

"I thought this was something I wanted to do, but this is making me question my decision," fourth-year College student Martha Murrie said. "It's physically tiring."

To get to the area where the excavation actually begins, Aultman and the students had to do a lot of digging. To get to the layer of dirt where the artifacts are, they had to dig 10 feet into the ground.

Each step along the way, the students had to catalog the soil types they encountered.

"It can indicate floods," and sheds light on the climatic conditions at any given time in the past, second year College student Sarah Bond said.

While the field school excavation ended yesterday, the students will spend the coming summer session in an air-conditioned lab making sense of what they've spent so many hours digging out of the ground.

All the work was completed yesterday, and the site was once again covered with dirt.

Soon, the old Indian village will be part of a new soccer field expanding into the area.

"Because of SOCCA [the organization constructing the soccer complex] we're here. They've been really cooperative," Aultman said.

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