Week 1: Favorite Place(s)

I have a lot of favorite places, but my newest favorite place is Virginia. Over the summer I went to an historic archaeology field school at James Madison's Montpelier. This was my first time in Virginia and the mountains were gorgeous!

(Image Information: Personal photo of the view from my unit; July 2015)

We were excavating the East Smokehouse in the South Yard which was where the domestic enslaved community lived and worked and I exposed some really cool stuff.

(Image Information: Personal photo of the mansion at Montpelier; July 2015)

My first find was a small piece of a ceramic plate. During the four weeks I was there I also found many other ceramics, bones, and a multitude of mortar and brick. The coolest thing I found was a large fragment of a black basalt tea pot lid. 

(Image Information: Personal photo of a black basalt teapot lid; July 2015)

We also took a field trip to Williamsburg and Jamestown. Jamestown was by far the coolest place as far as American history is concerned. We received a personal tour by the lead archaeologist and were able to get close to the excavation units.

(Image Information: Personal photo of the original church facade at Jamestown; July 2015)

While I was in Virginia, I also wanted to go to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History and American History in D.C. since I was only two hours away. Those two museums were the coolest thing ever. I hope one day to go back to see the Museum of the American Indian and African American History. As an archaeology and anthropology student, the opportunity to see the Hall of Human Origins was the coolest. Below is a picture of 'Lucy', the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and the camera that was used to record the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That was probably the saddest moment of my trip. I was working at a newspaper in Shawnee, Oklahoma when 9-11 happened. To this day, that was the most terrifying moment of my life. In all, the trip was awesome!

(Image Information: Personal photo of 'Lucy'; July 2015)

(Image Information: Personal photo of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz; July 2015) 

(Image Information: Personal photo of the video camera that shot the only footage of the first plane during 9-11; July 2015)