Frost Town Archaeology 2019-2020: Pedagogy and Public Practice

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Frost Town Archaeology (FTA) is a historical archaeological project through SUNY Brockport and the Rochester Museum and Science Center that explores the site of Frost Town, a once thriving logging area that was gradually abandoned during the early 20th century. FTA examines the environmental devastation of the Euro-American presence in the Finger Lakes region, as well as the social dynamics that developed out of the logging industry. The first field school season was launched in 2019. For three weeks the team excavated the Hall Residence, a mid-19th century house foundation that was abandoned around 1913. The undergraduate students who attended were taught archaeological methods and then asked to teach those methods to 12-15-year-old campers during our final week of work. This paper will discuss the results from FTA’s 2019 season, including the lessons learned from pushing field school students to engage in public archaeology with younger audiences. Since the summer of 2019, efforts have continued at Frost Town, though significantly reduced because of COVID-19. This paper will discuss the limits of public archaeology, the impact of the pandemic, and the future of Frost Town Archaeology in 2021.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33599