Public Archaeology

As a historical archaeologist, I specialize in promoting archaeology and preservation, I work with museums and non-profit organizations, colleges and universities, public and private schools, avocational archaeology groups, and, occasionally, commercial projects. Services I offer include:

  • Ethnographic research and interviews
  • National Register assessments, nominations
  • Historical research, oral histories
  • Management plan development
  • Testing, data recovery programs
  • Interpretive exhibit, video development
  • Construction monitoring

I consult for the Muncy Historical Society and serve as principal investigator with its multi-year development of the Muncy Heritage Park and Nature Trail. This historic site is an 11-acre parcel is at the nexus of the West Branch Canal and Susquehanna River. I teach Public Archaeology workshops at this site and, to date, have hosted nearly 1,000 visitors and volunteers.
To learn more about Muncy Historical Society follow this link.

I am an American Archaeology at Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA, teaching an archaeology methods and theory course, which includes a field school. In 2005, Lycoming College students excavated at the Muncy Canal Site. Follow this link for photos of that experience.
To learn more about Lycoming College, follow this link.
To read the syllabus for ARCH 251, follow this link.

I also am available to other archaeologists working in the areas of research, writing and editing technical monographs, organizing and managing information, designing publications, and designing documents as both Web-based and traditional publications.

For more information about Pennsylvania prehistory, follow this link.

To prepare for an upcoming dig, follow this link.

Visit other archaeology-related Web sites
Lycoming College Archaeology Field Schools
2007 Archaeology Field School
Muncy Heritage Park and West Branch Canal
In 2007, Lycoming College students located the foundation of the lockkeeper's house, uncovering a brick sub floor, and burned wood plank flooring, surrounded by a stone foundation. Except for architectural items, few domestic artifacts were uncovered. Predominant finds included nails, spikes, door hinges, shutter latches, and window pane glass. The paucity of domestic artifacts substantiated the evidence found in 2006 when the refuse pit was excavated -- that the lockkeeper's house had been emptied of its contents before it was burned to ash. Once the house and the drinking well were tidily removed, Pepper Street was improved and a new Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge constructed. Again, when the field school concluded, the public dig commenced.
The 2007 Lycoming College field school begins with students working at the site, removing topsoil and tree roots. This year, the students located the lockkeeper's house foundation.
2006 Archaeology Field School
Muncy Heritage Park and West Branch Canal
A new dimension was added the 2006 Lycoming College field school at the Muncy Heritage Park – Public Archaeology. The college students worked with elementary school visitors, teaching them how to use some of the tools of archaeology, how to excavate, screen and even how to process artifacts in the laboratory. The quest to locate the lockkeeper's house at Lock No. 21 failed, but a refuse pit was located and excavated. Preliminary reports suggest the items were discarded in the refuse pit at one time, probably at the same time the drinking well was capped (1928). Many thousands of artifacts were recovered from the site during the 2006 project, and continue to be processed in the laboratory by Lycoming College archaeology students, high school interns, and other volunteers. The 2006 Lycoming crew worked in the field as well as in the laboratory, washing, identifying and cataloging artifacts from the 2005 season. Once again, the public dig began at the conclusion of the field school.
KELLY DRISCOLE'S JOURNAL ENTRY: 5/25/06 -- Today we surveyed the area, took measurements from the bridge to the culvert to the canal and to the site. Around noon, West Branch School came to the site and took a tour of the canal. Then they dug in our excavation units for a bit. We then took them to the lab, to clean and sort. I really enjoyed the little kids digging with me.
2005 Archaeology Field School
Muncy Heritage Park and West Branch Canal
In 2005, Lycoming College began its relationship with the Muncy Historical Society, joining the group as it embarked upon a multiyear project to investigate and interpret the historical site at Lock No. 21 of the West Branch Canal. The field school concentrated on excavating the drinking well, which once served the lockkeeper, his family, and canal passengers and employees who traversed the canal. The students focused on the exterior of the well, uncovering its dry-stone laid structure and locating artifacts associated with both the house and the industry of a canal. By deconstructing the well, it was determined that the site had been closed in 1928 and the well backfilled by the new property owners, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Following the field school, Muncy Historical Society hosted a pubic dig.
Students in the 2005 field school discover and uncover a concrete cap that covered the drinking well at West Branch Canal Lock No. 21. The well served the lockkeeper and his family, who lived there. It was dug in 1832 and filled in (according to the date etched in the concrete cap) October 22, 1928.
2004 Archaeology Field School
Thomas Lightfoote Inn
Lycoming College students in the May 2004 Field School worked in the shadow of the developer at the Thomas Lightfoote Inn site. A classic example of rescue archaeology, the site was surveyed in a matter of days. One of the most historically significant sites in Lycoming County, the former Long Reach farmstead has been completely destroyed. Lycoming's field school worked at the invitation of the City of Williamsport and the Lycoming County Historical Society to salvage as much information about the site as possible. The crew had only a few days to salvage as much information as possible about one of the earliest farms in Lycoming County. In addition to test pits and limited excavation units, remote sensing was performed. The students also experienced a prehistoric site when they excavated for two weeks at the Snyder Site.

Lycoming College field school students dig test pits as part of a Cultural Resource Management project at the Long Reach farmstead of the Updegraff family. Once a stop along the Underground Railroad, the historic structure burned in 2002 and was demolished by the new landowner. A storage facility has been built; the site destroyed.
2003 Archaeology Field School
Canfield Island
Lycoming College's 2003 American Archaeology field school introduced students to prehistoric Indians as they joined the Lycoming County Historical Society and the Northcentral Chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology at Canfield Island. Investigated by the chapter for several decades, Canfield Island is considered an archaeological site of great value, for in successive layers of village sites prehistoric cultures left their record in bone, stone, charcoal, and ceramics, which reveal a story of human development. The site is in Loyalsock Township's Riverfront Park, which boasts a nature trail dedicated to scholar and educator James P. Bressler, who carved a niche for himself in the region's prehistory and history books with his archaeological investigations.

Lycoming College students excavate a prehistoric site at Canfield Island along the river. At left, a student takes soil samples from CISE02 while others work in their individual units.

CONTACT

Robin Van Auken
600 E. Mountain Ave.
S. Williamsport, PA 17702
(570) 326-7872 (Office)
(570) 916-0026 (Cell)
www.RobinVanAuken.com
RobinVanAuken@gmail.com

© 2008 Robin Van Auken