In 2015, the Fairfield Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary as a non-profit dedicated to archaeological research and education at Fairfield Plantation in Gloucester County and at historic sites across the Middle Peninsula and beyond. In January and July of 2015, we shared in the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal a selection of our favorite artifact finds and a sample […]
New Challenges and New Discoveries at New Quarter Park
Every research excavation has that moment when you must decide whether to keep digging, or focus your energies on the inside work- whether it’s the artifact washing, cataloging, and report writing that accompanies any archaeology project, or potentially pulling together exhibits, lectures, and other outreach to the public. We say “research excavation” because often archaeologists are salvaging […]
The Public Digs Archaeology at New Quarter Park
Recently we returned to New Quarter Park in York County to conduct another two-day public archaeology project on a significant 18th-century site. There are direct connections between this site, a Burwell family property for much of the 18th century, and the family’s ancestral home at Fairfield, where we’ve been digging for the last 14 years. […]
Virginia Archaeologists converge on the Middle Peninsula
Last Friday, the Fairfield Foundation and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust (GMSPT) co-hosted the winter meeting of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists (COVA). COVA is Virginia’s professional archaeology organization, and is dedicated to the preservation and study of Virginia’s archaeological resources through fostering public awareness, advancing archaeological knowledge, and facilitating interaction between professional and avocational archaeologists and Virginia’s Department of […]
Middle Peninsula State Park Survey, Round Three!
For the third year in a row, the Fairfield Foundation and the Middle Peninsula Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV), led a great group of dedicated volunteers on a shovel test pit survey across the grounds of the future Middle Peninsula State Park, near Rosewell in Gloucester County. A damp and gray Tuesday […]
Community Outreach: the Archeological Society of Virginia and its Middle Peninsula Chapter
We’ve all heard the expression “You can’t take a step in Virginia without walking on an historic site!” We live in an amazingly historic area with wonderful resources, from the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, to the restored and reconstructed town of Williamsburg, the grand plantations along Route 5, and the battlegrounds at Yorktown […]