Tuesday, July 11 2017, 8am Mound Key FL; Sapelo Island, GA; Singer-Moye Mounds, GA Colonial and Native Worlds Field School 2017 (section one: 5/8-6/2; section two: 6/5-6/30, or combined) The Colonial and Native Worlds field school gives students the opportunity to work at multiple sites in Georgia and Florida. First, students will travel to Southern Florida to conduct excavations at Mound Key, the capital of the Calusa Kingdom. This more than one 100-acre island was constructed entirely by the Calusa in the middle of Estero Bay. Work at Mound Key seeks to understand the colonial entanglements of the contact period and the construction history of this unique monumental site. While in Florida, students will also participate in excavations at the Fort Center site on the western edge of Lake Okeechobee. Excavations at Fort center aim to uncover the history of construction of the first monuments in Florida, exemplified by the earthen constructions at the site. In June, students will travel to the coast of Georgia to conduct survey and excavations at Kenan Field on Sapelo Island. Excavations at Kenan Field, a site occupied for the past 4000 years, focus on the Mississippian Period and the coastal response to a large-scale immigration event circa AD 1380. The Singer Moye Archaeological Settlement History (SMASH) project field school 2017 (6/2-7/14) Singer-Moye (9SW2) is one of the largest Mississippian period mound centers in Georgia, both in terms of the overall site area and density of monument construction. Unfortunately, despite sporadic archaeological investigations since the 1960s, Singer-Moye has remained one of the lesser known Deep South centers. The monumental site core contains eight earthen mounds and two plazas, covering some 6 ha. However, recent archaeological survey of the outlaying site area indicates that the residential occupation of the site covers more than 30 ha. Singer-Moye was occupied between ca. A.D. 1100 and 1450. Preliminary analyses suggest that the site was occupied in three distinct phases, though it is unclear whether or not the site was abandoned between each phase. Unravelling the occupational history of the site remains one of the primary goals of our ongoing research.
