Expert: Ralph Salier - 9/22/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi Ralph,
My wife and I will be retiring in a few years and I was wondering if you knew of any place where we could volunteer to work on an archaeological dig?  We are only interested in the United States right now.  Thanks very much for your time.
Steve

ANSWER: Hi Steve,  

This is something that you can do at any time.  Please let me know where you live and I will direct you to your local amature Archaeology Club and often times they do excavations and lab work to keep their membership active and interested.  Many of the bigger clubs even have publications and professional guidance.  The ones in New Jersy, New York and Pennsylvania are even sponsered b y the office of the state archaeologist.

Ralph

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Ralph,
We live in the Piedmont area (Winston-Salem, Greensboro) of North Carolina.  However, we are interested in the Southwest, particularly the New Mexico area.  Thanks so much for your help.
Steve

Answer
Hi Steve,  I used to live in Greensboro and taught at Greensboro College back in the 1980's.  And yes, I taught archaeology and anthropology.  I'm not sure if the Piedmont Archaeological Society is still in operation but I do know that there is a new Tarheel group

Tarheel Chapter in Burlington (for more information contact deer.hunter@mailcity.com)

And these folks are sponsered by the office of the state archaeologist.  Burlington is not that far from W-S.  

As for the Southwest.  You will need to be more specific as to the area.  The Universities in NM all have archaeological digs during the summer and some do accept volunteers  but not all.  So if you can identify an area, I will get you some contact info.  In theh mean time, they all want people with some level of experiance and you can get this by working with the Tarheel group.  

The email is the membership chair of the group.