Thursday, March 1, 2007 Older Editions

Interest in archeology? $4,000 tuition lets students dig at 'witch' burial site

By April Guilmet

Aspiring young archaeologists need not settle for digging in their backyards this summer. A new course at Phillips Academy's Summer Session promises to deliver the real thing.

From June 26 to Aug. 1, students entering grades 9 through 12 can spend four days each week digging at a Danvers site with ties to the Salem Witch Trials, more than three centuries ago.

At 71, Rebecca Nurse was hanged as a witch during the trials. Her body was buried by her children, in a quiet corner of their farm. A 27-acre portion of that farm, called the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, remains virtually undisturbed to this day.

With the help of Dr. Nathan Hamilton, an archaeology professor from University of Southern Maine, Malinda Blustain, director of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology on the campus of Phillips Academy, devised a dig that would not only introduce high school students to archaeology, but would, ideally, excavate artifacts dating back to as far as 800 AD, when Native American tribes roamed the area.

Working with graduate students from his program and several Andover students, Hamilton quickly located prime sites that yielded small but tantalizing treasures. He called the site's potential "enormous and fascinating." The PBS science series, Nova, plans to document the dig sometime this summer, Blustain said.

Among the artifacts already unearthed are pottery shards, forged nails, pipe fragments and shoe buckles dating back to the 1600s, as well as tool flakes, ground stone fragments and fire stains from Native American cultures.

It's not the first time the course has been offered, but last year's attempt to launch "Intro to Archaeology" was unsuccessful.

"We just didn't attract enough students last summer," Blustain said. The handful of students who applied last summer were invited to visit the site for a few days of digging.

"We had some of our own Phillips kids who were interested in archaeology participate as well," she said. "That experience helped us refine the course for this summer."

Although Phillips Academy doesn't offer an archaeology course per se, Blustain said her museum provides support to many campus departments, such as History, Language, Fine Arts and even Psychology.

But, as Blustain emphasized, this summer's archaeology class isn't limited to Phillips Academy students.

"It's certainly open to anyone. It's a great experience for kids to encounter history in three dimensions, things they've only read about," she said.

While there, students will likely work alongside both college undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Southern Maine and Salem State College, where course instructors teach during the school year, Blustain said.

Tuition for this course is $5,800 for boarding students, or $4,000 for non-boarders, though financial aid is available. The deadline for financial aid applications is today, March 1, but Blustain encouraged late applicants to call her to inquire about availability. Applications will be accepted throughout this month.

"It's an intensive five weeks," she said. "A terrific experience. It's a short time but it's so intense while they're there."

For more information visit www.andover.edu or call Blustain at the Peabody museum at 978-749-4493.