REU: The Seneca Village Project: Developing an Archeological Research Design

在这个项目中，本科生将参与塞内卡村考古研究的一个阶段，塞内卡村是一个19世纪的非裔美国人和爱尔兰移民社区，位于今天的中央公园。该项目将由三部分组成。第一部分将包括历史研究，目的是确定构成该村的各种建筑，以及在其中生活和工作的各种人，以及该村三个墓地的位置和范围。第二部分将涉及与地球物理学家和地球物理设备合作，以确定村庄的考古遗迹是否完好无损地保存在地下，如果是，则通过历史数据确定与他们有关的人。第三部分将整合历史和地球物理数据，构建一个研究设计，解决与19世纪中期纽约阶级和种族建构相关的问题。这些学生将从属于纽约市考古联盟的学院中选出，即城市大学、哥伦比亚大学和纽约大学的学院。除了学习历史研究和地球物理遥感技术的基础知识外，学生们还将学习如何使用他们从两种截然不同的来源收集的数据来生成研究设计。这些解决问题的能力将帮助他们为研究生学习做好准备，并鼓励他们认真思考。

In this project, undergraduates will participate in one phase of the archaeological study of Seneca Village, a 19th-Century African-American and Irish immigrant community located in today's Central Park. The project will consist of three parts. The first will include historical research with the goal of identifying the various buildings that made up the village and the various people who lived and worked in them, as well as the locations and extent of the Village's three cemeteries. The second part will involve working with a geophysicist and geophysical equipment to ascertain whether or not archaeological remains of the village survive intact in the ground and, if so, to identify the people with whom they were associated by means of the historical data. The third part will involve integrating both the historical and geophysical data to construct a research design addressing questions related to the construction of class and race in mid-19th -century New York. The students will be selected from the colleges that belong to the New York City Archaeological Consortium, i.e., the colleges of the City University, Columbia University, and New York University. In addition to learning the fundamentals of historical research and geophysical remote sensing techniques, the students will learn how to use the data that they will have gathered from two very different kinds of sources in generating a research design. These problem-solving skills will help to equip them for graduate study and encourage them to consider it seriously.