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The application cycle for the Summer 2024 Field School closed February 15, 2024.
Location: Lesotho (southern Africa)
Dates: May 6 - June 10, 2024 with Professor Brian Stewart
COST: Tuition for six credits + air travel --- ALL OTHER EXPENSES ARE COVERED!
Deadline for Application: February 15th, 2024.
To apply, email Professor Brian Stewart at bastew@umich.edu your current CV and a brief (500 words or less) statement of interest.
ANTHRARC 487 for Summer 2024 is a six-credit field school class in advanced archaeological methods called "First Highlanders: Stone Age Lifeways in Lesotho, Southern Africa". Students will spend six weeks in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of highland Lesotho, southern Africa, working with an international team on an extablished field project. Directed by Prof. Brian Stewart (U-M), the project seeks to understand early human adaptations to harsh environments like high mountain systems. The focus of the 2024 field season will be excavations at Ha Soloja, a rock-shelter site at 7,500 feet in altitude with a deep-time sequence in excess of 100,000 years ago.
Students will receive training in microstratigraphic archaeological excavation, three-dimensional artifact recording, photogrammetry, rock-shelter geoarchaeology, artifact sorting and analysis, and heritage valorization. A series of weekly lectures will also be offered on salient themes in the evoluation of Homo sapiens and southern African archaeology and rock art. The project is run in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Toronto, Flinders University in Australia, and the National University of Lesotho.
For questions, contact Professor Brian Stewart at bastew@umich.edu. To apply, email Professor Brian Stewart at bastew@umich.edu your current CV and a brief (500 words or less) statement of interest by February 15, 2024.
Visit the 2024 Summer Field School Guide and Essential Info page to learn more.
And check out future funding opportunities below! Many resources are available to you.
Funding Opportunities:
Student scholarships and funding opportunities are available on the Department of Anthropology's website, including opportunites from The University of Michigan,and other external sources.
The Museum of Anthropological Archaeology also has student scholarships and funding opportunities of up to $2,000.
The U-M Training Program in Archaeology (ANTHRARC 487) provides students with a unique opportunity to participate in original field research. Students receive training in basic methods of archaeological survey, excavation, artifact recording and analysis, while participating in ongoing research in the area chosen by the course director. Field training is integrated with lectures on archaeological method and theory, and the prehistory and ethnography of the area under study. Laboratory sessions introduce students to the analysis of archaeological artifacts, including stone tools, ceramics, animal bones, and plant remains. In addition to learning the basic technical skills of field archaeology, each student works together with the program director and staff to develop a small but original research problem, based on the archaeological data recovered and analyzed during excavations. The results of this research are presented as a written paper at the end of the field session.
