To date more than 12,000 hours of volunteer time has been donated to this program.

In April, we recorded three hundred and twenty-nine volunteer entries in the project log adding up to a total of eight hundred and twenty-one volunteer hours.

April 6 - the All Saints School's 6th grade class from St. Thomas participated and learned about the prehistoric heritage of the islands and about scientific research.

April 13 - a middle school class from the Salem School of Massachusetts participated in the on site educational program.

April 20 - thirty students from St. John's Guy Benjamin 3rd grade class participated in the on site educational program.

April 27 twenty-seven students from St. John's Sprauve School 3rd grade class participated in the on site educational program.

A number of students from the Guy Benjamin School of St. John recovered artifacts while participating in the dig. Stone tools were found by Jahwada Jones, Vidalina Perez and Clyde Vanterpool Jr. Clyde recovered a shell bead as well. Narene Tonge found carved teeth and Irvin Marsh discovered an axe made from a conch shell. Randy Owens, Dave Cunningham, Matt Lazzaro, Jack Kline and Taylor Raymund from the Phoenix School of Massachusetts recovered shell beads. Third graders Jordan Bason and Desi-Anna Charles of St. John's Sprauve School also found shell beads.

During the month on-site lectures were provided to the public every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 1:00 P.M.. Volunteers Linda Smith Palmer, Paula Savel and Joan Birmingham gave these lectures. Average turnout for this series during this month's period was 65 people.

Every Wednesday night a lecture on the heritage of the island and the investigations at Cinnamon Bay is given to campers. Average turnout is 70 people. In February and March these talks had an audience of 70 to 150 people.

In the first weeks of this month long term interns Linda Longoria of Santa Clara University (Feb. 4 to April 8) and Karl Brunner from Maine (Dec. 2 to April 10) finished their internship. On the 5th Arwa Shobaki also from the Anthropology Department of Santa Clara began her internship. In September, Arwa is off to Mauritania, Africa for the Peace Corps. On April 26th Greg Cyr, an archaeology student studying under Dr. Dave Davis of the University of Southern Maine joined the project.

During this month, volunteer Kent Savel, assisted by many others, concentrated on completing the excavation of Unit 4, Level 4, 30-40 centimeters below the surface (cmbs). In the process, he recovered many decorated artifacts and clay faces. One of these, an almost complete bowl with a bird like design was pieced together and found to have had a hole that was probably ceremoniously punched out of the bottom of the vessel. Meredith Fletcher of St. John also found a couple of unusually faces from this unit level. On May 13th Arwa recovered a ceremonial platter with a headdress and the typical bat nosed zemi/ancestral figure attached at the end of the vessel.

In Unit 2, excavation of Level 8, 60-70 cmbs was started, as was Level 3, 20-30 cmbs in Unit 3. Both these levels have since proven to be exciting in the understanding and development of the Taino religion in the area and associated iconography and ceremonial activity.

In May, one hundred and seventy-three volunteer entries were recorded in the project log adding up to a total of five hundred and fifty-three volunteer hours. Again, Interpretive Ranger Laurel Brannick provided classroom lectures to four school classrooms to prepare them for on site participation and background on archeology and prehistory of the Virgin Islands.

May 4th - the Bertha Boschulte School's advanced 8th grade class from St. Thomas participated in the dig and learned about the prehistoric heritage of the islands.

May 11th - the 30 students from Antonio Jarvis School's 4th grade class from St. Thomas participated on-site.

On May 14th volunteer intern Susie Monnier, a Wake Forest student joined the project. Interns Arwa Shobaki and Greg Cyr continued at the project with Greg leaving on the 24th.

On May 15th, the VIERS research camp held a fund-raising walk at Lameshur Bay in which local students raised money for the archeological investigations at Cinnamon Bay. Approximately 500 dollars was raised by these efforts.

On May 18th, 19th and the 20th students from New Jersey's Raritan Valley Community Collage participated in the investigations.

On May 20, 21, 22 and the 25th, twenty-seven students from Pennsylvania's Kimberton Waldorf School's 8th grade class learned about archeological research and helped out at the dig.

In June, two hundred fifty three volunteer entries were recorded in the project log adding up to a total of 1,123.25 volunteer hours for the month.

June 4th was a busy day as were most days of this month. Students from St. John's Pine Peace School volunteered and 37 students from St. Croix's Good Hope School learned about archaeology and the Taino.

The 7th was Arwa's last day. She had to leave for that graduation ceremony. On the 8th, twelve middle school students from Ohio volunteered. On the 9th a new volunteer intern, Suzanna Filip from Boston College joins the crew. Susie and Suzanna do a wonderful job over the next month.

The 9th also brings Irv Quitmire and things have not been the same since. Over the next two weeks Irv does a fantastic job of getting everyone involved in faunal analysis. Volunteers still want to learn how to sort bone. A 50X50-centimeter faunal test unit was excavated immediately south of Unit-3. Cultural material was recovered to a depth of 100 centimeters.

The following day, Syracuse University's archaeological field school, directed by Dr. Doug Armstrong arrives at Cinnamon. Over the next few weeks students from the class are directed toward project goals. They begin to investigate the historic remains eroding from the beach, west of the laboratory. Graduate student Lori Lee is placed in charge of the fieldwork. Work begins along the eroding bank. A profile is cut revealing the post remains of a building's outer wall. Another north shore swell or storm and this information would have been lost. In the profile episodes of successive floors of mortar are found. Investigations follow the upper floor to determine the structure's dimensions. To obtain base line data on the estate a test was also conducted at the foundation of the project's laboratory. At one time this structure had served as the plantation's Great House. The historic record suggested that this structure was two stories. The upper story was found in the form of the wall remains that in the archeological record consisted of fragments of soft mortar daub with waddle impressions.

On the 14th Dr. Jeff Walker of the Caribbean National Forest begins on site analysis of the lithic recovered. Jeff examines the stone tools throughout the week. It becomes apparent that most of the tools were manufactured from local material. Artifacts of stone include ceremonial pestles, celts, choppers, blades, beads, stone zemis, three pointers and a carved face of what was probably the head piece of a fragmented stone duho (opening photo). The duho is the cacique's ceremonial seat.

The following two weeks are packed full of education. The Lynsfield Underwater School conducts its first underwater archaeological survey. Boy Scout troop 1776 spend two days at the dig and start to earn that new archeological merit badge and the archaeological class of Virginia's Hyton High School, directed by Robin Landes, spends several days devoted to Cinnamon Bay Taino Archaeology. On the 25th, local resident student Jamila Abraham of St. John joins the intern team. On the 26th, Myron Jackson of the Virgin Islands State Historic Preservation Office organizes a tour and lecture of the site for the island's Young Democrats.

Two hundred and sixty-four individual entries were made in the volunteer logbook this month with a total of well over 1,000 hours of time donated. On July 1, Michigan State anthropology student Barbara Bordener joined the team as a volunteer intern. While she worked, she gained credit hours from her department for the experience. On the 2nd, 53 children and adults from the Frederick Lutheran Church, St. Thomas spend the day at the site. On the 9th, students from St. John's, John Folly Learning Institute participate. During the month high school students from across the US spent several full days working at the dig as volunteers with Longacre Expedition.

During the week of the 11th the XVIII International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology is held in Grenada, West Indies and excavations are temporarily put on hold. The lab work continues and on the 13th intern Suzanna Filip provides law enforcement agents from the Turks and Caicos Islands an excellent tour of the archaeological site. She demonstrates site integrity and just how delicate and shallow their history can be and how quickly it could be lost through vandalism and construction. She stresses the point that law enforcement agents should play an important role in the protection of their island's heritage.

On the 17th, the Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell visits the dig to gain insight into community involvement in archaeology and island heritage. On this day some sixty students are working together at the dig from the John's Folly Learning Institute and Longacre Expeditions.

On the 22nd Suzanna has to return to the states but Dr. Lundberg comes back to continue her microscopic research on the ceramics. On the 24th a local anthropology student from St. Thomas, Kristen Moorhead who is studying at Spelman College, joins the team. The 30th, is Jamila's last day, she goes to prepare for her first year at Brown University where she has a partial scholarship, but the next day J. Chandler Perdue of Tennessee signs on.

During the month's last week, at lunch hour, interns and volunteers made pottery and designs from local clay that was found by local potter Gail Van de Bogurt. The objects were allowed to dry and on the 31st, everyone got together for a firing. A simple pit was dug into the back dirt pile and the objects were carefully placed. Mahogany supplied by Gail and her husband was used to fire the pottery. The next day the objects were recovered. Though somewhat blackened (our fault, we need to practice) the clay performed well. Remember it had not been prepared in any way, just dug out of the ground. Objects held their shape and there was only 10% shrinkage.