Update from the Dig - November 1999 to February 2000

Lenny topples trees at the dig

Surprisingly, November was another hurricane month with Lenny. As with all hurricanes Lenny stopped research and priorities shifted to protection of the site, equipment and the artifacts already recovered. A hurricane usually stops work for almost a month with days lost to preparation, the hurricane week and then a week or two of unpacking and organization follows. Before Lenny hit however, we had Mrs. Davis's 8th grade class of 35 students from Bertha Boschulte Middle School of St. Thomas and a lecture was given at the University on Tortola. After Lenny, Mrs. Davis returned with her 7th grade class of almost 40 students. On December 2nd Mrs. McDonald's 3rd grade class from Antilles School participated in the investigation. During January, the project was lucky to have Paloma Rivera volunteer as an intern for several weeks.

Every Monday afternoon since October a group of Coral Bay home-schooled students that are eleven, twelve and thirteen years of age incorporated the archeological project into their curriculum program. The students include Callie Burke, Ryan and Sean Castanzo, Dylan Buchalter and Chutney Mohlerll. The students use the dig to learn island history, anthropology and archeology and they even develop public speaking skills as they have been required to present the afternoon archeological site tour that is given almost everyday at 1:30.

Beginning in January our research priorities had to shift! Emergency archeological mitigation was completed during the installation of comfort facilities at the Trunk Bay Prehistoric Site back in 1995. One of the largest and most diverse artifact assemblages associated with circa AD 900 prehistoric occupation was recovered. In December, archeological materials recovered during the construction of the Trunk Bay bathrooms were sent from Puerto Rico, where they were being stored, back to St. John. Since the return of these artifacts, work has shifted for several months to the analysis of this collection's faunal materials in order to generate storage space that was lost when these materials arrived.

During January, an environmental class of the University of New Hampshire participated in the research, as did the senior class of Ross High School of East Hampton Long Island, NY. Starting February 1st, island school groups began returning after the holidays to learn more about their heritage from the investigations at Cinnamon. On the 1st, Mary Lambert's 2nd and 3rd grade class of 23 students of Saint John Christian Academy helped out at the dig. On the 8th, Mrs. Keating's class of 27 elementary students from St. Thomas's Montessori School joined us and on the 15th, Mrs. Howard's 2nd grade class of 27 students from St. Thomas's Lockhart School participated and learned about island heritage.

The Montessori kids went back to class and produced the following interpretive art: