William & Mary Archaeological Research Center

William & Mary Archaeological Research Center
Name	William & Mary Archaeological Research Center
Established	1973
Location	Williamsburg, Virginia
Type	Academic research institute
Director	Richard A. Handler
Affiliation	College of William & Mary

William & Mary Archaeological Research Center is an archaeological research institute affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Center conducts excavation, analysis, conservation, and public outreach focused on historic and prehistoric sites across Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay, and the eastern United States, collaborating with museums, universities, tribal nations, and government agencies. Its work intersects with regional studies of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Native American sites associated with the Powhatan Confederacy and the Monacan peoples.

History

Founded in 1973 during a period of expansion of field archaeology in the United States, the Center emerged amid scholarly efforts linked to the Historic Triangle (Virginia), National Historic Preservation Act, and increasing university-led excavations. Early leadership included faculty connected to the College of William & Mary and researchers who had worked at Jamestown Rediscovery, Colonial Williamsburg Archaeology, and state archaeology units such as the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Over the 1970s and 1980s the Center partnered with institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Virginia, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, contributing to regional syntheses alongside scholars from Brown University, Harvard University, and Yale University. In the 1990s and 2000s the Center expanded interdisciplinary ties with specialists from the National Park Service, the Maryland Historical Trust, the Monticello Archaeological Research Center, and tribal scholars from nations such as the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Mattaponi Indian Tribe.

Mission and Research Focus

The Center's mission centers on archaeological investigation of sites tied to colonial contact, Native American settlement, enslavement, and landscape change, aligning scholarship with preservation mandates from the National Historic Preservation Act and advisory standards used by the Secretary of the Interior. Research projects emphasize material culture studies, dendrochronology in collaboration with labs like the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Columbia University, zooarchaeology linked to specialists from the Smithsonian Institution, and osteological analyses comparable to work at the Pennsylvania State University laboratory. The Center undertakes comparative studies involving sites such as St. Mary's City (Maryland), Fort Raleigh (Roanoke Island), Fort Loudoun (Tennessee), and trade-network analyses connecting to collections at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Facilities and Collections

Housed within the College of William & Mary campus facilities, the Center maintains wet and dry laboratories, flotation tanks, conservation suites, and digital archiving equipment modeled after repositories like the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration. Its curated assemblages include ceramics, metals, faunal remains, and architectural fragments with comparative holdings from excavations at Jamestown, Bruton Parish Church, and sites associated with the Tidewater region. The collections support research in artifact comparative studies that reference typologies used at the Peabody Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of the American Indian. The Center’s archives follow accession standards promoted by the Society for American Archaeology and cooperative agreements with the Virginia Historical Society.

Notable Excavations and Projects

Major projects have included multi-season excavations at early colonial dwellings linked to families documented in Muster Rolls of Virginia records, salvage archaeology at transportation corridors coordinated with the Virginia Department of Transportation, and investigations at sites related to the Transatlantic slave trade and plantation landscapes comparable to research at Monticello and Mount Vernon. The Center has undertaken battlefield archaeology projects with methodologies analogous to those at the Battlefield Archaeology Unit and projects examining contact-period material culture in contexts like Kiskiack and Werowocomoco. Collaborative research has produced comparative studies involving artifacts curated at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and university museums such as the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (Harvard).

Academic Programs and Training

The Center provides field schools and internship opportunities integrated with degree programs at the College of William & Mary, offering practical training in excavation techniques similar to curricula at the University of Leicester field school model and in artifact analysis comparable to programs at Boston University and the University of Michigan. Graduate seminars leverage faculty expertise from departments connected to William & Mary and visiting scholars from institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Certification and professional development workshops have been offered in partnership with the Society for Historical Archaeology, the Register of Professional Archaeologists, and the National Council on Public History.

Partnerships and Community Outreach

The Center routinely partners with municipal entities like City of Williamsburg, state agencies such as the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, national organizations including the National Park Service and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and tribal governments like the Pamunkey Indian Tribe for collaborative stewardship. Public programs include exhibits co-curated with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, lecture series with scholars from the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, and school outreach initiatives coordinated with the Virginia Department of Education. Community archaeology projects mirror participatory models used by the Archaeological Institute of America and festivals such as those run by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, promoting civic engagement and cross-institutional research.

Category:Archaeological research institutes Category:College of William & Mary