Dig Blog: Settling in at Montpelier
by National Trust for Historic Preservation on October 19th, 2009Editor’s Note: This week, Senior Communications Associate Dwight Young is on an archaeological dig at Montpelier, a National Trust Historic Site. He’ll be sending daily dispatches about the experience.
Written by Dwight Young
The last time I “did” archaeology was when I was in grad school, which means it was back in the era when the earth’s crust was still cooling. The dig site was in Tidewater Virginia. It was mid-summer, and we were downwind from a sewage treatment plant, and there were ticks aplenty. At the end of it, I told everyone I had learned two things: (1) archaeology is hard; and (2) profanity is therapeutic.
So, 33 years later and despite numerous “never again” vows, here I am again. This time, the dig site is at Montpelier, James Madison’s estate. (Yesterday I was at the National Preservation Conference in Nashville, and today I’m in Orange County, Va.; this jet-set lifestyle is gonna kill me.) I’m part of a team of volunteers – a dozen of us, I think, though the precise number is still a bit unclear – who have come here from all over the country. We arrived this evening, settled into the house where we’ll be living for the next week, and got together for a group dinner. We’re a motley crew, to say the least, ranging in age from callow youth to seasoned sage (that would be me). A couple of us have participated in a dig before, but most of us have no previous archaeological experience whatsoever – unless having seen all of the “Indiana Jones” movies counts.
The actual digging starts early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’m realizing that it’s been a LONG time since I lived in a house with a bunch of strangers. Can’t help wondering if I’m too stiff in the joints and/or too set in my ways for this sort of thing. Happily, my command of profanity is much greater than it was 33 years ago.
More tomorrow, so stay tuned. WARNING: There may be crankiness.
Dwight Young joined the staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1977. He currently serves as Senior Communications Associate and writes the regular ‘Back Page‘ feature in Preservation magazine.
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