Visitors are welcome to the Anthropology Department’s Archaeological Field School summer dig in Beaver Island State Park on Thursday, July 1 and Friday, July 2.

Lisa Marie Anselmi, archaeologist and assistant professor of anthropology, and students participating in the department’s annual field school will be on hand between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to show visitors around the excavation site, Martin II, which was discovered by Anselmi and her students in 2006. Listen to podcast with Anselmi and students from July 2006.

So far, the site has yielded more than 6,000 artifacts, mostly remnants from tools made more than 3,000 years ago. Students will also answer questions about the history of Native American occupations on Grand Island and basic archaeological techniques. View photos from the 2008 field school.

New York State Park naturalists will be present to discuss the local flora and fauna,  and representatives of the Grand Island Historical Society will discuss the historic property of River Lea. Activities will take place along the East River Trail in the park.