Projects in New York and New Jersey
Locally, the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies has collaborated with the Montclair Historical Society a project to evaluate, through archival research and selected excavation, a property which holds several historic structures belonging to the organization.
Archaeology in Montclair
The Archaeology in Montclair project provides students with hands-on training in historical archaeology and the opportunity for service learning with community partners working to learn and preserve local history.
Students have done historical research on several sites, collecting data from census records, deeds, wills, published local histories and other sources.
They also led a successful excavation on the grounds of the Montclair Historical Society. Research on the recovered artifacts aims to better understand the history of the Crane and Clark families who lived on the historical society’s property in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
ALTC Project in Setauket, Long Island: “A Long Time Coming”
In Setauket, Long Island, we co-sponsor the “A Long Time Coming” (ALTC) project. ALTC is an initiative of the Higher Ground Intercultural and Heritage Association, Inc., a nonprofit community-based preservation group. The ALTC project is investigating the archaeology and history of Setauket’s Native and African American community, especially in a recently designated historic district.
The aim of ALTC is to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Setauket’s long-term resident minority indigenous community and to provide that community with a historical foundation and cultural presence that will help to resist encroaching suburban development and gentrification that threatens to displace them from the ancestral home.