Outreach Through Archaeology Research

The Davies Plantation generously provided access for the archaeology program.

In collaboration with our partner, The Pink Palace Family of Museums, the Rhodes Learning Corridor provides the opportunity for students from three of our Learning Corridor partners, Cypress Middle School, Snowden School and Bellevue Junior High School, to be involved in hands-on research at an actual archaeological dig at the tenant house of the Davies Plantation in Memphis. This program involves students from Rhodes College working with twelve of the middle school students in each of the sessions. The programs last for two weeks and include two days of class room orientation and eight days of excavation. Instruction for each class of twelve students includes archaeology orientation lectures and labs, mapping, grid system with horizontal and vertical coordinates, history of tenant farming, survey of late 19th and early 20th century artifacts, excavation techniques, artifact processing, and a field trip to the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum.

Pink Palace Museum archaeologist Karen Overton observes students Desean Walton and Sankiesha Washington carefully measuring the position of an artifact found in excavations at the home of Mose Frazier.

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