The Germanna Foundation is now accepting applications for Excavation Interns (4 positions). This is for the renewed excavations at the Fort Germanna/Enchanted Castle site in Orange County, Virginia. This listing is for a 12-week term, but this year the Foundation may extend the season an additional 12 weeks. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for a 6-month position.
Last year, we were unable to host the VCU Field School resulting in scaled back season. Germanna Archaeology incorporated new procedures to ensure spatial distancing and use of masks in indoor or confined areas. These measures will be continued for the upcoming field season.
Successful candidates will help excavate and interpret the site of Fort Germanna and Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood’s Germanna Home. Completion of Field School or equivalent experience required. These positions are designed for upper-level students or recent college graduates who want to develop their excavation and recording skills. They offer the opportunity to gain excavation and recording experience on a complex, multi-component site. Interns will use shovels and trowels to excavate natural layers, hand excavate features, screen soils, and record and draw features/layers.
Listed on the National Register, the Enchanted Castle is the early 18th–century home for Alexander Spotswood in the years after he served as Lt. Governor for the Colony of Virginia. The mansion was built on a portion of the earlier 5-sided fort that served as home for a group of German settlers who came to Virginia in 1714. The 2022 season will be spent continuing efforts to find evidence of the fort, while also researching structures and features associated with Spotswood’s mansion and county seat buildings that made up the small community of Germanna. The project seeks evidence of the peoples of Germanna – the Manahoac and other indigenous peoples, the British colonizers, German immigrants settled at Germanna in the 1710s, and of enslaved Africans who lived and worked in the community. While the project goals are focused on the 18th century, there are pre-colonial, Civil War, and late 19th-century farmstead components to the site as well.
Public outreach has been a key component to the Germanna Archaeology program. Although access to the site is limited, we treat the site as a public archaeology site where field staff is expected to interact with visitors. “Open House” events have been regularly scheduled as part of the season. The pandemic has brought some operational changes, but we wish interns to participate in the events as well as through online postings in the form of photo, video, blog, or webinar updates.
The upcoming season runs from May 31 to August 19, 2022. We excavate 40 hours a week, typically Monday – Friday. Fieldwork may take place in the full sun. The position will pay $15 an hour. Per diem, housing and meals are NOT included.
Applications will be accepted until positions are filled; however, decision process will begin March 14, 2022. Interested candidates should e-mail a resume to Dr. Eric Larsen, Director of Archaeology, at elarsen@germanna.org.
