The excavations will be conducted in the garden next to St. James AME Zion Church (116 Cleveland Ave.), beginning on Saturday, September 14, 2024 and continuing each Saturday through November 9, 2024 (there will be no excavations on October 12 due to the holiday weekend). Excavations will be conducted from 9am-3pm. We welcome guests of all ages to stop by, see what we are finding, and participate in the excavations. Please note, children under 18 will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. If you have any questions about participating in the excavations, please email Sam Sanft (sms625@cornell.edu).
Beginning in 2021, CIAMS faculty in collaboration with Gerard Aching (Cornell Africana) and Reverend Terrance King (St. James AME Zion Church) launched a new community engaged initiative to explore the history of the St. James community. The St. James AME Zion church building was constructed during the late 1830s and is today the oldest AME Zion church in the world still in active use. The building is known to have been the most important Underground Railroad station in Ithaca during the 1840s and 1850s. Harriett Tubman is known to have spent time at the Church and Frederick Douglass also visited.
As in previous seasons, our 2024 excavation team will include community members and Cornell students and faculty. Our goal is to use archaeology as a means to help the Church and wider community tell empowering stories of St. James's past. We hope to inspire all participants to learn more about their community and its rich history.
Cornell student Ruth Rajcoomar '24 discusses the need for a more inclusive and equitable field and how the community excavations at St. James highlight the potential for financially inclusive fieldwork experiences.
SMSA students participating in excavations at St. James AME Zion Church in Fall 2021.
(Photo courtesy of the Science and Mathematics Academy Saturday STEM Program.)
As part of Saturday’s festival on June 15th, Cornell’s Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS) and St. James AME Zion Church organized an artifact washing activity for kids next to the church.
A multidisciplinary team of Cornell students and faculty and local schoolchildren began an archeological dig Sept. 18 at St. James AME Zion church in Ithaca.
Church members and a multidisciplinary team of Cornell faculty and students are learning more about St. James A.M.E. Zion Church by doing an archaeological dig.
During the fall of 2021, sixteen Cornell graduate and undergraduate students took part in the St James AME Zion Community Excavations alongside Cornell faculty and middle and high school community members. The student participants included CIAMS graduate student members and Archaeology undergraduate...
