Students with an interest in archaeology spent a week of their summer digging up history thanks to a camp run through the Town of Manlius, supported by the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District. F-M Archaeology Camp is for students entering fourth-grade and up. It’s held on an Onondaga Nation site, located on property now owned by the district.
Campers were instructed by experienced archaeologists as they uncovered items like ceramics, paleolithic tools, and more. When students weren’t digging, they learned about activities such as Knapping: the shaping of flint, chert, or other stone to manufacture tools, such as arrowheads.
The program got its start in the late 1990s. F-M is the only school district in the state with an archaeological site available to its students.
“We are so fortunate to have access to this incredible cultural resource. It’s humbling to imagine that an Onondaga community lived right here hundreds of years ago, and these kids are the first people in centuries to touch the artifacts they left behind. We can learn a lot here about how to be good stewards of this heritage, because it doesn’t belong to us. It’s such an incredible opportunity that we get to offer this unique learning experience,” shared F-M National Board Certified Social Studies Teacher Todd Sorensen.
During the school year, high schoolers who take the Anthropology elective class clean and categorize what is found over the summer. They also visit the site, usually in May. All artifacts are kept at F-M High School but owned by the Onondaga Nation. At any point, members of the Onondaga Nation can request to see the artifacts found and take anything they’d like to keep.
