Archaeological Institute of America
Deadline: November 1, 2023
Announced: In February
Amount: up to $4,500
Purpose: The Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment provides grants to archaeologists to start new archaeological survey projects. The awards are intended for projects involving field survey on the ground or a combination of field survey and remote sensing methods, rather than those based entirely on satellite imagery or other remote sensing data. Geophysical survey projects are also eligible. While all are encouraged to apply, preference will be given to archaeologists at an early stage in their careers (within 8 years of the receipt of the PhD).
Projects may concern any location in the world and any time period. Each project should make innovative use of technology, and the fieldwork proposed should be designed to address important questions about the human past.
Requirements:
Proposals will be reviewed according to the following criteria (roughly in this order of importance):
2022
Carleton College
Sarah Kennedy used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund her project, Out of the Mine and Into the Furnace: The Ongoing Environmental Impacts of Silver Refining in Peru. The project aimed to establish a rigorous universal survey methodology using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy for the evaluation of heavy metals in archaeological soils; and to track the introduction of mercury amalgamation technology to the silver refining process in Peru during the colonial period (AD 1650-1800).
2021
University of California, Merced
Cassandra “Beth” Koontz Scaffidi used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund her project, Wari Imperial Expansion and Dissolution: Insights from Pedestrian, UAV, and Isotopic Survey in the Caravelí Valley. The project aimed to examine how the rise and fall of Wari impacted one region in its southern hinterlands, the unstudied Caravelí Valley, Arequipa, Peru.
Read about Cassandra Koontz Scaffidi's experience2020
University of Colorado Boulder
Sarah James used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund her project, The Brač Island Project. The project aimed to conduct the first season of an intensive pedestrian survey, in conjunction with geophysical work and targeted excavation, focusing on three areas that were located but not investigated 25 years ago on Brač.
Read about Sarah James's experience2019
University of Toronto
Khaled Abu Jayyab used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund his project, an Archaeological Survey in the Middle Kura Valley, Gardabani, Southeastern Georgia. The survey aimed to uncover and document archaeological sites in the region with a special emphasis on the Neolithic (6000-5000 BC) and Chalcolithic (5000-3500 BC) landscapes and settlement systems.
Read about Khaled Abu Jayyab's experience2018
University of Texas at San Antonio
Jessica Nowlin used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund her project, the Sinis Archaeological Project. The Sinis Archaeological Project aimed to understand the diverse social and environmental factors impacting resource extraction, settlement patterns, and colonial interactions in west-central Sardinia in the 1st millennium BCE through late antiquity.
Read about Jessica Nowlin's experience2017
Florida State University
Sarah Craft used the Julie Herzig Desnick Endowment for Archaeological Field Surveys to fund her project, the Timok Region Archaeological Project (TRAP). The Timok Regional Archaeological Project sought to situate the Roman imperial palace of Felix Romuliana within a broader geographical and diachronic understanding of the landscape beyond its walls.
Read about Sarah Craft's experience