Beginning with this second class, AMDA and RPA began offering the option of 16-credits or 24-credits. The former included one day of classroom instruction and one day in the field. The latter added a second day in the field. The class review forms and informal comments from those who chose the 24-credit option reflect positive feedback. The second field day offered students the opportunity to work one-on-one with a manufacturer’s representative or instructor. At Troup Factory, fourteen students chose the 16-credits and eight students chose the 24-credits. The classroom session was taught at Pine Mountain Chalets State Park, and the field sessions were at Troup Factory, location of a 19th century textile mill and workers’ village. The private owners of the Troup Factory site, Kennesaw State University, and anthropology graduate students from Georgia State University were our local hosts.
As before, our field sessions benefitted from the presence of several manufacturers’ representatives and their model lines. Between the devices provide by the representatives and the personal models of the instructors (or their employers), students had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with more than 20 different devices. Minelab, Fisher/Teknetics, and North Georgia Relics and Metal Detectors had representatives present.
The results from both the dig and non-dig portions of the field work will contribute to the ongoing site analysis by Laine Graham, a graduate student at Georgia State University. All collected Metal Detector Finds, flagged but uncollected ferrous items, and limits of delineated nail clouds have been GPS-mapped and added to the site database. The class equaled approximately 30 persondays of volunteer labor, and significantly advanced the research at this interesting site.
The second class marked the first appearance by new instructor Dan Elliott. The other instructors included: Terry Powis, Sheldon Skaggs, Patrick Severts, Garrett Silliman, and Chris Espenshade.