We believe that the past is important for understanding who we are today and thinking about where we as individuals and as communities would like to go. This understanding grows out of an appreciation of our collective human past, as well as the pasts of individuals, ethnic groups and nations.
If you are a student at Montclair State or at another college or university, there are a number of ways you can participate in what we do:
- Come to one of our lectures or other public events. Our Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and “An Interest in the Past” series explore a wide range of archaeological and heritage issues, from prehistory to modern times.
- Take a course in our interdepartmental Archaeology Minor program, sponsored by the departments of Anthropology, Classics & General Humanities, Art & Design (Art History), and Earth & Environmental Studies.
- Help us process and classify artifacts from excavation projects in the New York-New Jersey area.
- Join one of our for-credit archaeological field schools in New Jersey or abroad. Our field school at the “Villa of the Antonines,” a second century CE site near Rome, will begin its tenth season on June 30, 2019.
- In conjunction with the Department of Anthropology, the Center has also sponsored field schools right on the University campus or in the Montclair area and hopes to continue this tradition.
As an interdisciplinary center, we believe that differences make us stronger. Therefore, it is important to promote understanding among academic disciplines that work alongside one another but not always in concert. When we come together, we gain greater understanding about the many ways in which culture and environment influence our development and our view of the past, as well as of ourselves.