To the average person, the phrase "moving to new digs" means a change in housing. However, to anyone who enrolls in Dr. Cynthia Reeves' archaeology course this summer at Sandhills Community College, "moving to new digs" will mean completing two major assignments in field studies at regional North Carolina archaeological sites.

"Archaeology bridges science and the humanities through a multidisciplinary approach to examining human culture," says Reeves, a professor in humanities and social and behavioral sciences for the college since 2005. "I want my students to realize that archaeology is less like Indiana Jones and more like CSI. Like good detectives, archaeologists use a variety of tools and ideas to interpret clues left in the ground over time to understand how people lived."

Reeves' academic pursuits have included anthropology, archaeology and education policy, but she has a genuine passion for the archaeologist's role in understanding human culture.

During the nine-week summer session, Reeves will take her students on a chronological journey through North Carolina archaeology. Students will study the techniques, methods and theories of archaeology and see those applied at a variety of sites across the state.

"We cover pre-history in North Carolina up to the 19th century, and site visits will help students to understand that story," Reeves says. "Our first trip will be to Bath, North Carolina's first town, and then we will visit the Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Lab in Greenville."

A second journey will take them to Joara, the location of a Spanish fort built on the site of a Native American town outside of Morganton, predating the Lost Colony by 20 years. On this trip, students will spend a day excavating alongside a team of archaeologists from Warren Wilson College.

The final trip will take students to Town Creek, along the Little River, with a stop at the Endor Iron Furnace, a Civil War-era site near Sanford.

"This is an excellent course for anyone who has wondered about what archaeologists do and how they do it and the contributions of archaeological research to our understanding of the human experience," says Reeves. "The greater part of the human story is beyond the reach of traditional historical methods and can only be studied through archaeological means. Archaeology offers a glimpse of the lives of everyday people through analysis of what they left behind - stories that might otherwise remain untold. By reconstructing past ways of life we learn about things that all humans have in common and how our culture developed to what it is today. Studying the past shows us how the societies we study are both similar to, and different from, our own."

This class, and all other summer semester curriculum courses, is open to new or current Sandhills students. There are no prerequisites for the ANT 240 Archaeology class.

Students attending another college or university in the fall or those who are home for the summer from other colleges or universities are invited to take summer classes at Sandhills. Such students should verify that the credits transfer to their home school.

Summer semester will begin on May 25 with registration for classes on May 24. New students must take a placement test prior to this date to ensure enrollment in the correct level classes. Fall semester begins on Aug. 16. For more information about enrolling at Sandhills, call (910) 695-3781 or refer to www.sandhills.edu.