May 13, 1998
Contact: Jane Ford
	  (804) 924-4298



ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG TO BEGIN IN JEFFERSON'S ACADEMICAL VILLAGE
		
	Just days after graduates walk down the Lawn at the University
of Virginia to receive their degrees, archaeologists will begin to dig
in Poe Alley behind Pavilion VII to search for the original paving that
Thomas Jefferson specified. 
	Roads in Virginia in the early 1800s were mostly dirt and mud.
Jefferson was interested in the newest and latest technologies and
employed macadam, named after its inventor, John L. McAdam, a British
engineer. Its use at the University is one of the earliest known
applications of this technique in the United States. Instructions for
the innovative paving in this area of the Grounds were mentioned in a
number of Jefferson's letters. 
	The areas which are now used for parking behind the pavilions
were originally designated as service yards where cisterns and woodpiles
were located and gritty functional tasks performed, according to
University landscape architect Mary Hughes. In addition to the original
paving, archaeologists are hoping to find artifacts that will provide a
valuable source of how professors and students lived on the Lawn in the
early years of the University. 
	The dig will take place from May 19 through 29. Private funds
will be used for the archaeological work. The study will precede
renovations of Colonnade Alley and Pavilion VII.
	The oldest structure on the Lawn and one of the most public
buildings in Jefferson's Academical Village, Pavilion VII dates to 1817.
Today it houses the Colonnade Club, a faculty club which provides
overnight accommodations for visitors and a quiet place for members and
guests to relax and read. 
###

	For more information contact Mary Hughes, U.Va. landscape
architect, at (804) 924-6015. Television reporters contact our TV News
Office at (804) 924 7550.


U.Va. online: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews