Monticello Archaeology Open House

Help celebrate Virginia Archaeology Month!

Join us as Monticello’s Archaeology Department hosts its annual open house, featuring displays, exhibits on recent discoveries in the field and the lab, engaging activities for all ages to learn, and walking tours of the vanished Monticello Plantation landscape. Archaeology staff members will be on hand to answer questions. Displays and exhibits are found in the Visitors’ Center courtyard outside of the Farm Table café.

This year’s Walking Tours will visit Site 30, an archaeological dig that is revealing important information about enslaved agricultural laborers at Monticello as well as the precolonial activities of Indigenous communities on this landscape.

Walking Tours leave from the Bronze Plantation Model in the Visitors Center at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. These are complimentary tours to celebrate Virginia Archaeology Month, and they will replace the regularly scheduled and ticketed 2 p.m. walking tour that day. This walk follows an historic road that is fairly flat, with uneven terrain in some areas. Sturdy shoes and a water bottle are recommended. In the event of rain, discussions with archaeologists will be held at the plantation model outside of the Monticello Farm Table café at the visitor center. Walk is approximately 1-mile round trip. The open house and tours are included with any ticketed tour admission. No reservations needed. This event is weather-dependent. If rain is forecasted, a cancellation notification will post on our webpage by 5 pm on October 5.

This event will take place in Monticello’s David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center from 10:00am to 4:00pm.