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World Trade Center Recovery Efforts

October 11, 2001 Update

Thank you for your willingness to volunteer. SAA currently has over 500 volunteers in the database which we will hold, if needed. We will re-open the form, if necessary, in the future.

In the wake of the tragedy at the World Trade Center, archaeologist Sophia Perdikaris (Brooklyn College, NYC) made an offer of assistance to the FBI at ground zero. She also informed the FBI that there were archaeological collections at 6 World Trade Center that contained faunal skeletal remains. The FBI was very interested in the offer of archaeological assistance and grateful for the information. A call was then put on several lists for archaeologists or archaeological organizations that might be able to provide personnel and/or equipment for the sorting of the bargeloads of material that is being transported to the Staten Island landfill from the World Trade Center site. This message was passed on by the SAA president and several others. The result was overwhelming: over 350 phone calls to Perdikaris and 900 e-mails. The SAA is assisting with the effort to secure funding to assist in this voluntary effort. Our focus at present is on putting together a database of volunteers who could work at the landfill location sorting through the debris.

There are presently more than a sufficient number of volunteers in the database, but we will add additional names as they are submitted to SAA headquarters. At present, no archaeologists are involved, but we anticipate that they will be involved soon. We are looking for volunteers only; funds being sought will help support this effort but there are no paid positions--individuals must be able to volunteer their time, or organizations must be able to underwrite their employee's efforts. Additionally, this is not an FBI training program, as some have apparently thought: this is a volunteer recovery effort, but any individual involved will have to undergo FBI clearance as the World Trade Center is a crime scene. No one should attempt to travel to NYC, Staten Island or the World Trade Center site without being asked to do so.

Robert L. Kelly
President, Society for American Archaeology