October is Virginia Archaeology Month - Come Celebrate with Us!
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, 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 Café.
This year's ticketed 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 and Visit Details
- Tours leave from the Bronze Plantation Model in the Visitors Center at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm.
- Walk is approximately 1 mile round trip.
- Tours follow a 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 Café at the visitor center.
- Displays and activities in the visitor center courtyard and galleries are free to anyone in attendance. To join a walking tour and explore the mountaintop ticket purchase is required. Visit our Archaeology Walk and House Tours page for more information.
- For area residents of Albemarle, Augusta, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange, and Rockingham are eligible for our local discount. The Plantation Archaeology Walking Tour ticket can be purchase for $10 in coordination with any of our discount tickets. Please show a valid ID with your address to our Ticket Office Staff upon arrival.
- For additional special rates and discounts, click here »
This event is weather-dependent. If severe weather is forecasted, a cancellation notification will post on this webpage by 5 pm on October 11.