Come out next Thursday, November 11th, 2010, to Etowah
Mounds Museum in Cartersville, Ga., to hear a great presentation about prehistoric stone structures in
Northwest Georgia. The presentation will be part of the meeting of the
Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society. Meeting will begin at 7pm. Directions to
the meeting are below.
"Prehistoric Stone Constructions in Georgia: An Overview"
will be presented by Tommy Hudson, local researcher and founding member of the
Eastern States Rock Art Research Association.
This presentation is the culmination of 40 years of Tommy’s
searching through the woods of Georgia for stone piles, walls, and other unusual
stone constructions created by the earliest inhabitants of Georgia.
Tommy’s work has contributed greatly to a new repository of
information to be housed at the University of Tennessee that will document rock
structures - “petro-forms” - of all kinds that exist in the eastern United
States.
As usual, all members of the public are invited to these
meetings of the Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society. After this November
meeting at Etowah, the following meeting will be held on January
13th at the New Echota Historic Site near Calhoun.
For more information, please feel free to call Jack Walker at
770-655-2595 or Jim Langford at 404-285-2001.
Directions: Take ext #288 (Cartersville, Main Street) off of
I-75 and follow brown directional signs to Etowah Indian Mounds Museum about 5
miles southwest of Cartersville, Georgia.
--Submitted by Jim Langford
Society For American Archaeology, 75th Anniversary Meeting April 14-18, 2010, St. Louis, Missouri
To learn more about the Society For American Archaeology or the meeting visit http://www.saa.org/
Following are some of the planned papers on Southeastern archaeology:
*Joara and Fort San Juan: Colonialism and Household Practice at the Berry Site, North Carolina. *James Brown and The Impact of Cahokia in the Mississippian Southeast. *Woodland and Mississippian Period Research in the Southeastern US. *PaleoIndian, Archaic & Lthic Studies in the Southeastern US.
Also of note!! Prehistoric Hawaiians in LA? The SAA meeting on April 15 will feature a symposium entitled "Polynesian Prehistoric Contacts With The New World". For more info on this fascinating topic, see the links below or do a Google search for the terms "Polynesian prehistoric contact North America"
Society for Historic Archaeology 2010 Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology Follow these links to learn about the conference held January 6-9, 2010:
The next meting of GAAS will be on Sept. 8th starting at 7:30
PM and will feature a very interesting
talk by Dennis Blanton, a distinguished
archaeologist and member of our organization. His talk is called
"Spanish
Calling Cards on the Ocmulgee: Making Sense of an Archaeological Puzzle."
His description
of the talk follows: "Three years of archaeological
exploration on the lower Ocmulgee River by Fernbank
Museum of Natural History
has revealed unanticipated but very powerful evidence of early Spanish
exploration. Sixteenth-century artifacts indicate direct contact between
Indian people and early explorers.
But who were these Spanish intruders?
Learn how the Fernbank archaeologists tackle this and other important
questions." Hope you can make it!
Also please note that SGA Fall meeting is scheduled for Oct. 17th at the
Gwinnett County Environmental
The next meeting of the Northwest
Georgia Archaeology Society will be Thursday,
September 10th
at the New Echota Historic Site located just
northeast of Calhoun, Georgia. The doors open at 7:00pm,
and we will
begin the meeting shortly afterwards.
The speaker at this meeting will be Jim
Ogden, Historian of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National
Military Park.
Mr. Ogden will give us a historical review of the many Civil War battles
that took place
in Northwest Georgia and in Tennessee. He will dig into
the strategic question; why were these areas so
important to both the Union and
the Confederacy?
Mr. Ogden is a regular lecturer
and instructor on Civil War history. He has appeared in the History
Channel's "Civil War Combat" program on Chickamauga and in several other
educational and public
television programs. The author of a number of
articles in local publications, he also has taught Civil War
history courses
for the Continuing Education Department of the University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga.
For the past 23 years, Mr. Ogden
has led official instructional tours for hundreds of groups of U.S. Army
officers and for the British Army's Joint Services Command and Staff College.
He speaks regularly to historical organizations across the eastern United
States including groups in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Birmingham,
New Orleans, and Austin.
A native of Maryland and longtime
student of Civil War history, Mr. Ogden obtained a degree in American
History
from Frostburg State College. His earliest positions were at Point
Lookout State Park in Maryland –
the site of the largest Civil War prison – and
at Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park.
The New Echota Historic Site is
located on Highway 225, less than one mile north of Exit 317 on I-75 near
Calhoun. For more information, you may contact Jim Langford at
404-285-2001, or Jack Walker at
770-655-2595.
For those interested
in archaeological field projects:
The Coosawattee Foundation will not have
its public field session this fall.
We are working on several technical projects at the Thompson
site and
cannot accommodate large groups at this time. We expect to resume public
field
days in the Spring of 2010. To learn more about The Coosawattee Foundation visit http://www.coosawattee.org/
Trail of Tears Association The next meeting of the Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears
Association will take place on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at
10:30 a.m. at New Echota State Historic Site near Calhoun, GA. Learn more at http://www.coosavalleynews.com/np82261.htm
Upcoming Georgia meetings
1. State Archaeologist to Report on Latest Archaeology on Georgia Coast
Dr.
Dave Crass, State Archaeologist for Georgia, will report on the newest
archaeology activities along
Georgia’s Coast at the next meeting of the
Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society. The meeting will
take place on Thursday evening, March 12, at Etowah Indian Mounds Museum near Cartersville, Georgia.
Georgia's coastal zone is rich in archaeological sites. Whether
underwater, in the marsh, on one of our
barrier islands or hammocks, or
on "The Hill", these sites are an unrivaled source of information on
our
historic and prehistoric past.
This
talk will provide an overview of several of the most important projects
DNR has developed in partnership
with other agencies and universities,
and will focus particularly on recent discoveries in underwater
archaeology
and the Spanish Mission period.
Dr.
Crass currently serves as State Archaeologist and Deputy Division
Director in the Historic Preservation
Division, Georgia Department of
Natural Resources. Dave came to DNR in 1998 from the South Carolina
Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. He
holds his Ph.D. from
Southern Methodist University and various United
States Coast Guard ratings, and is a graduate of the
Institute for
Georgia Environmental Leadership.
Dave
has conducted terrestrial archaeological research in Northern Ireland,
Mexico, the American Southwest,
and the southeastern seaboard states,
and underwater archaeological research in Georgia’s rivers and coastal
waters. He currently is active in policy issues
at the state, regional, and national levels, and has served as
Vice
President of the National Association of State Archaeologists and as a
special advisor to the Society
for American Archaeology on governmental
affairs issues.
The
public is invited to attend the 7:30 pm meeting and bring any artifacts
for review and discussion by
archaeologists in attendance. You
can find the Etowah Indian Mounds and Museum by exiting I-75 at
the
Cartersville Main Street exit and following the brown signs to the site.
For questions about the meeting, you may call Jim Langford at 404-285-2001, or Jack Walker at 770-655-2595.
2. Rock Art Conference The
Eastern States Rock Art Conference (ESRAC) will be held March 27-29 at
Red Top Mountain State Park near Cartersville, Georgia. The tentative schedule includes a reception and social on Thursday followed by a bus tour of local rock art sites on Friday. Lunch will be provided during the tour. Papers will be presented on Saturday followed by business and board meetings. Jim
Langford of the Coosawattee Foundation will give a special lecture
Saturday night of “The Coosawattee Plate – a Catholic/Aztec Artifact
from Northwest Georgia”.
Some
have called the engraved copper plate “the most important artifact ever
found in Georgia”, but listeners are invited to decide for themselves
the importance of this unusual artifact as its story unfolds. The lecture will begin at 7:30 pm. For more information on the conference, you may contact Tommy Hudson at myrockart@yahoo.com or by phone at 678-983-5333. More information on the Eastern States Rock Art Research Association can be found at www.ESRARA.org
3. Public Excavations Stay tuned for more information about the spring public excavations to be held at the Thompson site.
Archaeological "prospection" workshop to be held in May The National Park Service's 2009 workshop on archaeological prospection techniques entitled Current Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in the 21st Century will be held May 18-22, 2009, at the NCPTT headquartes in Natchitoches, La. Learn more at http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/index.php/archeological-prospection-workshop-to-be-held-at-ncptt-may-18-22-2009/
Society For American Archaeology The 74th annual meeting of the Society For American Archaeology will be held April 22-26 in Atlanta. Following are some of the planned symposia and papers related to Southeastern archaeology:
Thursday April 23 "Indians in Carolina 1600-1860: Recent Archaeological Research" "Still Digging: Our Fourth Decade of Archaeology on St. Catherines Island (Georgia)" "Rethinking Moundville and Its Hinterland: Papers in Honor of Christopher S. Peebles" "Mississippian Ceremonial Culture"
Friday April 24 "Revisiting The Etowah Valley: New Data From 9CK1, The Long Swamp Site" "Archaeology and Everglades Restoration" "Anthropogenic Landscapes and Environmental Change In the Southeastern United States" ***"A Pre-Clovis Contender In North Florida: The Wakulla Springs Lodge Site (8WA329)" "Archaeology Of Hunter Gatherers in the Southeastern United States"
Saturday April 25 "Subsistence and Domestic Economy in the Southeastern United States"
Florida Anthropological Society 61st annual meeting, May 8-9, 2009 The Pensacola Archaeological Society (PAS) will host the 61st annual
FAS meeting in Pensacola on May 8-9, 2009. Celebration of
Pensacola’s settlement 450 years ago by Don Tristan de Luna y
Arellano will be occurring throughout the year and the FAS Annual
Meeting will be a part of those festivities. For more information visit http://www.fasweb.org/meeting.htm
1540 - The Year That Changed Everything JANUARY 8 , Rome,
Georgia
The Rome Area History Museum announces the first lecture in its new
Snapshot in Time series which will be held on a Thursday evening every
month. Each lecture will focus on one year in
the history of the Rome, Georgia, area in which local events occurred that had far
reaching effects across both time and space. The
first lecture in the series will be presented on Thursday, January 8th
by Jim Langford, president of the Coosawattee Foundation, a
Calhoun-based organization that has worked since 1986 to increase
public awareness about the importance and fragility of archaeological
resources and the landscapes in which they are found.Langford, who has studied 16th century sites in northwest Georgia for over twenty-five years, will present “1540 – the Year that Changed Everything”. Langford
will focus his talk on the Hernando DeSoto expedition of 1540 during
which Indian populations of the Southeast encountered Europeans in a
substantial way. This encounter led to the
dramatic demise of Indian populations – perhaps as high as 90 percent
of the populations disappeared in a 50-year period - in this part of
the United States. Langford
and other researchers have documented and excavated many sites in the
Rome, Calhoun and Cartersville area, and this research demonstrates
that DeSoto and other Spanish explorers visited Northwest Georgia in
the mid-16th Century. This research
also shows that at the time of the Spanish explorations, the “province”
of Coosa was the largest and most politically powerful culture north of
Mexico.A social Meet and Greet at the Museum will begin at 6:30. Langford’s lecture will start before 7:00 pm. A donation of $7 per person to the event would be appreciated. The Rome Area History Museum is located at 305 Broad Street in downtown Rome. For more information about this event, contact the museum at 706-235-8051. Contact person for this event is Cherry Johnson - Curator and Director of Programs.
"Unearthing First America: La Florida by Land and Sea" May 28-30, 2008, Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida
Florida has one of the most remarkable and least known chapters in American
colonial history. "Unearthing First America" is a
program designed to portray Florida's colonial history in a dynamic and
vibrant way. Nationally and internationally preeminent authors will
introduce the unique Spanish, British, and American history which helped to
create the Florida of today.
This program is FREE and open to the
public. The format is informal, so that participants can attend one, some or
all of the sessions.
"Archaeological Encounters in Georgia's Spanish Period: New Discoveries and Improved Understandings" The Society for Georgia Archaeology will hold its annual spring meeting on Saturday, April 26, 2008, at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Ga. For more information and a list of presentations visit http://www.thesga.org/
Interested in the peopling of the Americas? Biological and Archaeological Variation in the New World The Center For Archaeological Investigations in cooperation with the Division of Continuing Education at Southern Illinois University are sponsoring the 25th Annual Visiting Scholar Conference, April 25-26, 2008.
Among the papers planned: "Paleoamerican and Amerindian morphological variation: implications for the settlement of the New World," by Mark Hubbe,Universidd Catolica del Norte, Chile; Walter A. Neves of Universidad de Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Katerina Harvarti of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
"Random genetic drift and the peopling of the Americas: evidence from ancient skeletal
remains," by Joseph F. Powell, University of New Mexico.
"Searching for the Eurasian roots of Native American populations:
evidence from mtDNA, Y chromosome and autosomal DNA studies," by
Theodore G. Schurr, University of Pennsylvania.
2008 Florida Anthropological Society Annual Meeting The 60th annual meeting of the FAS will be hosted by the Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society from May 2-4, 2008. The meeting will be held in Ybor City/Tampa. For more info visit the FAS web site at http://www.fasweb.org
2008 Southeastern Archaeological Conference The 65th annual meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference will be held November 12-15, 2008 at University Place Hilton in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more info visit www.southeasternarchaeology.org.
2007 Symposium on Southeastern Coastal Plain Archaeology Sponsored by the South Georgia Archaeological Research Team. August 18, 2007, South Georgia College, Douglas, Ga. 8 a.m. to 5:45 pm.
Presentations
Dennis Blanton and Frankie Snow. Update on the Search for Mission Santa Isabel de Utinahica.
James Waggoner. Fire in the Forest: Mid-Holocene Anthropogenic Burning in the Interior Coastal Plain of Eastern North America.
Al Goodyear. Redstone Revisited: Post-Clovis Typological Considerations and Evidence of a Possible Demographic Collapse.
Tom Pluckhahn. Getting to the Point (finally): An Overview of the PP/K Assemblage from Kolomoki.
Vicki Rolland. St. Johns II Pottery Construction at the Shields and Grand Ceremonial Sites.
Matthew Sanger and David H. Thomas. Recent Findings from the St Catherines Island Shell Ring.
Daniel T. Elliott. Seeing Through the Sand: Recent Ground Penetrating Radar Applications on Sites in Georgia's Coastal Plain.
Fred Cook. Nelson/Passmore: The Excavation, Removal and Reburial of Human Remains in a Late Nineteenth Century Rural Cemetery.
Jared Wood and Mark Williams. Mapping and Assessment of the Singer-Moye Mound Site, Stewart County, Ga.
Karen Smith and Keith Stephenson. A Report on the 1972 Excavations at the Shelly Mound in Pulaski County.
John Turck and Victor Thompson. Life on a Hammock: An Archaeological Survey of Six Back-barrier Islands Along the Coast of Georgia.
Marvin Smith. Investigations at the Strickland Site, a Paleoindian/Early Archaic site at Banks Lake in Lanier County, Georgia.
Brian Floyd and Dwight Kirkland. An Excercise in Experimental Archaeology: The Results of a Test to Duplicate Artifacts from the Fire Hearth at Chatterton Spring.
2007 Midwest Archaeological Conference University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, October 4-6, 2007 For meeting details and to register visit http://www.midwestarchaeology.org/meetings.htm
33rd Annual Conference on South Carolina Archaeology Saturday, February 17, 2007. The Archaeological Society of South Carolina (www.assc.net) will hold its 33rd Annual Conference at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on Saturday, February 17, 2007. The conference will focus on "South Carolina - Caribbean Connections". Dr. Chris Decourse of Syracuse University will be the keynote speaker, and present his address at the conclusion of the day's presentations on Caribbean Connections. Dr. Keith Tinker, Chief Archaeologist and Director of Antiquities, Monuments, and Museums Corporation of the Bahamas, will be a guest speaker. For more details please contact: Nena Rice, SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, 1321 Pendleton Street, Columbia, S.C. 29208; (803) 777-8170 or via email at nrice@sc.edu
The East Texas Archaeological Conference is scheduled for Saturday, February 10, 2007, at the Robert R. Muntz Library on the University of Texas at Tyler campus in Tyler, Texas. If you are interested in presenting a paper or poster, or for more information, contact Mark Walters at walters@tyler.net.
Florida Anthropological Society 2007 annual meeting
The 59th annual meeting will be hosted by the Kissimmee Valley Archaeological & Historical Society and will be held in Avon Park from May 11-13. Papers will be presented in the South Florida Community College Center. For more info see http://www.fasweb.org.
2006 Symposium on the Archaeology of the Southeastern Coastal Plain
The South Georgia Archaeological Research Team will hold its annual research symposium on Saturday, August 19, 2006, at South Georgia College in Douglas, Ga. The general focus will be on research from the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. The morning session begins at 9 a.m. and ends at noon, and the afternoon session will go from 1:30 until around 5 p.m.
Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society
The speaker for the the June meeting of GAAS (June 13th, 7:30 PM, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Clifton Road near Ponce) will be Dr. David Anderson of the University of Tennessee, a former leader in GAAS and one of our founders. Dr. Anderson has had a major impact on our knowledge of southeastern prehistory and is a clear and stimulating speaker. His talk will provide an overview of prehistory in Eastern North America and is titled: From Colonization to Complexity: First Peopling to Monumental Architecture in Eastern North America." A short synopsis of the talk and a biosketch of the speaker is given below.
Over the past two decades our knowledge of archaeology in America north of Mexico has changed dramatically. Human populations entered the New World at some as-of-yet unknown time during the Late Pleistocene, but by 13,500 years ago their sites and artifacts were widely dispersed across the Americas. Evidence for their presence has been found across the continent, and is offering insights into how and where these people lived, and how cultural traditions emerged and changed over time. Within a few thousand years, both agricultural food production and monumental architecture had appeared in portions of Eastern North America. Indeed, some of the earthworks that have been found and documented in recent years are among the earliest found anywhere in the Americas, and offer new insight into the development of social complexity in New World. How these monuments were built and used is explored, as is the general record of cultural development over the region, using examples from the speaker’s own research, and those of many of his colleagues.
David G. Anderson (Ph.D. Michigan 1990, MA Arkansas 1979; BA Case Western Reserve 1972). Associate Professor, University of Tennessee (2004-present) Archaeologist, Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service (1988-2003). Awards: SAA Dissertation Prize 1991; SAA Presidential Recognition Award 1997; SAA Excellence in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Award for Research 1999; First C. B. Moore Award for Excellence in Archaeology, Southeastern Archaeological Conference 1990. Memberships: Register of Professional Archaeologists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Anthropological Association, Society for Historical Archaeology, Southeastern Archaeological Conference; and some 15 state professional and avocational societies (with numerous roles in service to many of these organizations). Fieldwork in the Southeastern, Southwestern, and Midwestern United States, and in the Caribbean. Professional interests include exploring the development of cultural complexity in Eastern North America, excavation and analysis at sites of all time periods, maintaining and improving the nation’s CRM program, and developing technical and popular syntheses of archaeological research. This work is documented in ca. 300 publications and meeting papers, including some 35 technical monographs. Selected publications include The Savannah River Chiefdoms: Political Change in the Late Prehistoric Southeast(Alabama 1994), The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast (Alabama 1996); Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast (Florida 1996), the latter two edited with Ken Sassaman; The Woodland Southeast (Alabama 2002) with Bob Mainfort, and Archaeology, History, and Predictive Modeling (Alabama 2003) with Steve Smith.
Alabama Archaeological Society Summer Meeting
From "Stones & Bones", the AAS's newsletter: "The AAS annual Summer Meeting will be at Moundville Archaeological Park near Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday, June 24, from 8 am to 4 pm. This year's meeting will have something for everyone. The Alabama Museum of Natural History's Expedition program is excavating Mound R, a large mound with three ramps that was once home of Moundville's elite. The excavation is being led by John Blitz, who has invited all those attending the meeting to participate in the excavation, handle artifacts in the lab, or just hang around and watch the work. Last year's dig at Mound R yielded some fine and exotic artifacts, so don't miss this opportunity to be part of the latest exciting discoveries. There will also be a "behind the mounds" tour of the site focusing on the hidden and lesser known mounds of Moundville. If you think you have already seen Moundville, think again! This tour will change the way you see this important Alabama site."
The other event of the Summer Meeting will be a lithic workshop.
Coastal Archaeology Seminar in Brunswick, Ga., on May 24
Conference: Archaeological Perspectives on Coastal Georgia
·Dr. David Crass, Ga. State Archaeologist—An Overview of Georgia Archaeology
·Dan Elliott, The Lamar Institute—(1) Living South of Hell’s Gate: Archaeology at North End Plantation, Ossabaw Island, Georgia & (2) Good Morning, Sunbury: An Archaeology Wake-Up Call for Georgia’s Lost City
·Dr. Tom Whitley, Brockington & Associates, Inc.—An Overview of the Archaeological Research at Ford Plantation, Bryan County, Georgia
·Scott Butler, Brockington & Associates, Inc.—Excavations at a Pikes Bluff 1738 “Watch House” on St. Simons Island, Georgia
·Diana Daley-Nash, The History Workshop—Tabletop exhibit on the “Forgotten Invasion” at Point Peter, Camden County, Georgia
·Rita Folse Elliott, Coastal Heritage Society/Savannah History Museum—Tourists Above, Fortifications Below: Discovery of Savannah’s Revolutionary Spring Hill Redoubt
·Carolyn Rock, Brockington & Associates, Inc.—What Lies Beneath: An Archaeological Survey of Camden County, Georgia
·Tom Gresham, Southeastern Archaeological Services, Inc./Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns—Protecting Indian Burials Along the Coast of Georgia
·Judd Kratzer—If Judd makes it, he will be talking about his work at Ashantilly Center, McIntosh County. I have a telephone call in to him at this time.
The WHO is above. What, when, where, how, etc> Archaeological Perspectives on Coastal Georgia
· Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 8:00 AM thru 5:00 PM
· Begins at headquarters of Coastal Georgia Regional Development Center, 127 “F” Street (corner of F/Bay Streets) near historic downtown Brunswick. Program will last from 8:00 AM thru lunch at 12:00 PM/high noon. Program in PM will reconvene at Brunswick’s Old City Hall, 1229 Newcastle Street(corner Newcastle/Mansfield Streets)—within sight of our building, at 1:00 PM thru 5:00 PM
· Reservations & further information, contact Mrs. Beth Kersey, Administrative Secretary by calling (912) 264-7363, extension 200.
Macon, Ga., Artifact ID Day - May 13
In honor of Georgia Archaeology Month in May, the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (OAS) will be sponsoring its biannual Artifact ID Day on May 13 from 10 am to 2 pm. This free event will be held at Fort Hawkins, and will feature Georgia projectile point expert John Whatley, pottery expert Frankie Snow, and Robins AFB archaeologist Stephen Hammack. Dr. Bob Cramer will also share some of the artifacts he has recovered from the Bullard Site in Twiggs County. The public is invited to bring their "arrowhead" and Indian pottery collections, Confederate relics, and alkaline-glazed and other old pottery for identification.
The Society will also sponsor another event the same day. A Primitive Skills Instruction will be given by expert Paul Hornsby on May 13 from 3-5 pm. This free event will be held at Ocmulgee National Monument. Mr. Hornsby will demonstrate Indian skills such as spear-throwing and fire-making. Children are especially welcome to attend this educational event!
The OAS is also looking for volunteers to assist in the continuing excavations at Fort Hawkins from June 12-28. Lamar Institute Archaeologist Dan Elliott is in charge of the excavations and will be working with the OAS and other Society for GA Archaeology chapters and archaeologists from around the state to locate the fort's southwest corner and northwest blockhouse, if time permits, during this field season. Teachers are especially welcome to volunteer, and a small teacher stipend is available to defray expenses.
The OAS's upcoming speakers include retired National Park Service Underwater Archaeologist Jim Adams on June 1. Mr. Adams will give a presentation on his work at Port Royal, Jamaica, which was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1692. Southern Research Archaeologist Scot Keith will speak on July 6 about his firm's work on the Leake site near Cartersville. And Karl Steinen, professor at West Georgia University, will speak on September 7 about the importance of symbolism at the Woodland mounds located on the Fort Center site in south Florida.
For more information on these activities or on the OAS's monthly meetings, which are held the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia, please call (478) 718-3398 or email stephen.hammack@robins.af.mil."
Macon, Ga., Artifact ID Day - May 13
In honor of Georgia Archaeology Month in May, the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (OAS) will be sponsoring its biannual Artifact ID Day on May 13 from 10 am to 2 pm. This free event will be held at Fort Hawkins, and will feature Georgia projectile point expert John Whatley, pottery expert Frankie Snow, and Robins AFB archaeologist Stephen Hammack. Dr. Bob Cramer will also share some of the artifacts he has recovered from the Bullard Site in Twiggs County. The public is invited to bring their "arrowhead" and Indian pottery collections, Confederate relics, and alkaline-glazed and other old pottery for identification.
The Society will also sponsor another event the same day. A Primitive Skills Instruction will be given by expert Paul Hornsby on May 13 from 3-5 pm. This free event will be held at Ocmulgee National Monument. Mr. Hornsby will demonstrate Indian skills such as spear-throwing and fire-making. Children are especially welcome to attend this educational event!
The OAS is also looking for volunteers to assist in the continuing excavations at Fort Hawkins from June 12-28. Lamar Institute Archaeologist Dan Elliott is in charge of the excavations and will be working with the OAS and other Society for GA Archaeology chapters and archaeologists from around the state to locate the fort's southwest corner and northwest blockhouse, if time permits, during this field season. Teachers are especially welcome to volunteer, and a small teacher stipend is available to defray expenses.
The OAS's upcoming speakers include retired National Park Service Underwater Archaeologist Jim Adams on June 1. Mr. Adams will give a presentation on his work at Port Royal, Jamaica, which was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1692. Southern Research Archaeologist Scot Keith will speak on July 6 about his firm's work on the Leake site near Cartersville. And Karl Steinen, professor at West Georgia University, will speak on September 7 about the importance of symbolism at the Woodland mounds located on the Fort Center site in south Florida.
For more information on these activities or on the OAS's monthly meetings, which are held the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia, please call (478) 718-3398 or email stephen.hammack@robins.af.mil."
Archaeology Mapping Expert Speaks at New Echota
Terry Jackson, a technical expert in the mapping of archaeological sites, speaks this Thursday, May 11, at New Echota Historic Site near Calhoun.
Mr. Jackson will recount his recent research “A Strategy for Conservation Archaeology in Georgia” at the regular meeting of the Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society.The meeting is open to the public and begins at 7:30 pm.
By using geographic information system (GIS) tools, Mr. Jackson is able to show archaeological sites and where they occur in relation to waterways, towns, houses, highways, and existing parks.His work helps citizens, non-profit organizations, elected officials and planners determine how to save archaeology sites and fit them into long-range plans for the state and for cities and counties.
Mr. Jackson grew up on the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, Georgia, and he has worked with a number of well-known archaeologists in his career.He holds an undergraduate degree in geology and has studied in graduate programs at the University of South Carolina and the University of Tennessee Space Institute.He has been awarded several awards for his contributions to archaeology in Georgia and in other parts of the Southeast.
Mr, Jackson presently serves as the Director of the Office of Decision Support Systems in the Planning and Environmental Management Division at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Also at the meeting, the Coosawattee Foundation will report on findings at their recent field day activities at the Thompson site in Gordon County.
The Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society meeting at the New Echota Historical Site begins at 7:30 p.m.The public is invited to attend and bring any artifacts for identification.New Echota is located on Highway 225 just north of the intersection of Highway 225 and I-75, near Calhoun.
For further information about the meeting, you may contact Jack Walker at 770-445-3595, or Fred Runde at 770-974-3879, or Jim Langford at 404-285-2001.
Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society
The May meeting of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society will feature Dr. Adam King of the South Carolina Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology. His talk is titled New Discoveries at an Ancient Settlement: Recent Archaeology of Georgia’s Etowah Mounds. This will be an exciting event. Dr. King spoke to our group on his Etowah research in July 2000 and it will be great to hear him again. The Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site near Cartersville is one of the most important archaeological sites in the United States.Nearly 1,000 years ago huge earthen monuments were built there by a sophisticated prehistoric society.Dr. King will present the results of his recent explorations at Etowah and address the question of how Etowah relates to the history of the Creek and Cherokee Indians.
Dr. King has a unique background for an archaeologist with a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Pennsylvania State University. He then switched to anthropology earning a Master's degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. All of his graduate school research focused on the Etowah Mississippian culture and he has contributed several important papers on the Mississippian chiefdoms. Besides field work in Georgia, Dr. King has worked on sites in the Carolinas, New York and Pennsylvania. He has taught at Jefferson Community College in New York, the University of South Carolina (Aiken), Augusta State University, and the University of Georgia. Many of you may recognize his name as the Editor of Early Georgia. .
This is one of the Fernbank lectures open to the public.The lecture is free of cost but reservations are required.So call 404-929-6400 and make your reservations soon.
Institute of Native American Studies, The University of Georgia
Friday, February 3
2:30-6:30 pm; SLC 101
Presentations “Shatterzone: European Invasion and
Transformation of the Mississippian World”
Robbie Ethridge, University of Mississippi
“Chiefdoms of the Mississippian Southeast”
John Worth, Florida Museum of Natural History
“Late Prehistoric Aboriginal Culture
in the Southeastern United States”
David Hally, University of Georgia
GAAS will meet on Feb. 14th, 7:30 PM, at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta. (The museum is located on Clifton Road just north of Ponce deLeon and across the street from the golf course.)
Our speaker will be Dennis Blanton, Curator of Native American Archaeology at Fernbank Museum of Natural History and newly elected Vice-President of GAAS. Dennis has extensive experience investigating the history and archaeology of two very important historic sites: St. Catherine's Island off the Georgia Coast and Jamestown, Virginia. The St. Catherine's Island collection was recently transferred from the American Museum of Natural History in New York to the Fernbank Museum. This extraordinary collection of nearly one million artifacts represents a work in progress, but has already provided new perspectives on the relationship of the Native American Guale culture and Spanish Franciscan Friars in the 16th century. Please note that there is a nice feature on this work in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Jan. 21, Sect. B, Page 1. In addition, Mr. Blanton will discuss Indian-English interactions following the settlement of Jamestown in 1513. I am looking forward to this talk and hope you make it. I can think of no better way to celebrate St. Valentine's Day than learning about the St. Catherine's Island site.
Dennis Blanton was born and raised in Georgia and is now, once again, a resident. He received a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in Anthropology from Brown University, and is working towards completion of his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
Archaeology Society to Hold Annual Pottery Washing
The Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society will hold its annual pottery washing and seminar on Thursday, January 12 at the New Echota Museum near Calhoun, Ga.
Each year the local group invites the public to bring any American Indian pottery fragments to a meeting where the attendees help clean and analyze the pottery.
“We always have a lot of fun, and we always see some very interesting artifacts at this event,” says Jack Walker, president of the Society. “It’s a great opportunity for the public to come and learn about American Indian ceramics.”
Assisting in the event will be the Coosawattee Foundation, a local organization dedicated to preserving archaeological sites in Northwest Georgia.
The Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society meeting at the New Echota Historical Site begins at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend and bring any artifacts for identification. New Echota is located on Highway 225 just north of the intersection of Highway 225 and I-75, near Calhoun.
For further information about the meeting, you may contact Jack Walker at 770-445-3595, or Fred Runde at 770-974-3879, or Jim Langford at 404-285-2001.
Current Research in Tennessee Archaeology:
18th Annual Meeting
Friday, February 3 and Saturday, February 4, 2006
Ed Jones Auditorium, Ellington Agricultural Center
Edmonson Pike, Nashville, Tennessee
Sponsors: Tennessee Division of Archaeology and Middle Tennessee State University
Organizers: Michael C. Moore, Assistant State Archaeologist, Tennessee Division of Archaeology. Phone (615) 741-1588. E-mail (Mike.C.Moore@state.tn.us) ; and Kevin E. Smith, Professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University. Phone (615) 898-5958. E-mail (kesmith@mtsu.edu).
The Florida Anthropological Society's 58th Annual Meeting is scheduled for May 12-14, 2006. The meeting will be hosted by the Southeast Florida Archaeological Society, which also will be celebrating its 10th anniversary as as FAS chapter. For more information see http://www.fasweb.org/meeting.htm
Society for American Archaeology
The 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology will be held April 26-April 30, 2006, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. According to the preliminary prgram, several sessions related to Southeastern archaeology are scheduled:
New World Shellmounds and Shellmiddens: A Bicoastal Comparison (participants include K. Sassaman and A. Randall, M. Russo and others)
Deaccessioning Archaeological Collections: Wrestling with a Difficult Issue (participants include E. Futato and others)
From Coast to Coast: Current Research in South Florida Archaeology (Organizers are C. Newman, D. Ruhl and M. Schwadron; participants are R. Carr, G. Means, M. Schwadron and M. Russo, R. Austin, C. Newman, M. Glowacki and J. Dunbar, L. Collins and R. Wheeler; D. Ruhl, B. Weisman and L. Collins, P. Kolianos, J. Worth).
Archaeology in the Southeastern US (Chair M. Wood; participants K. Adelsberger and T. Kidder, J. Kelly, R. Tykot and J. Milanich, L. Arco, J. Waggoner and M. Faught, S. Meredith and P. Jackson, T. Kidder, J. Rafferty, J. Chamblee, R. Widmer, K. Stephenson and K. Ashley, E. Jackson, D. Flosenzier, P. Miller-Beech, S. Olin and J. Sullivan, A. Rexroth and J. Adovasio, M. Woods, S. Hogue; J. O'Hear, S. Linder-Linsley and B. Lieb, E. Gilliland).
The annual Alabama Archaeological Society Winter Meeting will be held at the Cullman City Auditorium on December 3rd from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The auditorium is located at 201 2nd Avenue NE, Cullman, Alabama, 35055. Registration fee is $5 per person.