Join the Society for Georgia Archaeology! Help save Georgia's fast-disappearing past, and learn about it at the same time. The SGA's members are avocational and professional archaeologists, along with the interested public.
The Society meets twice a year, in the spring and fall, at locations that rotate around the state. The spring meeting is in conjunction with Archaeology Month, in May. Meetings are open to the public.
Bookmark this page, and read news of interest to members of the SGA. At least one story is posted here each week, and often more.
The Phoenix Flies unites a community of Preservation Partners, to enhance Atlanta and promote its heritage. The 2010 The Phoenix Flies: A Citywide Celebration of Living Landmarks has over 160 FREE events scheduled around the city from Saturday, March 6th, through Monday, March 22nd.
Attend the SGA’s Spring Meeting on, Saturday, May 15th, 2010, at The Parks at Chehaw, outside of Albany, and tour the ArchaeoBus!
The Spring 2010 Meeting of the Society for Georgia Archaeology will be Saturday, May 15th, at The Parks at Chehaw, just outside of Albany. The full story has a link to a hotel and a campground, for those attending the meeting. The SGA Board will meet on the afternoon of Friday, May 14th, as they traditionally do, after meetings of the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists. The Friday meetings will be at the Country Inn & Suites in northwest Albany.
Among the world’s major regions, ancient North America is not known for having many domesticated animals. In an article free online, Camilla F. Speller and her colleagues examined the DNA of modern and ancient turkeys and argue that there were at least two places were turkeys were domesticated: in Southern Mexico and a second time with Rio Grande/Eastern wild turkey populations. Read details in the full story.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has recently released a report called American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010. The report discusses the current status of American bison (Bison bison). You may be interested in a discussion of the history of the bison that is included as background for the report’s focus on conserving the species and the ecological restoration necessary to accomplish that for this large herbivore.
The SGA invites you to host an Archaeology Awareness event in May 2010! The full story offers great ideas for your event! Schedule an event by submitting the form provided. Read more here….
Global Genetic History of Homo sapiens is the title of a new special issue of Current Biology, with eight papers available free online. This topic is also called archaeogenetics. There’s an introductory and a summary article, which bracket six articles that focus on human migration in specific geographic areas, including the New World.
The Center for the Study of the Civil War Era cordially invites you to attend the 7th Annual Symposium on New Interpretations of the American Civil War, titled Alternative Southern Realities: African Americans and the American Civil War. The event is hosted by Kennesaw State University, and will be held on March 19–21, 2010. The symposium is open to the public. Registration is $25.
If you haven’t visited bartowdig.com recently (or ever!), now’s the time to do so! Read about the Leake Site, which is downstream of the Etowah Mounds and pre-dates it, and is on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2010 list of Places in Peril.
Dr. David Crass, Georgia’s State Archaeologist and new Historic Preservation Division Director, has reorganized HPD. He discusses the reorganization and its benefits in this article, published first in HPD’s Preservation Posts, February 2010.
This Weekly Ponder considers artifacts and context, defining and discussing how archaeologists use these terms and what that means for interpretation of artifacts—and sites. The Ponder goes on to consider the context of the Shroud of Turin, which will be on display in spring 2010, in Turin, Italy.
The Florida legislature established the Florida Public Archaeology Project in part to do outreach. Among the materials they have posted online are books of hands-on archaeology activities for teachers. Although FPAN is oriented toward Florida, many of their activities can be used or adapted for use in Georgia classrooms. The books are free and downloadable.
The Archaeological Conservancy owns Stallings Island, and has partnered with the Augusta Archaeological Society to monitor and help protect this significant site, which is difficult to access and protect. Unfortunately, looters have returned. We all lose when our hidden heritage is destroyed and thus important information is lost.
In early February, 2010, the SGA’s website received a strongly positive review on a blog, Archaeology, Museums and Public Outreach. Outreach is difficult, and we’re happy to hear people find our website useful and informative.
When the SGA leadership visited the coast in February 2010, many of us also toured Sapelo Island with archaeologist Dr. Ray Crook, who has worked on the island for decades. We took the morning ferry out underovercast skies, watched the sun arrive with us at the island dock, and returned to the mainland late in the afternoon. We took a break to enjoy a Geechee lunch at mid-day.
The SGA Board and Officers met on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, at the Ashantilly library, named after the home’s builder, Thomas Spalding. Ashantilly is a plantation just north of Darien. The SGA and its members owe a big debt of thanks to the wonderful, kind folks at the Ashantilly Center, who hosted our meeting.
Frank Schnell’s memorial service is scheduled for March 14 at 3:30 at the Lumus Chapel at Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.
What is iron gall ink? Parchment is a common term, but what is that ink? Colonial-period documents were commonly written in iron gall ink. Georgia’s copy of the Declaration of Independence was. Even Bach and Da Vinci used it! Read more about this ink in the full story. Find out how many kinds of trees it takes to make the ink, too!
State Archaeologist Dr. David Colin Crass is the new Director of the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the DNR announced on 27 January 2010. Dr. Crass came to Georgia HPD twelve years ago.
Burke County State Court Judge Jerry Daniel in January handed down heavy fines on four east Georgia men who pled guilty to multiple counts related to looting a Late Archaic, Stallings culture shell midden site on the Ogeechee River in southern Burke County. The four men were apprehended on private land by Georgia Department of Natural Resources Ranger First Class Jeff Billips and Ranger First Class Grant Matherly in late September 2009.
Long-time SGA supporter Rita Elliott discusses the perfect gift: a donation to the SGA’s endowment fund! (Psst, and it’s tax deductible!)
Researchers at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah identified two historic-period cemeteries. One had been buried beneath a parking lot for over fifty years; it had thirty-seven graves. A second cemetery was identified from an 1889 map as a “Negro Cemetery,” and had well over three hundred burials. All human remains and artifacts were carefully excavated and respectfully moved to Belmont Cemetery, and the Installation’s Garrison Commander and Chaplain participated in a rededication ceremony in conjunction with African-American History Month in February 2009. Article includes photographs of selected grave goods.
Archaeological crews from the American Museum of Natural History have been excavating on St. Catherines Island for over 30 years. Research this fall focused on the McQueen Shell Ring. Data suggests that the ring was the only substantial Late Archaic presence in this section of St. Catherines Island. (The full story may be slow to load due to a large figure.)
Georgia’s Jekyll Island has an interesting past, detailed here. The Island is owned by the the people of Georgia and managed on their behalf by the Jekyll Island Authority. It’s a natural and cultural treasure most of us don’t know enough about.
Georgia’s Mobile Archaeology Classroom—the ArchaeoBus—provides hands-on and minds-on activities to enthuse your students about learning. Archaeology is a great tool for turning on the minds of students, as well as a great motivational tool. More important, it is a discipline capable of instruction in a wide variety of skills. Archaeology is a holistic academic and intellectual approach that involves all subject areas, social skills, and conceptual skills. Georgia’s Mobile Archaeology Classroom offers the opportunity for students and teachers to leave the traditional four-walled classroom and use a new approach to learn state standards!
The complete archive of online news on various topics in archaeology is here, listed in reverse order of publication on this website. If, instead, you are interested in an archive of notices about the business of the Society (e.g., preparations for meetings), click here.
Welcome to the website of the Society for Georgia Archaeology, a non-profit organization whose vision is that all Georgians understand the significance of their archaeological sites so that they will support archaeological preservation, education and research.
The SGA's mission is to unite all persons interested in the archaeology of Georgia and to work actively to preserve, study and interpret Georgia’s historic and prehistoric remains.
