Attend one of our two meetings each year and meet avocational and professional archaeologists. The spring meeting is during Archaeology Month, in May. Check our calendar for the date of the next meeting!
In this intriguing research report, Dylan Woodliff describes recent fieldwork by Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. (EPEI) at The Anneewakee Creek site (9DO2) in Douglas County, Georgia. New work by EPEI suggests that this famous Woodland period mound site may contain previously unrecorded earthworks.
The Digging Savannah app is now available in the Google Play marketplace. The app will work on most Android devices including smartphones and tablets. Just search for “Digging Savannah.” The App allows you to discover archaeology sites in and around Savannah that have been investigated and are on property open to the public. For more information, visit the Digging Savannah website by clicking here, and follow us on Facebook by clicking here.
For over twenty-five years, the Garden of the Coastal Plain at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro has served as a botanical and historical oasis on the edge of campus. Read on to learn more about the garden and recent efforts to turn the Bland Cottage into a museum.
Preston Holder’s important WPA-era archaeological fieldwork on the Georgia coast has been largely ignored. Thanks to recent efforts by SGA members, this picture is changing. Here Keith Stephenson reviews Kevin Kiernan’s book chapter about Preston Holder’s work on the Georgia coast, recently published by the University of Alabama Press.
Issue number 156, Spring 2013, of the SGA’s quarterly newsletter, The Profile, is now available as a downloadable and printable PDF. Alternatively, you can click here to see excerpts of all stories in the issue. The stories in The Profile all were originally posted to this website in January, February, or March of 2013.
… in which President Tammy Herron discusses the history and exciting future of Georgia Archaeology Month and gives a preview of the Society’s Spring Meeting, scheduled for Saturday, May 18, in Macon. President Herron also comments on the recent successful action to transfer the administration of the Georgia Archives to the Board of Regents.
May is Archaeology Month in Georgia, and thanks to the hard work of SGA members across the state, this year the month of May is packed with exciting events in nearly every corner of Georgia. Just a few of the planned events include: tours and hands-on activities at Etowah, Camp Lawton, Fort Daniel, and a chance to visit the ArchaeoBus in Stone Mountain. Click here to view the full schedule of Archaeology Month events, and click here to access the official Archaeology Month brochure.
Great news! As a Coalition Partner, the SGA has received the following update from Kaye Minchew and Ken Thomas, Co-Chairs of the Coalition to Preserve the Georgia Archives. The bill to transfer the administration of the Georgia Archives to the Board of Regents was passed by both houses of the Georgia legislature unanimously and goes to the Governor’s desk for signature. The State Budget, after the conference committee met, included $300,000 more for the Georgia Archives than the Governor originally proposed in January. Many thanks to all those who have worked so hard since September to keep the Georgia Archives open and to get money back in the budget.
Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. (EPEI) and New South Associates (NSA), under contract with HNTB Corporation, recently completed preliminary investigations of the Gulch, a low-lying area of downtown Atlanta long associated with the railroads. Preliminary archaeological investigations consisted of extensive archival background research, soil coring, and a large-scale geophysical survey of the project area. These investigations not only shed light on a fascinating and significant part of Atlanta’s history, but represent the most extensive investigations of their kind in an urban setting in the Southeast.
In 2012, Edwards-Pitman Environmental conducted a Phase I survey of McDonough Road in Fayette and Clayton counties for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) under contract with American Engineers, Inc. The work included systematic shovel testing and metal detection along the nine kilometer project corridor from SR 54 in the west to Tara Boulevard near Lovejoy in the east. Dan Elliott of the LAMAR Institute helped with the metal detector survey. This project documented archaeological remnants of the western extent of the Battles of Lovejoy Station Battlefield.
The SGA and its partner, the GCPA (Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists), are pleased to announce winners of awards for Georgia archaeology for 2013 at the State Social Studies Fair, held Saturday, March 23, at Clayton State University in Morrow. The SGA’s seventh-grade winner is Kameron Gaston for his project, “Nazca Lines: Why Are They Here?” The GCPA’s fifth-grade winner is Kara Harper for her project, “The Invisible Enemy: Diseases of the Civil War.” See photos of the winners and their projects in the full story.
The Society for Georgia Archaeology invites undergraduate and graduate students to submit brief research reports, reviews of archaeological presentations and lectures, and essays about archaeological fieldwork and field trip experiences to The Profile. Topic areas are open, but should be related to the archaeology of Georgia and surrounding states. Submissions should generally be no longer than 1000 words. Accompanying photographs are encouraged.
SGA members will be pleased to see the inclusion of Kevin Kiernan’s chapter on Preston Holder’s New Deal-era excavations on the Georgia coast in a new book, Shovel Ready: Archaeology and Roosevelt’s New Deal for America, edited by Bernard K. Means (The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2013). In his chapter, “Preston Holder’s WPA Excavations in Glynn and Chatham Counties, Georgia, 1936-1938,” long-time SGA member Kevin Kiernan provides important information about a little-known area of Georgia archaeology.
Over the last year a great number of claims have been made about Mayans and Georgia archaeology. Many of these claims have focused on sites located on National Forest land. The Track Rock Gap rock art and stone landscape sites on the Chattahoochee National Forest were created by Creek and Cherokee people beginning more than 1000 years ago and continuing into the 1800s. There is no archeological evidence of any link to Mayan people or culture at this site. Stone landscape sites occur throughout the region and are not unusual, but they should be respected and protected.
Efforts of members of The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society and The Fort Daniel Foundation have finally paid off. On December 21, 2012, Gwinnett County closed on the 4.5-acre tract within which the entire fort site is situated. The County shall, in turn, lease the property to the Foundation, which will be responsible for developing both the land and an educational outreach program. Details of the lease agreement are being worked out, and it is expected that the Foundation will assume its responsibilities by the end of March. Already, students from local schools have had the opportunity to get their hands dirty and learn something about archaeology and about Fort Daniel’s connection with our frontier history and the Creek Indian War.
The Chesser–Williams House is now at the campus of the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center. The House has exquisite art work on its exterior and interior. By moving the House to the Center, it will be preserved for educational programming. The project has received recognition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of 22 projects in the United States that received a Cynthia Woods Mitchell grant in 2010.
Recently, New South Associates was contracted by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to recover, analyze, and relocate the Avondale Burial Place in southern Bibb County. Fieldwork discovered 101 individuals. Later analysis, including historical research, indicates the burial ground was most heavily used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although there are indicators that this location began as a slave cemetery and was subsequently used by African American tenant farmers. View an excellent video about this important project that’s in the full story.
Frontiers in the Soil is a classic in archaeological literature that should be useful to everyone. Using easy-to-read text by Roy S. Dickens, Jr., and creative color cartoon illustrations by James L. McKinley, Frontiers interprets Georgia’s past with humor in over 100-pages of delightful reading. Click here to download the order form for Frontiers in the Soil.
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!
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.
