Learn about Georgia's archaeology! Help save Georgia's fast-disappearing past! Tour the ArchaeoBus!
Join the SGA, and meet avocational and professional archaeologists, and the interested public.
The Society has two meetings each 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. Check our calendar for the date of the next meeting!
If you don’t already have a copy of Frontiers in the Soil, click here to access an order form! Clocking in at over 100 pages, Frontiers tells the story of young archaeologists working on an excavation project, using lively text and humorous cartoon illustrations. This classic volume will be enjoyed by everyone curious about Georgia’s archaeological heritage. There’s also a free lesson plan based on the book.
Excavators working on a prehistoric settlement on the east bank of the Flint River in Spalding County have recovered materials from the Early Archaic through the Middle Woodland periods, along with posts, pits and many rock clusters. This work was performed by a crew from Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. for the Georgia Department of Transportation. The ancient community was on the first terrace overlooking a back swamp.
Meetings are a crossroads to knowledge. The full story discusses the April 2012 statewide preservation conference. You’ve missed that meeting, but it’s not too late—May also has interesting events scheduled for 2012 Archaeology Month, including the SGA’s Spring Meeting, which will be held Saturday, May 19th, at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville.
Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the Spring Meeting co-sponsored by SGA and Georgia Gwinnett College! The date is Saturday, May 19 starting at 8am in the state-of-the art Student Center. Click here to access a PDF of the Spring Meeting Program (final version).
The SGA’s 19th annual Georgia Archaeology Awareness promotion, Archaeology Month 2012, has as its theme Commemorating the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. Our request for a proclamation designating May as Georgia Archaeology Month was received and acknowledged by the Governor’s office. Representatives from Georgia’s archaeological community, including the SGA, attended the proclamation signing by Governor Nathan Deal on Wednesday, May 2nd.
…in which Abby the ArchaeoBus visits Auburn, Georgia, and hosts over 200 visitors including middle-schoolers, homeschoolers and parents, city administrators, a state representative, and more—read the whole story and look at the photos!
The fourth issue of the newsletter of the Gwinnett County Chapter of SGA, the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS), is now available. The newsletter is named Gwinnett Archaeology Bulletin. GARS members are heavily involved in this year’s Archaeology Month, in May, which has the theme Commemorating the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.
May is Archaeology Month in the state of Georgia, and also Historic Preservation Month, but did you also know that May is Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Awareness Month? The Georgia Lyme Disease Association sponsors this month to promote awareness about these diseases as well as encourage prevention practices. Find more information online here, where you can find resources, stories, statistics, and articles detailing the signs and symptoms of tick-borne diseases. In Georgia, ticks may be active year round, but they are most active on calm, cool, damp (humid) days over 60 degrees. You can engage in some prevention by avoiding tick infested areas, using tick/bug sprays, and checking yourself thoroughly after venturing outside.
Archaeology Month 2012 recognizes the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. The War was declared by the USA under President James Madison against Great Britain, which was already fighting France under Napoleon. One British etching of the time shows the Archangel Gabriel blowing his trumpet, conveying criticism of Madison. Witnesses to this event include personifications of the USA and Great Britain as women. Examine this Library of Congress holding and the British perspective on this New World conflict in the full story.
“Before Georgia had roads, it was laced with Indian trails or paths,” writes Dr. Louis DeVorsey in his 2003 entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Indian Trails. Why did people establish, maintain, and travel these trails? Dr. DeVorsey suggests that normal economic needs motivated much of the travel. What do you think?
Call it a megapolitan area or a megaregion, but Georgia’s Piedmont is experiencing an increase in human settlement that endangers—and destroys—archaeological remains. Join the Society for Georgia Archaeology and help preserve Georgia’s archaeological heritage. Once you’ve joined the SGA, volunteer with the Society to actively help the SGA to preserve, study and interpret Georgia’s historic and prehistoric remains.
On 11 April 2012, the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced that Georgia has a new State Archaeologist, Dr. Bryan Tucker. Dr. Tucker succeeds Dr. David Crass, who is now Director of HPD.
Issue number 152, Spring 2012, of the SGA’s quarterly newsletter, The Profile, is now available as a downloadable and printable PDF. The stories in The Profile all were originally posted to this website January, February, or March 2012.
SOGART, the South Georgia Archaeological Research Team, a Chapter of the SGA announces that its 2012 Symposium on Southeastern Coastal Plain Archaeology will be held at Stubbs Hall, South Georgia College, Douglas, on August 18th. Presentations are now being solicited for the meeting. Click here for an announcement suitable for posting.
The SGA is proud to present the 2012 Archaeology Month event brochure, accessible by clicking here. All events listed in the brochure are also entered in the SGA’s online calendar All programs, events, and ongoing exhibits listed in the brochure are listed in the full story. Not all events are in May, although May is Archaeology Month in Georgia.
We all know dams hold water, but they can also preserve archaeological information. The recent dynamiting of the Eagle & Phenix dam in the Chattahoochee River adjacent to downtown Columbus has revealed considerable data on the industrial history of the mill complexes that lined this stretch of the river. The water also concealed many archaeological artifacts. Read about what destruction of the dam has revealed, and the exhibits that will be created to tell the story of the Eagle & Phenix dam and the mills it served.
On Monday, April 2, 2012, volunteers from the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society, TRC staff, and others from the SGA met at the offices of the cultural resources firm TRC, Inc. in Norcross to roll the Archaeology Month 2012 posters and stuff them in mailing tubes destined for Georgia school districts. Thanks to all the volunteers for finishing this important work.
The Gateway to the Past: Georgia’s Leake Site exhibition will be on display through Sunday, September 23, 2012 at the Columbus Museum, on Wynnton Road east of downtown Columbus. Using excavated artifacts from the Leake site and the Columbus Museum’s collection of Chattahoochee Valley objects, this history exhibition shows visitors what life was like for prehistoric American Indians living in what is now northern Georgia. The exhibition also includes an interactive audio/visual tour. Admission is free. Read more about the Leake site on this website by clicking here.
Please make plans to attend the Spring 2012 Meeting of The Society for Georgia Archaeology on Saturday, May 19th, at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville. The meeting will be held in the Student Center (Level 1, LVIS Room), and registration begins at 8:00am. The SGA has reserved rooms at the nearby Country Inn & Suites—Lawrenceville. These rooms will be available at the group rate until Wednesday, April 18th.
The Society for Georgia Archaeology (SGA) and the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists (GCPA) gave two awards at the Georgia Social Studies Fair 2012. The SGA and GCPA are pleased to give awards at this event because it supports our mission “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.” The 2012 winners are fifth-grader John Hendricks of Jasper Elementary in Pickens County and eighth-grader Connor Hynek of Herschel Jones Middle School in Paulding County. Awards include a copy of the book Frontiers in the Soil, also available from the SGA.
SGA Board Member and Golden Isles Chapter member Kevin Kiernan provides an update on the many research projects Golden Isles members have underway. Activities include searching for a Spanish mission, examining Kelvin culture houses, and systematic studies of the Harrington Graded School, the last surviving segregated school on St. Simons Island. Check out links to other stories about Golden Isles member activities, including in the Jacksonville Times-Union and a DNR newsletter.
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!
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.
