In the March 2011 issue of American Anthropologist, Meg Gaillard reviews the website of the online collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Take a look at the review and the online collection and see pictures of artifacts from Georgia, and some information about the conditions under which they came into the collection. The article considers a “groundstone bowl fragment” as an example of this useful online collection.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society teamed with the Fort Daniel Foundation to again combine their public archaeology event with FDF’s 2nd annual Frontier Faire at the Fort Daniel site in Gwinnett County, May 22-23. A highlight of the weekend was a brick making project employing methods and technology that would have been used in the late 18th–early 19th centuries.

Coastal Heritage Society archaeologists, supported by the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program, are investigating Revolutionary War archaeological sites throughout downtown Savannah. Read about their activities in their recently established blog, “Savannah Under Fire.” The blog has frequent updates, sometimes more than once per week!

Eighteen years of research by history professor Loren Schweninger at the University of North Carolina—Greensboro has produced an online database is called the Digital Library on American Slavery. Data are drawn from court cases from across fifteen states, with over 1100 records from the state of Georgia.

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.

The University of Georgia Libraries have a special section called the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which offers research materials in digital form online. This map, dated 1796, offers insights into the encroachment of Euroamericans into the interior of what is now Georgia, which was then held by Native American groups.

Do some research online and save fuel! Georgia’s Secretary of State’s website includes the Virtual Vault, which contains historical documents, records, maps, etc., dating back to 1733, as well as recent photographs.

The Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has a downloadable sixteen-page booklet dated November 2007, titled Preserving Georgia’s Historic Cemeteries that you may find interesting.

The Digital Library of Georgia website includes a page of links titled “Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842″ that you may find useful. Links include the official websites of Southeastern tribes, and some museums, archives, and libraries, etc.

Laboratory work is now underway at Fernbank Museum, lead by SGA President Dennis Blanton, wearing his day-job hat as Curator of Native American Archaeology. Summer 2009 was the fourth season of fieldwork he’s lead at a South Georgia site that’s produced early Spanish artifacts, including glass beads.

The Society for American Archaeology has 7000-plus members, and is “an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas.” PDFs of back issues of the Society’s magazine The SAA Archaeological Record are available for free, except for the latest issue. You may enjoy perusing them. In particular, the November 2008 issue is recommended; it has a series of articles on our current understanding of the Archaic period in North America.

Next time you’re in Augusta, go downtown and visit the Springfield community. Springfield community is just west of the original downtown Augusta, right on the river. The community was a free African American community established around the time of the Revolutionary War. The heart of the community was and is Springfield Baptist Church, which was probably established between 1787 and 1793.

To explore and learn about the decorations used on prehistoric pottery from Georgia, visit the University of Georgia’s website on Georgia Indian ceramics. The helpful website has pictures, discussions, and full bibliographic citations for pertinent literature.

The National Park Service website offers a list of laws and regulations pertaining to our nation’s cultural heritage on its website, along with links to the complete texts of the legislation. Perhaps most historically important is the Antiquities Act of 1906, which has been amended once and protects historic and prehistoric antiquities on Federal lands. Another important one is Executive Order 11593, signed in 1971, which charged the Department of the Interior with leading historic preservation activities for the nation.

This is just a partial list…. Bartowdig is a website about a single Native American archaeological site in northwest Georgia. Part of the site is beneath a state highway. Widening of that highway precipitated recent research to mitigate the impact on the part of the ancient community that would be destroyed by road construction. The [...]

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is a premier on-line resource for information about Georgia’s past, although it emphasizes Georgia’s history over its prehistory. Click here to visit the New Georgia Encyclopedia website. The University of Georgia’s Laboratory of Archaeology website provides, among other things, downloadable PDFs of the Laboratory of Archaeology Series Reports. The first publication [...]

Period Time Subsistence Pattern Settlement Pattern Diagnostic Features Post war, global economy, information age AD 1945 to Present Corporate agriculture, international trade, service industry, and civil service Suburban-urbanization, second homes, rural abandonment Public works, transistors, interstate highways, disposable products, railroad abandonment, Teflon, computers Depression, recovery and war AD 1929 to AD 1945 Manufacturing, farming, retailing, [...]

Georgia’s Office of the State Archaeologist is within the Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources. Read more about it here. The Georgia Archaeological Site File is the official repository for information about Georgia’s archaeological sites, dating to all periods and including standing historic buildings. The GASF houses over 3,400 Cultural Resource Management [...]

The Coosawattee Foundation, based in Calhoun, seeks to educate the public about the value of past and present Native American cultures, to work with landowners to preserve archaeological sites and the natural environments in the immediate vicinity of these sites, and to persuade the public and government leaders of the need to implement public policy [...]

Although their information is more general, several national organizations have online presences and websites that are worth viewing. The Archaeological Conservancy is a non-profit organization that seeks to acquire and preserve the best of our nation’s remaining archaeological sites. Every day archaeological sites are threatened by development and other land use changes. The Archaeological Conservancy [...]

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Archaeology Unit at the Office of Environment/Location is an integral part of the GDOT mission statement that promises a “safe, seamless and sustainable transportation system that supports Georgia’s economy and is sensitive to its citizens and environment.” The responsibilities of the GDOT Archaeology Unit within the mission are two-fold. [...]