Attend the SGA’s Spring Meeting on, Saturday, May 15th, 2010, at The Parks at Chehaw, outside of Albany, and tour the ArchaeoBus!

Stay tuned to this website for more information about other activities planned for the meeting.

Read more about the ArchaeoBus here. As we at the SGA often say, “the ArchaeoBus is a travelling emissary for the Society for Georgia Archaeology, bringing dynamic educational programs to students and people around the state.”

Hotel information is here.

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 SGA has reserved a block of rooms at the Country Inn & Suites, one of Albany’s newest hotels. It’s in northwest Albany, and close to the park. Online information is here, including an excellent map and directions. We have a block of rooms reserved at the Country Inn & Suites. The block of rooms consists of 5 King rooms and 10 Double Standard rooms with 2 queen beds. The cost for each is $82.00 + 14% tax, for a total of $93.48/night. These rooms will be available at the group rate until Monday May 3, 2010. Check-in time for all rooms is 3:00 pm, and check-out time is 11:00 am. To get to the Country Inn & Suites from US 19/US82, take Exit 7 and go north onto Nottingham Way. The Country Inn & Suites is located on the left. The phone number at the Albany hotel is 229-317-7100; the Country Inn & Suites company’s toll-free number is 1-800-596-2375.

The Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists will have meetings on Friday, May 14th. The GCPA Board will meet from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Then the GCPA will meet from 1:45 to 3:30 pm.

The SGA Board will meet after the GCPA meetings, from 3:45 to 5:30 pm.

All Friday meetings will be in the Tift Room at the Country Inn & Suites.

For those who love the outdoors, camping is available at The Parks at Chehaw nestled on Lake Chehaw off SR 91, 1.2 miles north of US 19/82/SR 50. The physical address is 105 Chehaw Park Road, Albany, GA 31701; 229-430-5275. Read more information online here.

The location of The Parks at Chehaw is shown in the map below.

Click here for a PDF of all the hotel and camping information.

Other suggestions for accommodations

Hilton Garden Inn located at 101 S. Front Street, Albany, GA 31701; 229-888-1590

Jameson Inn located at 2720 Dawson Road, Albany, GA 31707; 229-435-3737

Quality Inn – Merry Acres located at 1500 Dawson Road, Albany, GA 31707; 229-435-7721

Wingate by Wyndham located at 2735 Dawson Road, Albany, GA 31707; 229-883-9800

The Spring Meeting of the Society for Georgia Archaeology is set for Saturday, May 15th, 2010. The meeting will be held at The Parks at Chehaw just outside of Albany, and is, of course, open to the public.

The SGA’s spring meeting is one event in the statewide Archaeology Month, currently held in May. The SGA encourages participation in Archaeology Month, both by attending and by scheduling events. Read this story and schedule an event!

Stay tuned to this website for more information about the Spring Meeting and 2010 Archaeology Month events!

For the 17th year, the SGA is coordinating Georgia Archaeology Month, a statewide promotion that encourages the public to learn about the archaeological resources present in our state and creates awareness about the importance of protecting Georgia’s archaeological heritage. Your help is needed to plan the activities that will be the basis of our Calendar of Events. Possible activities are site tours, workshops, excavations for the public, open houses at museums or laboratories, exhibits, and lectures.

Please join in and help celebrate Georgia Archaeology Month 2010. Your event will be included in the Calendar of Events brochure, which will be distributed statewide as well as posted on this website. The theme for this year’s Archaeology Month is Making the Past Come to Life! Exploring Ancient Techniques and will focus on living history, experimental archaeology, and primitive technology.

Hold an event! Join in the Fun!

Here are some suggestions for local host organizations:

Libraries – create window or lobby displays that highlight books, journals, and magazines on archaeology; develop with archaeologists special student or seniors’ programs; host lectures

Museums – develop special exhibits or let us promote your existing archaeological displays; host lecture.

Historical and Archaeological Societies – host lectures or exhibits; work with local archaeologists to provide hands-on experiences; encourage members to visit archaeological sites and exhibits during the month.

Colleges and Universities – encourage faculty to join in special community programs; promote archaeology curricula and field research of faculty; if appropriate, develop exhibits for student activity centers, libraries, and other public spaces.

Professional archaeologists – present a talk to the public; sponsor an open house.

Help us publicize Georgia archaeology by sponsoring an event. Please respond by March 5, 2010 using this event form to ensure that your activity is included in our Calendar of Events brochure.

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Pamela Baughman at work or home.

Just a brief head’s-up that plans for the Spring Meeting (that is, Spring 2010) are moving forward. We plan to meet in Albany, and we’re looking at Saturdays in mid-May.

Of course, our Spring Meeting will be part of Archaeology Month, and the SGA always has a theme for Archaeology Month, including our poster and our meeting. The theme for the SGA’s 2010 Archaeology Month is primitive technology. Right now the working title is: Making the Past Come to Life! Exploring Ancient Techniques.

Rather than organizing lecture presentations, we plan to invite modern-day craftsmen who practice olden-day techniques, and to pair each with an archaeologist who will discuss how the technology depicted relates to the field of archaeology. We hope our modern craftsmen will include flintknappers, potters, basket makers, and weavers, who can bring the ways of the past to life.

Stay tuned to this website for details, so you can mark your calendar!

The SGA’s Fall Meeting organizer, Catherine Long, has announced the meeting schedule. The Fall SGA Meeting will be held on Saturday, October 17 at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford (see map below).

Registration will begin at 8:30am, and will be $10 for adults and $5 for students. Registration for the SGA meeting will not include entry into the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center (due to deep budget cuts). Click here to review the Center’s general admission fees.

8:30am / Registration

9:30am / Welcome / SGA President Dennis Blanton

9:45am / Interpreting Site Layout, Community Structure, and Domestic Activities at the Long Swamp Site (9CK1), a Mississipi Period Settlement in the Etowah River Valley / Tom Lewis / Edwards – Pitman Environmental, Inc.

10:05am / Update on Fernbank’s Investigation of Early Contact along the Lower Ocmulgee / Dennis Blanton / Fernbank Museum of Natural History

10:25am / Coffee Break

10:45am / Autossee: An Image of Conflict / Terry Jackson / Georgia Department of Community Affairs

11:30am / SGA Business Meeting

12:00pm – 1:15pm / Lunch

1:30pm / Current Research in the Archaeology of the Atlanta Campaign / Garrett Silliman / Edwards – Pitman Environmental, Inc.

1:50pm / A Silent Choir Sings: Formal, Informal Cemeteries and the Old School Cemetery / Hugh Matternes & Staci Richey / New South Associates, Inc.

2:10pm / Class Struggle in the Dining Room: Ceramic Consumption of a Planter Household at the Margins of Elite Respectability
John McCarthy / ECA – History, Inc.

2:30pm / Alkaline – Glazed Pottery from Georgia: A Guide for Archaeologists / J.W. Joseph, New South Associates, Inc.

2:50pm / The Asbury Manual Training School (1822-1830) and Schooling in the Creek Nation Prior to Removal / Jack Tyler

3:15pm / Walking Tour of the Shadrack Bogan/Woodward Mill Site / Led by Tom Gresham

Concurrent Student Poster Presentations
Wes Patterson & Caitlin Farley / Site Formation Processes at 9TF145

A downloadable schedule, with abstracts, is available by clicking here.

Mark your calendar now!

The SGA’s Fall 2009 meeting will be Saturday, October 17th, at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. Stay tuned for details!

For Archaeology Month in May 2009, the SGA chose the theme Mounds in Our Midst. Georgia’s archaeological landscape features numerous sites with artificial, human-constructed earthen mounds. Created by diverse Native American cultures, mainly between 500 BC-AD 1550, these remarkable monuments are evocative reminders of prehistoric societies that once flourished in every corner of the state.

Archaeology Month 2009 was devoted to a celebration of their survival and a meditation over their purpose and meaning. Long gone are the days when the impressive tumuli were explained away with reference to a lost race of “moundbuilders,” somehow distinct from Native cultures known to the same area. More than a century of archaeological study tells us that indigenous peoples are, in fact, responsible for the mounds. The same work has established that the mounds are not all the same but varied considerably in their design and purpose.

Also long gone are the days when Georgians could take prehistoric Indian mounds for granted. Because knowledge is the foundation for stewardship, Archaeology Month 2009 featured new research that is improving our sense of the place these ancient constructions held in the societies that erected them. And important among these efforts are creative solutions for preserving more mound sites from looting and destruction.

Take a look at a larger version of the poster by clicking here.

What an exciting day!

At the all-day 2009 Spring Meeting, held May 16th at Wesleyan College in Macon, we enjoyed formal presentations on current research and provocative ideas about many aspects of Georgia archaeology, touching on the theme of this year’s Archaeology Month: Mounds in Our Midst: Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia. Attending members received copies of the latest Early Georgia and our 2009 Archaeology Month poster.

The schedule allowed ample time to chat with other attendees. Over one hundred people attended the meeting—a grand success!

Perhaps the most important, and most fun, business was the unveiling of the ArchaeoBus, nicknamed Abbey! We learned that Abbey is one tough bus, or at least her bumpers are! We watched the champagne bottle loudly bounce away unharmed on the first strong stroke. Christener Tom Gresham upped the power level, and on the second stroke, the bottle shattered dramatically.

Abbey already has good karma, we think, since the rain deluge began only after the ceremonies. Teachers, librarians, and others are already reading about the ArchaeoBus on this website and asking how they can arrange a visit!

In short, your SGA is moving forward through 2009 with aggressive education and outreach activities, including both our own meetings, encouraging and publicizing Archaeology Month activities (May is Archaeology Month in Georgia!), and getting the ArchaeoBus on the road, doing both formal programs and less formal events.

Stay tuned for a more detailed report….

Oblique view of Ocmulgee National Monument, from Google Earth….

And don’t forget your (full) water bottle, sunglasses, and perhaps a snack.

The Lamar Mounds trip is on for Sunday, May 17th at 10 am. Meet at the Ocmulgee National Monument. We will walk to the site, a round-trip distance of three miles.

The report is that the road will be “muddy and wet and the mosquitoes are as big as a car.”

Be prepared! Bring water. Wear mud-tolerant boots you can walk three miles in. The route is 1.5 miles each way, for a total of three miles. You probably want to use an anti-insect product with DEET for the mosquitos and ticks.

And your camera!

Read the full meeting schedule here.

Here’s another incentive to attend the SGA’s Spring Meeting on Saturday, May 16th: the SGA’s brand new ArchaeoBus will be unveiled!

Attend the “christening” at 4 pm on Saturday! We’ll have door prizes, refreshments, and an interactive kazoo event! The new ArchaeoBus will be unveiled with a dramatic drumroll. We’ll break a bottle of champagne over the ArchaeoBus, too!

After the ceremony, visitors can tour the exhibits inside the ArchaeoBus and participate in hands-on activities under a tent next to the bus.

The ArchaeoBus is the SGA’s new mobile archaeology classroom. This is its first public event as it begins to tour the state, bringing archaeology outreach and education to the all!

Please adjust your schedule and join us in Macon for this super-fun event following the indoor session at the Spring SGA meeting at Wesleyan College, on Saturday, May 16th.

Make plans NOW to attend the SGA meeting May 16th and 17th in Macon. On Saturday, we’ll enjoy presentations at the Anderson Amphitheater in the Taylor Building on the campus of Wesleyan College. For those who stay over, on Sunday there’ll be a walking tour of the Lamar Mounds site south of Macon.

The theme of Saturday’s meeting is Mounds in Our Midst: Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia. Georgia’s landscape features numerous archaeological sites with artificial, human-constructed earthen mounds. Created by diverse Native American cultures, mainly between 500 BC-AD 1550, these remarkable monuments are evocative reminders of prehistoric societies that once flourished in every corner of the state. Archaeology Month 2009 is devoted to a celebration of their survival and a meditation over their purpose and meaning. Because knowledge is the foundation for stewardship, Archaeology Month 2009 features new research that is improving our sense of the place these ancient constructions held in the societies that erected them. And important among these efforts are creative solutions for preserving more mound sites from looting and destruction.

The ArchaeoBus christening is another highlight of Saturday’s schedule. It will happen at 4:00 pm, after the presentations. Come see the SGA’s latest big project unveiled!

Links

Click here for the full meeting schedule.
Click here for hotel information.
Click here for this year’s lesson plan.
Click here to read the list of this year’s Archaeology Month sponsors.
Click here to read about the Governor’s proclamation of Archaeology Month 2009.
Click here for Archaeology Month events around the state.
Click here for all Archaeology Month 2009 articles.

The SGA* has reserved a block of 30 hotel rooms at the Fairfield Inn near Wesleyan College for Friday, May 15-Sunday, May 17th. At this rate, check-in is therefore on Friday, and check-out is on Sunday morning.

If you stay here to attend the Spring Meeting, you’ll be among friends!

There are 15 King rooms and 15 Double Bed rooms available. The price tag is $89 + 12% tax, which equals $99.68/night. These rooms will be available to us until 5 pm on Monday, May 4th.

This hotel is just off of Zebulon Road, which is at Exit 9 on I-475 (the bypass that keeps folks from having to go through downtown Macon when traveling on I-75 North or South). Click here for the hotel’s website, and their Toll-free phone number is: 1-888-723-1777.

* Thanks to Stephen Hammack for doing the legwork on this….

Events are scheduled across the state in conjunction with Archaeology Month 2009, in May. SGA has prepared a brochure listing this year’s events.

Activities will be held across Georgia, from Cumberland Island to Augusta to Athens to Carrollton to Macon—and more! Learn about the Georgia Archaeological Site File in Athens on May 2nd! Go on a hayride on May 9th in Duluth! Attend Archaeology Day in Augusta on May 23rd!

SGA members will find the Society’s semi-annual meeting on May 16-17 at Wesleyan College in Macon to be the highlight of Archaeology Month this year!

To read more, download the schedule of events for Archaeology Month 2009 download the schedule of events for Archaeology Month 2009 by clicking here.

Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia

The Society for Georgia Archaeology is proud to announce the theme for presentations at our semi-annual meeting associated with Archaeology Month 2009: Mounds in Our Midst: Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia. The Annual Spring Meeting will be held over two days in Macon. On Saturday, 16 May, we’ll meet at the Anderson Amphitheater in the Taylor Building on the campus of Wesleyan College for a series of presentations. Registration is $10 per person. On Sunday, 17 May, attendees have the opportunity to join a guided tour of the Lamar Mound site, south of Macon; this site is normally closed to the public.

Georgia’s archaeological landscape features numerous sites with artificial, human-constructed earthen mounds. Created by diverse Native American cultures, mainly between 500 BC-AD 1550, these remarkable monuments are evocative reminders of prehistoric societies that once flourished in every corner of the state.

Archaeology Month 2009 is devoted to a celebration of their survival and a meditation over their purpose and meaning. Long gone are the days when the impressive tumuli were explained away with reference to a lost race of “moundbuilders,” somehow distinct from Native cultures known to the same area. More than a century of archaeological study tells us that indigenous peoples are, in fact, responsible for the mounds. The same work has established that the mounds are not all the same but varied considerably in their design and purpose.

Also long gone are the days when Georgians could take prehistoric Indian mounds for granted. Because knowledge is the foundation for stewardship, Archaeology Month 2009 features new research that is improving our sense of the place these ancient constructions held in the societies that erected them. And important among these efforts are creative solutions for preserving more mound sites from looting and destruction.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of an archaeology awareness promotion in Georgia. From its inception as a weeklong celebration in 1994, the observance has grown to an entire month of special public events, exhibits, and demonstrations in communities across the state; check our calendar for events we’ve heard about. The SGA serves as the primary sponsor of Georgia Archaeology Month. Co-sponsors include state agencies, private firms, and non-profit and professional organizations. Public outreach is a critical link in fostering better awareness of archaeology and a sense of stewardship for our state’s archaeological sites. The SGA advocates preservation, protection and interpretation of these fragile resources, including the dramatic monumental architecture, or mounds, that are the focus of this year’s Spring Meeting.

Meeting program

Saturday, 16 May

• 8:30 am • Registration begins
  Cost is $10 per person.
• 9:15 am • Dennis Blanton
  Welcome and Introduction
• 9:30 am • Kevin Kiernan
  A Little-Known Prehistoric Indian Mound on St. Simons Island
• 9:50 am • Dennis Blanton and Inger Coxe
  Mound Burials Across Two Millennia on the Georgia Coast: The Perspective from St. Catherines Island
• 10:10 am • Tom Whitley
  End of Days: The Legitimization of Chiefly Power and Earthen Mound Burial Practices at the Time of European Contact on the Georgia Coast
• 10:30 am • Break
• 10:50 am • Keith Stephenson and Frankie Snow
  A History of Mounds and Mound Exploration in Georgia’s Interior Coastal Plain
• 11:10 am • Tom Pluckhahn
  Rethinking Mound D at Kolomoki
• 11:30 am • Jim D’Angelo
  A Report on Preservation Efforts at the Fort Daniel Site in Gwinnett County
• 11:50 am • Lunch
• 1:30 pm • Adam King
  Latest Results of Geophysical Testing at Etowah and Ocmulgee
• 1:50 pm • Scot Keith and Dean Wood
  Mound Use On and Around the Leake Site in Northwest Georgia
• 2:10 pm • Jared Wood
  Mounds Abound! Mississippian in the Savannah Valley
• 2:30 pm • Break
• 2:45 pm • Mark Williams
  Behind Closed Doors: What Goes on in the Temples on Mississippian Mound Summits
• 3:05 pm • Jeffrey Glover and Georgia State University students
  Report on Documentation of the Flat Rock African-American Cemetery in Dekalb County
• 3:15 pm • Brief Business Meeting
• 4:00 pm • ArchaeoBus christening
  Parking lot.
• All Day Poster Presentation • Karen Smith and Keith Stephenson
  Analysis of Vessels from the Shelly Mound in Pulaski County, Georgia

Sunday, 17 May

• 10 am • Walking tour of the Lamar Mounds Site, Ocmulgee National Monument (conditions permitting)

Directions

Here are two maps that indicate where Wesleyan College can be found. Click on either to get to an interactive Google map of the area. Also, click here for information on a reserved room block for meeting attendees at a nearby hotel.

Are you curious about all this hub-bub over some old vehicle? Come satisfy your curiosity and see the brand new ArchaeoBus at its christening. The ArchaeoBus, (A.B or “Abbey” for short), becomes official on Saturday, May 16, 2009! The outside in its new splendor will be unveiled before your eyes. Walk through the bus to see the interior exhibit and storage areas. Examine table-top activities beneath associated tents around the bus as you enjoy light refreshments. This unique event will take place on May 16, 2009 at 3:30 p.m., following the last paper of the session at the Spring SGA meeting in Macon. The unveiling will occur in the parking lot adjacent to the Taylor Building (where the SGA meeting presentations will be given) on the campus of Wesleyan College. Won’t you join us?

Please visit our online calendar to read about events happening around the state for 2009 Archaeology Month! May is Archaeology Month in Georgia!

GARS and Friends of Fort Daniel (FFD), a special committee created for Fort Daniel preservation efforts, have had a lot going on since the last Profile. Since Fort Daniel’s listing as one of ten historic properties listed the Georgia Trust’s 2009 Places in Peril, GARS and FFD have submitted an application for a Georgia Trust preservation grant. The matching grant proposal is for the purpose of developing a master plan for a proposed Archaeological Park at the site of Fort Daniel in Gwinnett County. The master plan, to be designed by a leading Atlanta-based planning and landscape architecture firm, will initially be used in public outreach efforts that have as their goal raising public awareness of the importance of the site for local and state history, and promoting grassroots support for purchase of the site by the county. The firm has generously offered to return onehalf of their fee as the match for the grant.

The FFD, presently being chaired by a direct descendent of Major General Allen Daniel, John Hopkins, and GARS have already begun work on an ambitious Archaeology Month program that will include a half-scale replica of a portion of the stockade wall and corner blockhouse. The plan for this will be based on similar restorations at other late eighteenth and early nineteenth century forts, General Daniel’s written orders of how he wanted the 1813 fort built, and what has been learned so far from the archaeological record at Fort Daniel. Other things planned include an artifact and posterboard display, period reenactors, a blacksmith who will be making 1790s “Fort Hog Mountain Wrought Nails,” buckets of dirt salted with artifact replicas for children to screen, and the opportunity to do some archaeology as we look for another side of the stockade wall enclosure. The Fort Daniel Frontier Fair and Public Archaeology Day will be held on May 2.

The monthly general meeting of the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society is held the first Wednesday of the month in Conference Room B at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center, 75 Langley Place, Lawrenceville at 7:30 PM. Details about GARS meetings, projects, field trips and Fort Daniel can always be seen at our web site.

Primary Sponsor: The Society for Georgia Archaeology

Co-Sponsors:

SGA members met for the Fall 2008 Meeting in Rome, in northwest Georgia on 18 October. During the morning and the first part of the afternoon, attendees heard presentations on various topics in a meeting room at the Civic Center downtown. SGA member Dave Davis, a part-time archaeologist at the Chieftains Museum, organized the meeting.

In the afternoon, attendees reconvened at the Chieftains Museum, which is centered at the historic Major Ridge House. Major Ridge (born ca. 1771, died 1839) was a prominent Cherokee leader, who settled at this ferry crossing on the north edge of what is now the city of Rome.

The original part of Major Ridge’s house was a hand-hewn log structure built about 1794, and Ridge bought it sometime prior to 1819. The building was expanded several times and is now the Chieftains Museum.

Long-time SGA member Patrick Garrow lead a walking tour of the Museum grounds. He told us about the twentieth-century swimming pool remains that were uncovered during excavations he lead some years ago.

Pat told us that a well near the house on the property also probably dated twentieth-century.

From the spring symposium at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, which kicked off Archaeology Month, to the proclamation signing ceremony at the Capitol, which this year provided closure, Archaeology Month 2008 was a success. Months of planning and hard work by the Archaeology Month committee and volunteer laborers preceded the promotion. Archaeology Month committee members included Betsy Shirk (chair), Dennis Blanton and Kate Ruedrich (poster, lesson plan and spring program), Pamela Johnson (events), Catherine Long (distribution), and Tammy Herron (publicity).

Once again, SGA relied on contributions of co-sponsors and event sponsors to take this program to the public, reaching thousands through our annual promotion. We met our goal of raising public awareness of the importance of our state’s archaeological resources through distribution of 3,000 posters, 1,200 lesson plans, and education of those attending the 22 archaeology month events, including our spring meeting, that celebrated our state’s rich archaeological heritage.

The fifteenth annual Georgia Archaeology Awareness promotion had as its theme “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period.” As in past years, educational materials and associated poster, as well as event brochures were distributed statewide to public middle schools, regional libraries, federal and state parks and historic sites, legislators, SGA members in good standing for 2008 and various historical organizations and museums. Event brochures were sent to Georgia Visitor Centers as well.

Materials were distributed the week of April 7. The place to be on Packaging Day, April 8, was Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Catherine Long, Dennis Blanton and Kate Ruedrich coordinated this effort. Volunteers provided the more than 113 hours required to package and distribute the materials. Those who contributed their time were Tammy Herron, Catherine Long, Dennis Blanton, Kate Ruedrich, Tom Gresham, Michael Shirk, Allen Vegotsky, Dick Brunelle, Terri Hynes, Justin Arrington, Scott Morris, David Kasriel, Tom Peard, Lyn Kirkland, Furney Hemingway, Jack Kilgore, and Andrew Vaughn. Members of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society and Fernbank Volunteers were instrumental in getting the task accomplished.

Dennis Blanton and Kathryn Ruedrich of Fernbank Museum of Natural History provided poster design and associated lesson plan as co-sponsor of Archaeology Month. The poster graphic profiled the three groups (Native Americans, Spanish soldiers, and priests) representative of the Spanish period in Georgia. Text on the poster back addressed archaeological evidence of the Spanish period in Georgia. The lesson plan consisted of 12 pages and included activities and text targeting 8th grade objectives.

Pam Johnson coordinated events, and the events brochure listed 21 events, including artifact identification days, site tours, open houses, lectures, and exhibits. Mary Beth Reed oversaw event brochure design and printing.

The spring meeting was held on April 26 in Atlanta at Fernbank Museum of Natural History and included a full day of presentations entitled “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period: New Discoveries and Improved Understandings.” Speakers included Dave Crass, John Worth, Richard Melvin, Jim Langford, Dennis Blanton and Frankie Snow, Jeannine Windham, Mark Williams, David Hurst Thomas, Richard Jefferies and Christopher Moore, Carolyn Rock and David Hally, and Marvin Smith. A highlight of the meeting was presentation of the Caldwell Award to Tom Gresham.

Once again, SGA reached thousands through its Archaeology Month program. We realized our goal of raising public awareness of the importance of our state’s archaeological resources through distribution of posters and educational materials, and education of those attending the archaeology month events that celebrate our state’s rich archaeological heritage.

 

In Fall 2007, SGA met at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center, 2020 Clean Water Drive (near The Mall of Georgia), Buford.

The Search For Fort Daniel
Jim D’Angelo, TRC and Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society

The traditional location of one of Georgia’s early frontier forts, Fort Daniel, has been marked with a roadside historical sign for many years, but there has never been any physical evidence to support the supposed location…until now. Archaeological investigations at the Hog Mountain site in Gwinnett County, undertaken by the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) have confirmed the traditional location of the 1813 Fort Daniel and a 1790s fort that preceded it. Hundreds of artifacts, including wrought and early machine nails, musket shot and flint, ceramics, brick, and intact features are consistent with a military installation dating from this period.

Theory and Limitations of Ground Penetrating Radar: Fort Daniel Results
Sheldon Skaggs, University of Georgia

A brief introduction to the theory of GPR and its use in site detection. Results from the Fort Daniel survey will be presented to show how preconceived ideas and soil conditions can limit the usefulness of any remote sensing technique. Emphasis will be placed on comparing two or more techniques in the decision making process along with the use of post excavation knowledge.

Hardin Bridge: A Look at an Early Middle Woodland Settlement
R. Jeannine Windham, New South Associates, Inc

The Hardin Bridge site is a narrow terrace settlement located on the bank of the Etowah River. The early Middle Woodland component at this site shows a dependence on a localized catchment area that was revisited for a restricted amount of time. This paper discusses the Cartersville occupation revealed during recent excavations. Further, the utilization of the immediate catchment area is explored within the concepts of Primary Forest Efficiency and nascent Woodland agricultural practices.

The History of the Dugout Canoe in Georgia
Leslie Perry, Fernbank Museum

From the penned words of Christopher Columbus upon his arrival in the West Indies, the Arawak word ‚“canoa” has evolved to the English word “canoe”. By interpreting the ethno-historical, historical, and archaeological records, and analyzing those records in the context of the known cultural and physiographical environment, the history and evolution of the wooden dugout canoe in Georgia shall come into clearer focus. Selected samples of dugout canoes have surfaced within Georgia boundaries for measurement and study that lend spatial and temporal data which aids in the research. The initial findings suggest a lowdensity recovery rate relative to the size of the state, but the more important story is not mathematical—the critical importance of this cultural resource lies in its ability to relate part of the story of human life gone by.

The Archaeology and Oral History of a Tenant Farming Community in Randolph County, Georgia
Jennifer Azzarello, New South Associates, Inc.

Investigating and managing tenant farming sites in the Southeast can prove challenging as they tend to be underrepresented, poorly preserved, and lacking in artifacts and architectural remains. Recently, the Georgia Department of Transportation initiated a data recovery and oral history survey of Site 9RH41, which has proven to be a well-preserved tenant farming community in Randolph County, Georgia. This paper presents the data that has been collected from the excavations and the oral history survey then poses questions for future research on how to best interpret and manage these resources.

Age-Related Changes in Mortuary Practices at the King Site
David Hally, University of Georgia

Approximately 250 burials were recovered from the 16th century King site in northwestern Georgia during excavations in the early 1970s and early 1990s. Mortuary analysis of the collection, using single-year composite age estimates of burials has allowed a number of age-related status changes to be recognized.

Georgia Trust Places in Peril 2008: SGA Nominates the Sunbury Site (9Li4)
Terry Jackson, SGA Advocacy Subcommittee Chair

The Society for Georgia Archaeology has nominated the colonial town site of Sunbury in Liberty County to be featured on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril List for 2008. SGA will also be submitting a National Register nomination for the Sunbury Cemetery and possibly for a larger archaeological district encompassing other parts of the original town site, which is now rapidly being lost to residential development. SGA will offer opportunities to the new community at Sunbury to study and save parts of their historic past.

Ocmulgee River Basin Archaeological Project
Stephen A. Hammack, Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (SGA)

Preliminary information on work already completed and work planned for the future will be presented. There are several different components of the project, including: 1) contacting artifact collectors in an effort to document their collections; 2) visiting archaeological sites with landowners and collectors in order to obtain UTM coordinates, gathering preliminary information on site size, and completing site forms to be submitted to the Georgia Archaeological Site File; 3) mapping underwater and/ or maritime sites such as prehistoric sites that have eroded into the river, steamboat and barge remains, and prehistoric and historic fish weirs; and 4) locating the lost Creek Indian towns that were situated along the banks of the Ocmulgee River and its tributaries between 1685 and 1715, and 5) conducting excavations at the Waterworks Park in Macon this fall and winter on 9Bi155, a potentially eligible site that is expected to yield information and artifacts that may be interpreted in a permanent Macon History exposition.

Members met at the Jekyll Island Hotel for the 2003 Spring Meeting. Events included a delightful and informative public lecture by Judy Bense, of the University of West Florida, and a walking tour to several archaeological sites, including tabby ruins. Afterward, all adjourned to a beach-side banquet.

All photographs are copyright Michael Shirk.