http://thesga.org SGA site, redux Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:14:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://thesga.org/2012/02/long-distance-travel-the-leake-site-example/ http://thesga.org/2012/02/long-distance-travel-the-leake-site-example/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:25 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10329 In an article in the Fall 2011 issue of Early Georgia (vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 173–200), Scot Keith discusses evidence for long-distance trade and exchange in Middle Woodland times (from about 350 BC to AD 650), using data from the Leake Site, near Cartersville. Members of the SGA in 2011 received that issue of Early Georgia as a benefit of membership. Join the SGA, and you will receive the current volume of Early Georgia!]]> http://thesga.org/2012/02/long-distance-travel-the-leake-site-example/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2012/01/combating-damage-and-deterioration-of-artifacts/ http://thesga.org/2012/01/combating-damage-and-deterioration-of-artifacts/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10309 Museums and other institutions store and display artifacts. Curators—the professionals who care for artifact collections in museums and other institutions that preserve artifacts—must be very careful to make sure that artifacts are preserved and not damaged while in their care. Read about many potential agents of deterioration, degradation, and destruction in the full article.]]> http://thesga.org/2012/01/combating-damage-and-deterioration-of-artifacts/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2012/01/blue-ridge-parkway-archive-online-with-geolocation-data/ http://thesga.org/2012/01/blue-ridge-parkway-archive-online-with-geolocation-data/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:00:15 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10252 Do you geotag your digital photographs? North Carolina archivists have determined the geographic location of myriad photographs and other historical materials that illuminate the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway, then put scans of those materials online for researchers to browse. Read more about Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina in the full story.]]> http://thesga.org/2012/01/blue-ridge-parkway-archive-online-with-geolocation-data/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2012/01/georgias-naval-stores-industry-harvesting/ http://thesga.org/2012/01/georgias-naval-stores-industry-harvesting/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:27 +0000 Rachel http://thesga.org/?p=10142 The naval stores industry was important to Georgia's economy for generations. Naval stores are made from the sap of pine trees. This industry was concentrated in the piney areas of the Coastal Plain. Visit the Million Pines Rest Area north of Soperton and learn about harvesting pine sap.]]> http://thesga.org/2012/01/georgias-naval-stores-industry-harvesting/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2012/01/mining-in-georgia-gold-and-online-resources/ http://thesga.org/2012/01/mining-in-georgia-gold-and-online-resources/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:00:33 +0000 Rachel http://thesga.org/?p=10122 The first documented find of gold in Georgia dates to the summer of 1829, according to E. Merton Coulter in Auraria: The story of a Georgia gold-mining town (University of Georgia Press, Athens, originally published in 1956 and released in paperback in 2009, and available online for free). Auraria, in Lumpkin County, was a town that flourished during the rush and is a ghost town today.]]> http://thesga.org/2012/01/mining-in-georgia-gold-and-online-resources/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/12/is-religion-an-adaptive-behavior/ http://thesga.org/2011/12/is-religion-an-adaptive-behavior/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:00:45 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10113 Nicholas Wade, in his 2009 book, The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, argues that behaviors we describe as religious conferred a survival advantage on early humans, and thus were adaptive and favored by natural selection. The benefits he ascribes to religious beliefs and practices include emotions like trust and loyalty, which support cooperation and empathy, improve group cohesion, and improve the survival rate of groups.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/12/is-religion-an-adaptive-behavior/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/12/an-ethnohistorians-insights-into-untangling-the-past/ http://thesga.org/2011/12/an-ethnohistorians-insights-into-untangling-the-past/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:00:57 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10106 Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to travel in North America with an early European adventurer? Read Joyce Rockwood Hudson's Looking for De Soto: A Search Through the South for the Spaniard's Trail (published in 1993) and you will learn what it was like to try to trace the route that Hernando De Soto and his entourage took through southeastern North America in 1540. Mrs. Hudson and her husband, then UGA professor Dr. Charles Hudson, set out to retrace and verify the route of the De Soto expedition in 1984.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/12/an-ethnohistorians-insights-into-untangling-the-past/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/12/ways-to-make-the-past-a-story/ http://thesga.org/2011/12/ways-to-make-the-past-a-story/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:27 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10086 Historical and archaeological books and articles commonly tell the story of the past either using a timeline (a sequential version of the past) or using a specific topic—a place or person or theme—to anchor the tale. This story notes that there're two sequential versions of Georgia's past on this website—a table and a prose post. The full story contrasts these with Caldwell's volume on research prior to the flooding of the Allatoona Reservoir, and a book on food and the human past (and future)—both with topical foci. Caldwell's volume is recommended to anyone interested in Georgia' prehistory.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/12/ways-to-make-the-past-a-story/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/12/diaries-as-research-tools/ http://thesga.org/2011/12/diaries-as-research-tools/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:00:01 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10063 Diaries are one of many primary sources about the past. Primary sources are records from people who had first-hand experience with what is recorded in the materials they have left behind. On this website we have a diary—of Abby the ArchaeoBus. The ArchaeoBus is a major outreach project of the SGA, and billed as Georgia's mobile archaeology classroom. Using Abby's diary as an example, consider the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as aids to understanding the past.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/12/diaries-as-research-tools/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/12/georgia-archaeology-transportation-sites/ http://thesga.org/2011/12/georgia-archaeology-transportation-sites/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:00:06 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=10021 There's a little-known type of archaeological site called a transportation site. Transportation sites are of many sub-types, including railroads and railroad depots and yards, roads and trails, canals, and wharves and docks. These are archaeological sites but not residential sites. Read more in the full story, which focusses on the Brunswick-Altamaha Canal, which SGA members and guests visited during the tour of archaeological sites near St. Simons Island that was the focus of the SGA's exciting 2010 Fall Meeting.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/12/georgia-archaeology-transportation-sites/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/11/columbian-exchange-quiz-results/ http://thesga.org/2011/11/columbian-exchange-quiz-results/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:00:10 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9993 For about three months, the SGA's website had a twelve-question quiz on the origins of commonly used species, mostly plants. The question posed was: is this species native to the Old World or the New World? The movement of plants and animals between the Old and New Worlds after Christopher Columbus’s First Expedition in 1492 is commonly referred to as the Columbian Exchange. Thus, the quiz provides insights into quiz-taker knowledge of the Columbian Exchange. Should you wish to take the quiz before reading the answers, click here.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/11/columbian-exchange-quiz-results/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/11/how-important-is-dating/ http://thesga.org/2011/11/how-important-is-dating/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:00:39 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9972 Many people have encountered one of the editions of James Deetz's In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life, which was first published in 1977 and is still an insightful volume. Dr. Deetz discusses, among many other things, the importance of chronology and dating to the study of the past. He also argues that small things are extremely important to understanding the past, giving examples of how we may continue behaviors with roots in the past in everyday life today.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/11/how-important-is-dating/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/11/what-was-the-new-world-like-in-1491/ http://thesga.org/2011/11/what-was-the-new-world-like-in-1491/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:00:01 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9961 In 2005, Charles C. Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus appeared on bookstore shelves, and still is selling well in a paperback edition with a new afterword. Mann's book focuses on what the New World was like prior to the arrival of the Columbus expedition in 1492. Mann offers enough information for you to envision what you would have seen if you could have flown over the Western Hemisphere in AD 1000. What he writes about may be a bit (or a lot) different from what you learned in school about his subject.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/11/what-was-the-new-world-like-in-1491/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/11/historic-preservation-primer-available-from-hpd/ http://thesga.org/2011/11/historic-preservation-primer-available-from-hpd/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:00:59 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9866 Careful preservation planning means knowledge about important historical and archaeological resources are part of the planning process. In late October 2011, Georgia's Historic Preservation Division released Preservation Primer: A Resource Guide for Georgia, available in both high- and low-resolution PDFs. The Primer will help you identify historic properties, evaluate them, and develop local preservation planning strategies. And help protect your community's resources.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/11/historic-preservation-primer-available-from-hpd/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/10/origins-of-agriculture-discussed-in-detail/ http://thesga.org/2011/10/origins-of-agriculture-discussed-in-detail/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:00:33 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9800 The origins of agriculture is one of the major topics of the field of archaeology. The journal Current Anthropology has just published an issue dedicated to this topic, called The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. The issue's twenty-two articles can be accessed for free. An article by Bruce D. Smith considers the origins of agriculture in eastern North America, in particular the seed plants squash (Cucurbita pepo), sunflower, sumpweed (Iva annua), and lambsquarters/pigweed (Chenopodium berlandieri).]]> http://thesga.org/2011/10/origins-of-agriculture-discussed-in-detail/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/10/volcanoes-and-archaeology-pros-and-cons/ http://thesga.org/2011/10/volcanoes-and-archaeology-pros-and-cons/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:00:12 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9630 While volcanoes are undeniably destructive, they can aid archaeological tourism by preserving ancient homes and settlements. We discuss the case of AD 79 Roman Herculaneum, formerly on the Bay of Naples, Italy, and offer a few photographs.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/10/volcanoes-and-archaeology-pros-and-cons/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/10/description-of-indian-mound-from-the-1770s/ http://thesga.org/2011/10/description-of-indian-mound-from-the-1770s/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:00:07 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9545 Ever wonder what an Indian mound was like in the late eighteenth century? In the mid-1770s, natural historian William Bartram traveled through what is now Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. He described his adventures in a 1793 volume Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws…. He describes a special round building the Cherokees used for important group activities. His architectural description gives a good idea of what careful archaeological excavation may reveal of a building like this.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/10/description-of-indian-mound-from-the-1770s/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/10/october-22nd-is-national-archaeology-day/ http://thesga.org/2011/10/october-22nd-is-national-archaeology-day/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:00:01 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9698 Leading national archaeological organizations are partnering to participate in National Archaeology Day, on 22 October 2011. What will you do to celebrate? In addition, across the US and Canada, there are events throughout the whole month of October. What will you do to celebrate archaeology this year? And, it's not too soon to start planning your 2012 National Archaeology Day celebrations!]]> http://thesga.org/2011/10/october-22nd-is-national-archaeology-day/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/09/conservation-news-near-and-far/ http://thesga.org/2011/09/conservation-news-near-and-far/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:00:21 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9621 This Weekly Ponder considers what archaeological resources are, and what it means to conserve them, using two examples. Earlier this month, the Secretary of the Interior awarded a 2011 Partners in Conservation Award to the Camp Lawton Preservation Team, which has been working to investigate and conserve this recently rediscovered Confederate prisoner of war camp that's near Millen. The second example is the joint effort by The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and Google to put digital images of the Dead Sea Scrolls online; five are now accessible.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/09/conservation-news-near-and-far/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/09/test-yourself-about-the-columbian-exchange/ http://thesga.org/2011/09/test-yourself-about-the-columbian-exchange/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:00:01 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9529 This Weekly Ponder offers a short quiz about which side of the Atlantic Ocean twelve species of creatures, mostly plants, now grown and used in both the Old and New Worlds, originated prior to Christopher Columbus’s First Expedition, in 1492.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/09/test-yourself-about-the-columbian-exchange/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/09/social-science-anthropology-archaeology/ http://thesga.org/2011/09/social-science-anthropology-archaeology/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:48 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9441 Archaeologists think of human society as very complex. Other social scientists prioritize certain aspects of human social life. For example, political scientists look at political behavior, of individuals and the groups they form. We consider an example offered by anthropologist Thomas Barfield in which he observes that Afghani society prioritizes group interests (e.g., honor), whereas modern Americans, as a society, prioritize individual interests (e.g., household wealth).]]> http://thesga.org/2011/09/social-science-anthropology-archaeology/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/09/artifacts-in-athens-an-historic-cannon/ http://thesga.org/2011/09/artifacts-in-athens-an-historic-cannon/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:00:45 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9460 Make a field trip to Athens and check out the Civil War-period double barreled cannon on the top of the highest hill downtown, on the northeast corner of the grounds of the old city hall. Consider visiting the cannon on 22 October 2011, as well as attending the SGA’s Fall Meeting that day and the Society’s silent and live auctions in the evening. Click here for more information on the Fall Meeting.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/09/artifacts-in-athens-an-historic-cannon/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/09/collective-learning-baseball-caps-and-clovis-points/ http://thesga.org/2011/09/collective-learning-baseball-caps-and-clovis-points/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:00:48 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9394 Humans are adept at collective learning. We share information with our peers and information is learned from our elders and passed along to the next generation. This means that we don’t have to expend as much energy learning something that another person already learned. How can this be seen archaeologically? Baseball caps and Clovis points are touched on in the full discussion.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/09/collective-learning-baseball-caps-and-clovis-points/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/08/camp-lawton-artifact-news/ http://thesga.org/2011/08/camp-lawton-artifact-news/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:00:33 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9372 Georgia Southern University’s archaeology team has announced more artifacts that have been identified from Camp Lawton. Camp Lawton was a Confederate prisoner of war camp located just outside of Millen. The camp was occupied for only six weeks before evacuations began in the middle of the night on November 26, 1864, as the Union army approached during Sherman’s March to the Sea. “The amount of artifacts and the variety of artifacts we are finding at this site is stunning,” said Georgia Southern archaeology professor and director of the project Dr. Sue Moore. Dr. Moore is a Past President of the Society for Georgia Archaeology. This story considers a trade token found by archaeologists that was issued in 1863 by a grocer-wholesaler in Niles, Michigan.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/08/camp-lawton-artifact-news/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/08/scales-of-data-and-analysis/ http://thesga.org/2011/08/scales-of-data-and-analysis/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:00:17 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9325 Consider how quantities of fine-grained data obtained through careful, well-documented excavation can be integrated to investigate broader questions of socio-political evolution. Consider how the scale of data and the research questions you can ask using them are related.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/08/scales-of-data-and-analysis/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/08/on-rifle-trenches-the-general-says%e2%80%a6/ http://thesga.org/2011/08/on-rifle-trenches-the-general-says%e2%80%a6/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:00:38 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9335 In his Memoirs, General William T. Sherman provides a detailed description of the rifle-trenches soldiers from both sides occupied while fighting near Kennesaw Mountain—and elsewhere—during the Civil War. Today, we consider the remains of these trenches archaeological features. What would you expect them to look like archaeologically—if they have survived the nearly one-and-a-half centuries since 1864?]]> http://thesga.org/2011/08/on-rifle-trenches-the-general-says%e2%80%a6/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/08/reconstruct-stabilize-or/ http://thesga.org/2011/08/reconstruct-stabilize-or/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:00:36 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9318 Archaeologists and managers of archaeological resources, including those on public lands, must make a choice. Basically, those archaeological remains can be ignored, stabilized, or reconstructed—along with perhaps subtle choices on the continuum between each of these. If you were the owner or manager of an archaeological resource, which would you choose? What would you consider in making your choice?]]> http://thesga.org/2011/08/reconstruct-stabilize-or/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/07/the-archaeobus-attends-girl-scout-camp/ http://thesga.org/2011/07/the-archaeobus-attends-girl-scout-camp/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:00:22 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9298 SGA’s ArchaeoBus, nicknamed Abby, visited a week-long Girl Scout Eco-camp in Oglethorpe County in July, 2011. Amy Glinski, leader of the camp, along with SGA’s Tom Gresham and Teresa Groover presented a half day of programming and hands-on activities to 40 girls who ranged from 6 to 13 years old. We think this was another successful venture for the ArchaeoBus and was a slightly different audience and setting. We are finding that the ArchaeoBus is readily adaptable to a wide range of audiences.]]> http://thesga.org/2011/07/the-archaeobus-attends-girl-scout-camp/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/07/considering-household-wealth-residential-architecture/ http://thesga.org/2011/07/considering-household-wealth-residential-architecture/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:00:05 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9253 Archaeology is a comparative science. How can we compare houses cross-culturally? How do houses reflect variable wealth among their owners and residents? How do their size and layout reflect the activities they are designed to accommodate? How does our concept of the house affect how we think about the residential living areas of ancient peoples? These issues are touched on in the full article….]]> http://thesga.org/2011/07/considering-household-wealth-residential-architecture/feed/ 0 http://thesga.org/2011/07/exploring-the-civil-war-through-historic-maps/ http://thesga.org/2011/07/exploring-the-civil-war-through-historic-maps/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:00:09 +0000 sammy http://thesga.org/?p=9195 The Sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War began this year. The SGA marked this event with this year’s theme of Georgia Archaeology Month, Gone But Not Forgotten: Rediscovering the Civil War Through Archaeology, held in May. You can also rediscover the Civil War through digital maps available online, by matching them to maps and satellite views of the same landscape today. Try it yourself!]]> http://thesga.org/2011/07/exploring-the-civil-war-through-historic-maps/feed/ 0