The Phoenix Flies unites a community of Preservation Partners to enhance Atlanta and promote its heritage. The name comes from the mythical bird that consumed itself by fire and then rose anew from the ashes. This has been Atlanta’s nickname since the Civil War, and has been featured on the city seal since 1887. As the Phoenix Flies website notes:

In 1978 the dramatic rescue of the Fox Theatre changed Atlanta’s attitude toward its historic buildings and became the inspiration for many other successful projects that saved more of Atlanta’s historic structures, neighborhoods and sites. In 2003, as part of The Atlanta Preservation Center’s 25th anniversary celebration of the saving of the Fox, we recognized the city’s other historic attractions with our ground-breaking event, The Phoenix Flies: A Citywide Celebration of Living Landmarks.

During the seventeen days, from Saturday, March 6th, through Monday, March 22nd, of the 2010 Phoenix Flies, over forty-five historic sites will offer over 160 FREE events including guided walking tours, bicycle tours, bus tours, to lectures and storytelling, to open houses, and more! The 2010 Phoenix Flies events are listed online here.

Figure 4 from the Speller et al. article in PNAS.

Among the world’s major regions, ancient North America is not known for having many domesticated animals. One exception, Camilla F. Speller and her colleagues note in a free article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America titled “Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Reveals Complexity of Indigenous North American Turkey Domestication,” is the wild turkey, or Meleagris gallopavo (with several subspecies defined based on plumage & geographic range, and confined—at least prehistorically—to several regions in North America and south to what is now southern Mexico)*. They write in their conclusion:

Domestication is a complex process, with human–animal interactions that vary considerably in terms of their intensity and their degree of human intervention…. The ancient DNA and archaeological evidence collected in this study reveals a wide range of past human–animal interactions within the Southwest United States, ranging from the hunting and/or capture of local wild turkeys, to the intensive husbandry and breeding of an imported domestic turkey lineage. Moreover, the DNA data indicate this Southwest domestic turkey lineage (H1) was maintained and propagated for well over a millennium, despite significant shifts in the geographic distribution and settlement patterns of Southwestern farming populations. This long history of turkey use undoubtedly reflects the economic and symbolic importance of domestic turkey for the Ancestral Puebloans, and other precontact Southwestern cultures.

This in-depth study presents conclusive evidence for the domestication of an indigenous North American animal. Moreover, as one of the few indigenous domesticates, the turkey represents an important case study through which to examine New World animal domestication in general. Previous DNA studies have exposed multiple domestications of Old World animals such as cattle, pig, sheep…, and this study supports a similar multicenter model for the New World. The DNA data point to at least two occurrences of turkey domestication in precontact America, one involving the South Mexican wild turkey, likely in south-central Mexico, and a second involving Rio Grande/Eastern wild turkey populations, with a subsequent introduction of domesticated stocks into the Southwest proper. In addition to significantly redirecting future research into North American domestication centers, this extensive study demonstrates the complexity and sophistication of ancient husbandry and breeding practices for one of the New World’s few domesticated animals.

Turkey bones have been identified from archaeological remains across the Southeast, including sites in Georgia. Isn’t it interesting to ponder how the Eastern wild turkey spread so far in prehistoric times, once domesticated? Evidence of penning is rare, but archaeologists keep their eye out for it. How would we identify if people were keeping turkeys penned near their residences?

This paragraph from the Speller et al. article is informative:

Our best evidence that “wild” birds were being kept at habitation sites comes from the H2 coprolites found at Turkey Pen Ruins in Utah, indicating that H2 birds were present and presumably confined at the site. These coprolites occurred in a thick dry midden dating almost entirely to the Basketmaker II period (ca. 200 BC–AD 450) with one H2 specimen appearing in the earliest dated stratum…. Thus, the capture and provisioning of local wild birds may have been synchronous with the introduction of the domestic birds into the region. A better understanding of the nature, timing, and extent of early wild turkey exploitation will require genetic analysis of securely dated bones and/or coprolites from additional Early Agricultural sites. Additionally, investigating whether wild H2 birds were being confined and provisioned in conjunction with domestic birds must be addressed through detailed analyses of archaeological contexts, isotopic data from bones, and palynological and macrofloral evidence from coprolites.

The terms H1 and H2 refer to haplogroups, or creatures sharing a common ancestor, identified through their genetic code (genotypes). These two haplogroups are identified by these researchers as indicating two different lineages (varieties) of domesticated turkeys.

Across much of the Southwest, turkey does not seem to have been in heavy rotation in the diet until the AD 1100s, although it appears in the archaeological record much earlier.

Do you know how archaeologists can tell if people were eating turkeys? And if those turkeys were wild or domesticated? And, perhaps more important, why does it matter which they were?

* A second turkey species, Meleagris ocellata, is native to the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern modern Mexico.

When humans enter an ecosystem, they displace some species and prey upon others. This is true of both plants and animals, including species most of us don’t really notice (for example, nematodes in soil and rotifers in freshwater).

As human populations increase, and peoples intensify occupation of the environment (demographically, populations become denser), demands on environmental resources increase. The impacts of displacement and predation increase. They must; more people mean demands for food, shelter, and other material goods increase.

Photographs in this story are from the IUCN report.

In the Great Plains of North America, bison populations have decreased over the last two centuries—a response to increasing human populations and the consequences of that proliferation.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is “a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries” (according to the IUCN website). In early March 2010, the IUCN released a report called American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010. The report discusses the current status of the American bison (Bison bison).

The American bison ranged across the Great Plains in large herds, browsing on the vast prairie grasslands. Notes the report, “there is little doubt that prior to Euroamerican settlement, plains bison numbered in the millions, and probably even in the tens of millions” (page 8).

Through the late 1800s, bison herds were hunted commercially, to “open” lands for colonization by peoples from the east. There was also sport hunting. Environmental factors, including introduced bovine diseases, also reduced bison populations. Their numbers became so diminished that in 1905 the American Bison Society was formed and sought to establish bison herds at several federal landholdings (page 9).

Chapter 2 of the report, downloadable from this webpage, discusses bison prehistory and history, including the species’ original range. On page 11, the report notes:

With increased resolution and clarity afforded by ethnohistoric and ethnographic investigations, human-bison interactions among historic native peoples are better described and documented than for the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Bison continued to be the preferred game for many native North American cultures, especially on the Great Plains and Prairies, providing food, clothing, shelter, and tools…. Sustained by bison and plant resources, many native groups likely affected densities of other large herbivore species…. In addition to significant ecological relationships, the bison was a central element in oral tradition, rituals, dances, and ceremonies of native peoples of the Plains…, and it remains symbolically important in the cultural traditions of many native Tribes to this day.

The arrival of Europeans in North America, after 1492, resulted in significant changes in human-bison interactions, and changed the fabric of Native American life forever. Introduced diseases such as smallpox decimated indigenous human populations…, and altered subsistence, settlement, demography, and social organisation for many different groups. Bison hunting by native people was seasonal in nature. Bison were incorporated into a broad spectrum of plant and animal procurement activities…. Bison provided the economic basis for stable, resilient land use regimes and social systems. However, effects of Native American warfare and raiding during the historic period disrupted and destabilised these land use and social systems. The spread of horses into Great Plains aboriginal economies by the 1750s, and increasing commoditisation of bison products caused by the emergence of a European commercial market for wildlife products by the 1820s, contributed to the near extinction of the bison…. Native peoples traded bison hides for Euro-american commodities, with the market in bison robes reaching a peak in the 1840s. Hide hunters began to significantly participate in the market hunting of plains bison in the 1850s, and by the 1890s had decimated the herds. Even bones were cleaned for sale to the eastern fertilizer market, an activity that continued to 1906….

The bison is now extirpated from its original range across North America. Extirpation is a word ecologists use to refer to a species that no longer exists naturally in a particular area. In the case of the American bison, it no longer roams wild across an unlimited range, so it is considered extirpated—although it is not extinct. Extinct, in this context, means individuals of that species no longer exist.

Now, however, modern land use, including roads, communities, fields, and fenced pastures, mean that today’s bison cannot roam and graze as they did prior to this development. As the IUCN report notes:

Bison can best achieve their full potential as an evolving, ecologically interactive species in large populations occupying extensive native landscapes where human influence is minimal and a full suite of natural limiting factors is present. While such conditions remain available in the north of the continent, it is challenging to find extensive landscapes for restoring and sustaining large free-roaming wild bison populations in southern, agriculture-dominated regions. [page 2]

In the final summary, the report concludes:

The next 10-20 years present opportunities for conserving American bison as a wild species and restoring it as an important ecological presence in many North American ecosystems. Taking an ecosystem approach, which puts people and their natural resource use practices at the centre of decision-making, offers a paradigm for balancing the sometimes competing demands of bison conservation, the use of bison and biological diversity by people, and sustaining human communities in areas where there are many resource users combined with important natural values. To achieve ecological restoration at broad scales (large herds roaming across vast landscapes, at numerous locations) will require flexible approaches that can be adapted to a variety of legal and socio-economic conditions. Assembling large landscapes for conservation herds will typically involve several land tenure holders, potentially including public agencies, tribal governments, non-profit private organisations, and for-profit corporations or individual entrepreneurs. Diverse mandates, interests, and incentives will influence how stakeholders choose to manage land and wildlife, including bison. Creative new approaches are needed for forging enduring partnerships among land tenure holders for cooperative undertakings. Strategies may range from top-down government programmes to bottom-up market-based or cultural-based initiatives. Progress towards large-scale restoration will require a much more supportive framework of government policies and significant investment by both public and private sectors. Awareness and substantial public support are necessary at both the local level where restoration occurs, and among national constituencies for whom the bison is an iconic component of North America’s natural and cultural heritage. For ecological restoration of bison to be successful, careful assessment and understanding of biophysical, social, economic, legal, and political conditions are required for planning and implementation. This is particularly true where both community and agency support and involvement are required. This chapter provided guidelines for planning and implementing an ecological restoration project for bison, including feasibility assessment, selection of stock, preparation and release methods, assessing socio-economic and legal requirements, monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation. [page 112]

Although viable preservation of the species is the focus of the IUCN report, it also provides a good summary of the past of the American bison in North America, including a review of our understanding of human occupation of the Great Plains. Bison are known archaeologically from the Southeast, and bison trails are commonly believed to have been been incorporated into networks of human foot-trails (which later became the routes of roads and railroads).

Why do you think bison trails would have been used by humans?

Image from Symposium Poster, available here online.

The Center for the Study of the Civil War Era cordially invites you to attend the 7th Annual Symposium on New Interpretations of the American Civil War, titled Alternative Southern Realities: African Americans and the American Civil War. The meetings will be held at Kennesaw State University, on March 19–21, 2010. The symposium is open to the public. Regular registration is $25.

The symposium will explore categorical themes of enslavement, abolitionism, resistance, freedom, memory, identity, soldiering, and battlefield tactics and strategies.  Distinguished national and international scholars will present innovative and relevant Civil War era research in  anthropology, American Studies, African American Studies, battlefield archaeology, medical history, military history, and social history.

Speakers

The keynote speaker is John Vlach, professor of American Studies and Anthropology at George Washington University. His expertise lies in material culture, folklore, and the African Diaspora. He has published several books, including Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery, The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts, and The Planter’s Prospect: Privilege and Slavery in Plantation Paintings. He has served as guest curator and consultant to numerous museums for the past thirty years. He has developed exhibitions for art museums, historical societies and libraries from coast to coast including the National Museum of American History and the Library of Congress.

Other notable presenters include Erskine Clarke (Columbia Theological Seminary), Allison Dorsey (Swarthmore College), and Margaret Humphreys (Duke University), Gregory Mixon (University of North Carolina-Charlotte), Thavolia Glymph (Duke University), David S. Reynolds (CUNY/Baruch College), Charmayne Patterson (Kennesaw State University), Samuel Livingston (Morehouse University), Patricia Davis (Georgia State University), Garrett Silliman (Edward Pittman Environmental, Inc., and an SGA member), and James Yancey (Jimmy Carter Presidential Library).

Symposium events

Additional symposium events include a demonstration by the 54th Massachusetts Reenactment Regiment, Co. I (Charleston, SC) at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, a performance by the Georgia Spiritual Ensemble, and optional tours, i.e. African American Heritage Tour or the Atlanta History Center Tour of the Turning Point Civil War Exhibit.

Symposium sponsors and supporters

This symposium is sponsored through a joint partnership with Kennesaw State University’s Center for the Study of the Civil War Era, National Park Service/Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, and the Georgia Humanities Council. Co-conveners and supporters include Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, The Atlanta History Center, Stevan Crew Associates, Old Zion Baptist Church Museum, Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network, Historic Mable House, and the City of Acworth.

Registration

Click here to go to the Symposium web page, where you can download the Civil War Symposium Program Booklet and the Symposium Poster. You can register by clicking here.

Symposium Registration fee: $25 (student discount available)
Lunch: $10 per day
Tours: $25
Symposium Poster: $10, or download for free here.

For additional information, go to the Symposium web page or call 678.797.2551.

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 website is chock-full of interesting information about this very unusual Woodland and Mississippian community….

Scot Keith—an SGA member—who is spearheading the preservation efforts that accompany the Places in Peril designation, authored a brief summary of recent research at Leake for our website.

Of course, at bartowdig.com, you’ll find all the details!

This article was first published in HPD’s Preservation Posts, Issue 9, February 2010. Click here to see the original.

One of the most difficult, but most important, sailing evolutions is called “coming about.” Coming about involves swinging the bow of the boat through the wind to sail in another direction, or “tack.” The evolution starts when the person steering the vessel, the helmsman, shouts, “prepare to come about,” which warns the crew to ready themselves. Crewmen scramble to their places, and a few moments later, the helmsman shouts the command “coming about!” and shoves the rudder hard over. The bow swings sharply through the maneuver and then settles down. This evolution takes only a few moments, after which the boat is now racing in a new direction, or tack.

HPD is going through a similar evolution as this issue of Preservation Posts “goes to press.” We have shoved the helm over, changed tack, and are in that moment when the boat’s bow is starting to settle on to a new course. To understand why this change in course was necessary we have to turn to the division’s history.

HPD was born as the Georgia Historical Commission in 1951. In 1973, the Commission was incorporated into the new Department of Natural Resources. Two trends emerged in the late 1980s that were to continue for the ensuing decades. First, there was a steady increase in projects reviewed under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) as federal agencies increased their permitting and other undertakings in the state. Second, additional duties and responsibilities outside the NHPA were assumed. In 1994, the Historic Preservation Section became the Historic Preservation Division when it was broken out from the Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites Division.

From the inception of the Historical Commission right through to the present, the general organization of HPD did not change. Essentially it was a team of subject matter experts reporting to the Director, creating a very flat organizational structure.

As a result of this flat organizational structure, the Director was so involved in the daily operations of the Division that it was impossible to manage institutional relationships and identify new opportunities for HPD to make greater contributions to historic preservation in the state. To return to our sailing analogy, the Director was trying to helm the ship and rig the sails at the same time—an impossible task. In addition, there was little opportunity for professional development of staff members.

To meet this challenge we have reorganized our internal structure as well as many of our business functions. Our new organization is more hierarchical, with three Sections: Historic Resources, Archaeology, and Operations. Responsibility for day-to-day office functions now rests in the hands of our Section Chiefs. Richard Cloues is our Historic Resources Chief, Candy Henderson is our Operations and Outreach Chief (which includes outreach, grants, and the Georgia African American Heritage Preservation Network), and we currently have a vacant Archaeology Section Chief position. (For more on this position including application information, click here.)

HPD’s new organizational structure provides two major benefits. First, it offers staff options for assuming additional responsibilities and furthering their careers. Just as important, by instituting an executive team it gives the Director the opportunity to focus on the big picture: managing relationships, finding new opportunities, and generally, steering the ship.

Already the new structure is yielding benefits. HPD is becoming more nimble because daily resource management decisions are made more quickly. At the same time, larger policy issues are addressed more efficiently because the Director, supported by the executive team, can focus on gathering the necessary information to make critical decisions.

The organizational changes that have taken place are only the beginning, however. We are also making changes in our business functions, addressing staff development issues, forging new relationships, and reinvigorating old ones. Look for more on the new HPD in upcoming issues of Preservation Posts.

The Florida Public Archaeology Network has been established by the Florida legislature to provide, among other things, public outreach. The East Central Region of FPAN has posted online various teacher resources, including PDFs of two books of hands-on archaeology activities that teachers can use. Both are titled Beyond Artifacts….

The link directly to the page where those books can be downloaded is here.

Archaeological sites contain irreplaceable information. Sites are nonrenewable and finite. They can only be excavated once. There is no second chance to recover the important information concealed in the soil. Our precious hidden heritage is vulnerable to erosion and deliberate destruction. Consider the following—Augusta Archaeological Society President John Arena writes with unfortunate news:

A few years ago the Archaeological Conservancy purchased Stallings Island, filled in looters pits, put goats and donkeys placed on the island to control the vegetation, and put a fence around the mound. The Archaeological Conservancy then approached the Augusta Archaeological Society and asked us if we would be site stewards for Stallings Island. Since then, we have periodically inspected the island to check on the animals and also check for looting. AAS member Bobby Brassell and I recently visited the island and found new evidence of looting. We found a couple of small holes inside the fence and a couple of larger holes outside the fence. This was the first evidence of looting we have found in approximately two years.

Looter pit documented by John Arena and Bobby Brassell in winter 2009/2010 on Stallings Island.

This looting, which is the deliberate destruction of archaeological deposits, is illegal. It is illegal because the private landowner has not given written permission for this ground-disturbing activity.

Private-public partnerships in archaeological stewardship are more common in the US Southwest, where there are vast expanses of public lands, many archaeological sites, and few staff members to oversee the land.

Without doubt, our hidden heritage is difficult to protect. Places that are isolated are particularly at risk to disturbance and destruction. The AAS’s stewardship of Stallings Island is an important undertaking.

Can you think of other practical methods archaeological site stewards can use to discourage looters and be more effective caretakers of our hidden past?

Click here to take a look at Resources at Risk: Defending Georgia’s Hidden Heritage, a special issue of Early Georgia published in May 2001, for more on archaeological stewardship and site destruction.

The blog is here. The blog’s title is Archaeology, Museums and Public Outreach.

The blogger is Robert Connolly, Director of the C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa in Memphis, Tennessee.

And, on February 8th, 2010, he gave thesga.org and the ArchaeoBus a rave review. His comments include many links to pages throughout the website. In part, he writes:

My favorite unique contribution on the SGA website is the Weekly Ponder column. Now in its second year, the column provides updates on archaeological site excavations, preservation issues, discusses the veracity of historic documents, and current trends in archaeology, to name but a few of the topics covered.

He continues:

The SGA website is an excellent “one-stop-shopping” site for bringing archaeology to the public in Georgia.

Thank you Mr. Connolly! Thoughtful blogs like yours are a welcome addition to the blogosphere!

SGA leadership touring Sapelo Lighthouse.

When the SGA leadership visited the coast in February 2010, many of us also toured Sapelo Island with archaeologist Dr. Ray Crook, who has worked on the island for decades. We took the morning ferry out underovercast skies, watched the sun arrive with us at the island dock, and returned to the mainland late in the afternoon. We took a break to enjoy a Geechee lunch at mid-day.

We met at the Sapelo Island Visitor Center, which is next to the ferry dock north of Darien. The Center has some informational displays, a telescope we used to spot the incoming ferry to time our exit into the chilly wind to wait for the ferry’s arrival, and books and souvenirs for sale.

We were very lucky to take the “new” ferry, a 70-foot long catamaran named the Katie Underwood. Ms. Underwood was the last midwife on the island, who delivered babies there through 1968. The Katie Underwood began ferry service in 2006.

On the island, our first stop was Long Tabby, which is also where the Sapelo Island Post Office is, along with DNR offices, and the tabby ruins of Thomas Spalding’s sugar mill, built by 1809. Spalding also owned Ashantilly, the plantation on the mainland where we convened our SGA meeting the day before. The sugar mill had a warehouse-dock combination right next door, for shipping the sugar. The dock is gone except for some pilings, and the warehouse is mostly gone above ground. Ray also told us the plantation architecture is atop a prehistoric occupation. In fact, this is true for many plantation buildings on Georgia’s barrier islands. A good spot is a good spot to anyone, we figured, whether you were staying for a few months to gather food from the estuaries in 1000 BC or build a tabby sugar mill in the early AD 1800s.

The lighthouse at the south end of the island has deep red and brilliant white stripes; it is one of five remaining lighthouses on Georgia’s barrier islands. The lighthouses were built to make commercial shipping safer. US lighthouses are all painted with distinct, unduplicated patterns so mariners never will confuse them. The building contract for the first lighthouse at the south end of Sapelo was let in 1819. This lighthouse was inactivated after damage by a hurricane in 1898; it was restored and reopened in 1998. The most difficult part of the restoration was reconstruction of the interior curving staircase; each step had to be made and installed before construction of the next one up could begin. Apparently, the 1820 facility grew to include a keeper’s house, cistern, and oil house. Also near the lighthouse is the foundation of an 1898 gun emplacement.

We made a brief stop at the Reynolds Mansion to take photographs. The mansion is owned by the state, and you can rent a room there. According to the Mansion website:

The original Mansion was designed and built from tabby, a mixture of lime, shells and water, by Thomas Spalding, an architect, statesman and plantation owner who purchased the south end of the island in 1802. The Mansion served as the Spalding Plantation Manor from 1810 until the Civil War. It fell into ruin after being damaged by Union attack during the Civil War and was later purchased and rebuilt by Detroit automotive engineer Howard Coffin in 1912. Tobacco heir Richard Reynolds purchased the property in 1934, donating land and facilities to the University of Georgia for marine research. Following Reynolds’ death in 1964 the Mansion and most of the island was obtained by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1975. Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and University of Georgia Marine Research Facilities are still located on the island.

The wing of the Mansion in the pictures encloses a swimming pool. Facing this wing, a sharp-eyed archaeologist spotted an orange tree from the lovely gardens that once surrounded the Mansion. Only remnants of it remain. Archaeologists learn to spot “foreign” vegetation that indicates deliberate planting or horticulture by prior human inhabitants.

Next Ray took us to Behavior Cemetery. Once a slave community with dispersed homes rather than a centralize layout, Behavior is now abandoned and most of the structures are now below-ground archaeological features. The Behavior cemetery is still in use. In fact, a funeral was held the day before we arrived. According to the National Park Service website:

Behavior Cemetery is a unique post-Civil War African American burial ground located in the center, south end of Sapelo Island. It is one-and-one-fourth miles west of Hog Hammock, the sole surviving African American community on the island. The cemetery reflects African American burial customs. Early grave markers include short posts at either end of the graves and epitaphs on wooden boards nailed to the surrounding trees, while more recent tombstones are made of local cement, with some granite and metal funeral home markers.

Ray also taught us the proper way to enter a Geechee cemetery. Geechee refers to the descendents of slaves still living on Sapelo (and in other coastal areas), and maintaining some of their African linguistic and cultural heritage. Geechee peoples believe that spirits occupy the grave yard, and to enter one must first ask the spirits’ permission. Geechee people chose not to live near a cemetery, to keep a safe distance from the spirits.

As Ray has noted (“Gullah-Geechee Archaeology: The Living Space of Enslaved Geechee on Sapelo Island,” in the March 2008 Newsletter of the African Diaspora Archaeology Network:

Geechee people have lived on Sapelo Island for about 250 years. Their exceptionally strong sense of place is permanently connected to the island where they “catch sense” in their youth and are buried when they die. Here they tilled the fields and harvested gardens, fished the tidal creeks, hunted game and gathered plants along the marsh edges and in the forests, and engaged in a variety of work activities. [page 2]

After a Geechee lunch, this one characterized by yellow and orange foods (including canned corn, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, yellow poundcake), we drove north up the west/inland side of the island, wallowing through deep mudholes that had been filled by rains over the previous two days. We stopped at Kenan, a prehistoric archaeological site that Ray told us is the largest mapped archaeological site east of the Mississippi River. The site is civic-ceremonial and residential. Most people lived in homes scattered across a huge area.

Many ruins of the Chocolate plantation are still standing, but only two still have a roof, and therefore any protection from the elements. One is a Sears Roebuck Catalogue Home. The other This presents a difficult historic preservation situation, especially if funds are few or non-existent, as with this state-owned site. As Ray Crook noted in the 2008 newsletter article cited above,

During the late 1790s, the Chocolate tract was farmed by Lewis Harrington with the labor of 68 slaves. In 1802 that property became jointly owned by Edward Swarbreck and Thomas Spalding, who leased out at least a portion of the tract until 1808. Swarbreck, a Danish sea merchant with Caribbean connections who traded in cotton and other commodities, including slaves, then directed his attention to Chocolate. His plantation layout followed a familiar and very formal design…. The Big House, built of tabby, overlooked the Mud River and expansive salt marshes. His residence was flanked by outbuildings and other support structures. Two parallel rows of slave quarters, spaced some 10m apart and separated by a broad open area 50m across, were constructed behind the Big House. Vast agricultural fields extended to the north and south. Evidence of at least nine slave quarters, typically tabby duplexes with central chimneys and finished tabby floors, each side measuring about 4.3m by 6.1m, survives today as ruins and archaeological features at Chocolate. These represent an enslaved population of some 70 to 100 people distributed among at least 18 households…. [page 3]

Deteriorating, roofless structure at Chocolate Plantation.

Archaeological research at Chocolate is detailed in a 2007 report by Nicholas Honerkamp, Ray Crook, and Orion Kroulek titled “Pieces of Chocolate: Site Structure and Function at Chocolate Plantation (9MC96), Sapelo Island, Georgia” and downloadable here. They write that:

Besides presumably raising cotton, there is direct evidence that Swarbreck (or at least his slaves) grew sugar cane and had it processed into molasses and sugar at Thomas Spalding’s sugar mill located on the southern end of Sapelo. In a 12 January 1815 letter to Charles Harris, reproduced here in Appendix A, Swarbreck discusses the virtues of Thomas Spalding’s sugar mill, and the considerable value ($17,600) of the quantity of sugar and molasses that Swarbreck saw in Spalding’s “Curing House.” Swarbreck also mentions that he was sending an example of his own finished product: “Agreeable to your wish, I Present you with a small sample of sugar & molassis that I brought from sapelo Island, manufactur’d by Mr. Spalding from my own Sugar cane which place I left the 7th Inst.”

Tabby construction at Chocolate during Swarbreck’s tenure was an enormous undertaking, unparalleled at any other place on Sapelo Island. Preparation of the tabby mixture – consisting of equal parts of shell, lime from burned shell, and sand – involved collecting salt-free oyster shell from shell midden deposits found at nearby Native American archaeological sites (such as at the Shell Ring and at Long Row Field), transporting it to the construction site, burning a portion of the shell for lime, and preparing the mixture with sand and water to be poured into wall forms to cure. Roughly 1050 cubic meters (~37,000 cubic feet) of shell was brought into Chocolate to construct Swarbreck’s tabby buildings. This volume equals the oyster shell that would be represented in about 350 Native American shell middens, each measuring 3 meters in diameter and 50 centimeters in height. [pages 7-8]

From Chocolate Plantation, we continued farther north to the Sapelo Island Shell Rings, which, for many of us, was the high point of our adventure. This feature is just what it sounds like—a ring of shell deposits. Actually, there are three rings near each other on this part of Sapelo, but we only visited the largest, which is huge at over 100 yards across and more than 9 feet high (larger shell rings are known, though, just not on Sapelo). In the 1950s, archaeologists Antonio Waring and Lewis Larson dug a trench through this shell ring, which reveals that the deposits show layering, with some layers of mostly shell, and other layers with more dark, humic materials mixed with the shell. Probably, because they were mined for their shell to make tabby and road fill, there were more shell rings along the coast than can be found today. Shell rings date (mostly) to the Late Archaic, over five thousand years ago. Evidence suggests people lived atop the ring and discarded the shell between their houses. Most of the shell is oyster, but many other shellfish species are included, including the bones of terrestrial and other marine creatures.

What a great day we had touring Sapelo! Most of us were rather tired as we took the ferry back to the mainland en route to returning to every-day life, but we were also sad to end our adventure on one of Georgia’s barrier islands.

Thank you

Many people made this trip possible, and are owed a big debt of thanks. Thanks!

SGA Board Member Kevin Kiernan did the organizing of the whole weekend. DNR manager Fred Hay organized vehicles and helped with all aspects of our on-island time. Members of the Geechee community opened the cemetery to us and cooked our lunch and brought it to us. And, Ray Crook gave us the benefit of his decades of research, not only on Sapelo, but also along the coast.

 

Online reading on Georgia’s barrier islands

Dr. Crook’s webpage, with downloadable copies of his reports and articles, published since the 1980s.

Dr. Crook’s article on Jekyll Island, on thesga.org website.

Ginessa Mahar’s article on Late Archaic shell rings on St. Catherines Island on this website.

Some University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Laboratory of Archaeology Series Reports detail coastal research.

On Sapelo Island’s past, by the Georgia DNR and by Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve.

On Sapelo, including Chocolate Plantation.

On tabby, a mix of sand, shell, lime, and water that hardens somewhat like cement.

Second call for papers

The Archaeological Society of South Carolina is pleased to Call for Papers for the 36th Annual Conference that will be held on April 9th and 10th 2010. It will be held at USC Columbia in the Business School Auditorium, Room 005. The theme for this year’s conference is Archaeological Sciences. This broad topic was chosen to allow presenters to highlight the diversity of scientific techniques and applications that underlie modern archaeology in their own research and will comprise the first session. A second general session of papers covering archaeological research findings of interest will be presented as well. We encourage and welcome members of the public and professional archaeologists working in the Carolinas or Georgia to submit papers. We recognize that many of the same questions and issues important to South Carolina’s archaeology community cross state borders in our region. 

Deadline and format for submission

We will be accepting submissions for both papers and posters through March 8, 2010. Early submission is encouraged to ensure placement on the schedule. Submissions should include the author(s), title and a brief absract. Please be sure to submit author(s) name(s) as you would like it(them) to appear on the program. The abstract should be no more than 100 words. Please send all submissions to Program Chair Jon Leader by email or call him with questions or comments at 803-576-6560.

Poster awards

Two awards will be given for the first time to the best student poster presentations. The first, $100 in cash and a plaque, will be awarded to the presentation judged “best student poster” by a panel of three judges; the second, a selection of books and a plaque, will be presented to the poster judged “first runner-up” by the panel of judges. The awards will be presented at the Awards Ceremony at the 2010 Annual Meeting.

Keynote speaker

We are very pleased to have Dr. Vincas Steponaitis as our speaker this year. He will be presenting a public lecture on the evening of Friday, April 9th, and a conference paper on the 10th. Dr. Steponaitis is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as chairman of the board for the Archaeological Conservancy (2003-2007), a national nonprofit organization, and has served as president of the Society for American Archaeology (1997-1999), president of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (1990-1992), editor of the scholarly journal Southeastern Archaeology (1984-1987), and on numerous other professional boards and committees. His archaeological research interests focus on the precolonial Indian cultures of the American South, the development of chiefdoms, and the analysis of ancient ceramics. In addition to numerous articles, his books include Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns: An Archaeological Study at Moundville (Academic Press, 1993), and Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom (co-edited with Vernon J. Knight, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998).

Local arrangements are being handled by committee. A catered conference dinner is planned for Saturday evening after the conference ends. The meal will include a vegetarian option. The awards will be made during the meal.

Fees

Conference Registration: $10, Students/Seniors $5
Conference Dinner: $20

Checks should be made payable to the Archaeological Society of South Carolina and reference the ASSC 36th Conference in the memo area. Please send the checks to:

ASSC Annual Conference
ATTN: Helena Ferguson
1321 Pendleton Street
Columbia, SC 29208

SGA member Allen Vegotsky writes on behalf of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society:

I am very pleased to announce that the next presentation the the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society (GAAS) will be given by Scot Keith. He will tell us about “The Leake Site: History and Future of a Prehistoric Ceremonial Center in Northwest Georgia”. The Leake Site is located along the Etowah River near Cartersville, Georgia, and it represents a significant prehistoric mound center. The primary occupation of the site dates to the Middle Woodland period, during which at least three earthen mounds and a large ditch enclosure were constructed. During this period, the site was a gateway city that linked the Southeast and the Midwest regions, functioning as a ceremonial center for peoples from throughout the Eastern U.S. With the exception of portions owned and protected by Bartow County and Cartersville, the significant archaeological deposits at Leake are in jeopardy of being lost to development. In an effort to raise awareness of this significant historic resource, the site was recently listed on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril for 2010.

Learn more about the Leake Site and its significance at the next GAAS meeting. The presentation is scheduled for 7:30 PM on Tuesday, February 9th. It will be given at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History (Clifton Road, just north of Ponce de Leon). Prior to the meeting, there will be a “Show and Tell” of artifacts related chronologically to the Leake Site. Hope to see you there.

Read more about the Leake Site on this website by clicking here, or by clicking on the tag for the Leake site in the tag cloud to the right.

The Society for American Archaeology, a national organization with over 7000 members, publishes a newsletter five times each year. The SAA offers that newsletter for free via the Internet. Select the issue you want to read by clicking here.

For issues from 2010 on, when you click on an issue name, its pages appear on a reader, and the issue can also be downloaded as a PDF. For issues prior to 2010, your click will initiate a download.

Perhaps you watched Steve Jobs and other Apple people introduce the iPad on 27 January 2010…. Fans of archaeology might have noted that one of the major demonstrations, of the program Keynote (does a better job of making presentations than the Microsoft program Powerpoint), used the topic “Seven Wonders of the World,” which focused on selected archaeological sites.

Clearly, many people put considerable thought into deciding what to use to demonstrate this new machine.

What does it mean that they chose an archaeological topic to punch their high-profile product introduction?

Here’s the link to watch video-on-demand introducing the iPad….

State Archaeologist Dr. David Colin Crass is the new Director of the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the DNR announced on 27 January 2010. Dr. Crass came to Georgia HPD twelve years ago and is a member of the SGA. Dr. Crass succeeds Dr. Ray Luce, who served as Director for ten years, and retired in 2009.

Dr. Crass received his PhD in anthropology from Southern Methodist University, an MA in anthropology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and a BA Cum Laude with Departmental Honors in anthropology from Wake Forest University. Dr. Crass also serves with the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The DNR press release notes:

During the early years of his career with HPD, Crass established a statewide archaeology education and protection program that emphasized partnerships with local citizens, municipalities, and universities as well as integration of archaeology and historic preservation efforts. As Deputy Director, he spearheaded efforts to make HPD’s business functions more efficient. Crass also established a strong working relationship with the Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns, which works with agencies and individuals to ensure protection and interpretation of American Indian cultural sites.

The SGA looks forward to working with Dr. Crass on goals of preservation, outreach, and education common to both the DNR and the SGA.

Here’s the link to the HPD press release.

Archaeologist Jerald Ledbetter records stratigraphic information to provide context for the looted artifacts and bone.

Burke County State Court Judge Jerry Daniel in January 2010 handed down heavy fines on four east Georgia men who pled guilty to multiple counts related to looting a Late Archaic, Stallings culture shell midden site on the Ogeechee River in southern Burke County, Georgia. The four men were apprehended on private land by Georgia Department of Natural Resources Ranger First Class Jeff Billips and Ranger First Class Grant Matherly in late September of 2009. Two were found on the site with digging tools and fled when approached by the rangers. They were caught and charged with criminal trespass and interfering with the duties of an officer. They initially pled not guilty.

The other two men were arrested the next day when they were observed in the act of digging on the site. They had a number of artifacts in their possession, including a bone tool, several spear points and a shell gorget. One of the latter two men was digging through a human burial when caught. They were charged with criminal trespass, digging on an archeological site without permission and littering, and pled guilty to all counts.

In statements made during the sentencing, Judge Daniel said he knew that important archeological sites in Burke County were being badly harmed by site looters and that he wanted to put a stop to this long-standing activity. He also emphasized that the looters were trespassing on private property, and stealing private property, since archaeological sites (with the exception of burials and associated artifacts) under law belong to the landowner. In an attempt to put an end to destructive site looting the judge levied heavy fines and penalties, which included a $1000 fine for each count, a minimum $7384.00 fine to repair the archeological and physical damage to the site, 12 weekends in jail, community service, three years of probation (which requires a surcharge payment of $52/month) and a ban on attending any type of artifact show. After hearing about this heavy sentence, the first two men then pled guilty to avoid potential harsher sentencing in a trial. The three men who live outside of Burke County (one is from Swainsboro and two are from Metter) were banned from Burke County for three years.

All four men have been digging on sites for many years and one acknowledged that he has dug on many sites on the Ogeechee River acknowledged selling artifacts.

Testifying at the sentencing were State Archaeologist Dr. David Crass and Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns (GCAIC) archaeologist Tom Gresham. Crass requested GCAIC involvement in the case, and Gresham was called to the site in early October to document the site and the extent of the looting. He saw numerous piles of Stallings/Thoms Creek pottery, animal bone and chert artifacts left by the looters, as well as spoil piles containing abundant fresh water shell. After the DNR officers gathered the evidence they needed, Gresham and three colleagues mapped the extent of the looting, calculating that about 290 square meters had been disturbed. They also gathered about 47 pounds of bone, 56 pounds of stone artifacts and 82 pounds of pottery. This material is now being analyzed by Jerald Ledbetter and Lisa O’Steen so that some scientific value can be salvaged from the site. The site dates to the Stallings and Thoms Creek cultures of the Late Archaic period, which spans a critical time in Georgia prehistory, from about 3500 to 4000 years ago. This was a time when Indians in the Southeast were becoming more sedentary and began heavily exploiting freshwater shell fish.

Dr. Crass told Judge Daniel that Burke County contains some of the most important Archaic Period sites in Georgia, and that DNR believes an educated and caring private landowner is often the best protection for such sites. He also pointed out that there is an important distinction to be made between wholesale digging and casual surface collecting, and that DNR (and Georgia code) recognizes this distinction.

The Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns actively supported the efforts of DNR’s Law Enforcement Division to prosecute the case and rectify the damage to the site and to the human burials. Although the Council was disappointed that felony charges of burial disturbance were not brought, it was explained that misdemeanor convictions and appropriate penalties in State Court were a better bet than the uncertain outcome of a felony charge in Superior Court.

Tom Gresham notes that these sentences were largely a result of several actions taken by the archeological community in the past two decades. The principal charge was excavating on a site without written permission of the landowner and without notifying DNR. This law was proposed by archeologists in 1993 to allow prosecution without requiring the landowner to press charges. Additionally, the DNR rangers had been trained and sensitized to the problem of site looting and were very effective in gathering evidence and presenting a strong case. Dr. Crass lauded the two rangers and their colleagues, Sergeant Max Boswell and Captain Thomas Barnard, saying that they handled the case with high professionalism.

Third, it is likely that a long running campaign by archaeologists to inform the public about the harm that site looting does to all Georgians created the atmosphere for harsher sentencing.

Society for Georgia Archaeology President Dennis Blanton observes that

the outcome of this case sends all of the right signals: Georgia’s irreplaceable archaeological sites are under siege and require vigilant protection, there is a broad spectrum of our citizens out there that cares deeply about them, and such sites have a critical story to tell about our human forbears. We can only hope that looters will take note and that others will be alert to illegal digging elsewhere in the state.

Tom Gresham remarked that he had never seen such a wide array of punctated and stab-and-drag motifs on the pottery. One sherd alone has five types of punctation. As noted a decade ago by Ken Sassaman, Stallings-like pottery on the Ogeechee River is mostly sand tempered, with very little fiber. Thus, it is more accurately typed as Thoms Creek pottery. Of the approximately 700 sherds collected from the spoil piles, every one is Thoms Creek/Stallings pottery. The animal bone contains a great deal of deer and turtle bone, and only small amounts of bird and other mammal bone. No fish bone has yet been identified. As mentioned, human bone, probably from two individuals, has also been identified.

Illegal digging on shell middens along the Ogeechee River is a long-standing problem, presumably fed by the antiquities market that highly values bone pins often found in shell middens. Ken Sassaman, Kristin Wilson and Frankie Snow wrote an article in the Spring 1995 issue of Early Georgia citing this problem and documenting two looted sites on the Ogeechee River not far from the recently looted site. It is anticipated that the analysis of the pottery, stone and bone from the present site will be described in an article in Early Georgia.

 

A visit to the Bartow History Museum is indeed a trip back in time!

The museum documents the history of northwest Georgia’s Bartow County, spanning more than two hundred years since the Cherokee were the area’s primary residents. Artifacts, photographs, documents and a variety of interactive exhibits tell the story of settlement, Cherokee Removal, Civil War strife and lifestyles of the past.

The Bartow History Museum offers school programs, adult workshops, summer day camps, lectures and book signings, archives and much more. The hours are Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

The BHM is at 13 North Wall Street, in downtown Cartersville.

For more information on the BHM, check their website by clicking here.

There is an admission fee if you’re not a BHM member.

An international working group called INTCAL has announced an updated radiocarbon calibration curve. As Michael Balter notes in ScienceNOW online:

To calibrate the period extending from the present to about 12,000 years ago, the team has used thousands of overlapping tree-ring segments from the Northern Hemisphere, which provide a very accurate check of raw radiocarbon dates and how much they must be corrected. But for dates older than the available tree-ring record, the researchers had to turn to several other, less-precise data sets on ancient CO2 levels, including fossil foraminifers (single-celled organisms that secrete calcium carbonate) and corals.

The new curve is called IntCal09, and is available here.

The technical article, published in the December 2009 issue of the journal Radiocarbon, is here (lead author is Reimer), but is not free.

Full reference

Reimer, Paula J., Mike G.L. Baillie, E. Bard, Alex Bayliss, J. Warren Beck, Paul G. Blackwell, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Caitlin E. Buck, G.S. Burr, R. Lawrence Edwards, Michael Friedrich, Pieter M. Grootes, Thomas P. Guilderson, Irka Hajdas, T.J. Heaton, Alan G. Hogg, Konrad A. Hughen, Klaus Felix Kaiser, Bernd Kromer, F.G. McCormac, Sturt W. Manning, Ron W. Reimer, D.A. Richards, J.R. Southon, Sahra Talamo, Chris S.M. Turney, Johannes van der Plicht, and Constanze E. Weyhenmeyer. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves, 0–50,000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51:1111–50.

Photo by Maggie Villiger; from the the PBS website.

You’re going hunting. You have both arrows and spears. Which do you choose?

After all, as Dr. Veronica Waweru, a research affiliate of the National Museums of Kenya and a postdoctoral fellow at Stony Brook University (NY) whose own research has focused on a site on the Kinangop plateau in Kenya, notes:

To any hunter, putting distance between yourself and prey that might potentially fight back is important. Here, arrows have an advantage over spears. Weapons also need to deliver lethal blows, induce massive bleeding or cause damage to internal organs. Penetration depth is therefore important.

Indeed, Dr. Waweru’s research suggests arrow use began much earlier in Africa than had previously been widely believed—perhaps about 100,000 years ago.

In a PBS blog linked to The Human Spark program series, Dr. Waweru laments:

Modern hunters often add a cocktail of poisons to the shafts of their arrows. These are derived from plants (such as the arrow poison tree) that have wide distribution in Africa. Did prehistoric hunters use arrows to deliver poisons to quarry? We may never know because poisons are unlikely to survive that long.

The Human Spark is a three-part series investigating the topic of human uniqueness hosted by Alan Alda. Read more about the series by clicking here.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/humanspark/about/about-the-series-introduction/35/

The first broadcast of The Human Spark will be on January 6, 13, and 20, 2010.

In mid-December 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the National Park Service is awarding $46.5 million in historic preservation grants to 59 states and U.S. territories.

Let’s face it: $46.5 million is a big pot compared to our household budgets!

Divided among the fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Territories, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, however, that comes out to an average of $788,136 if split evenly among the 59 entities receiving the money.

Georgia’s piece of this historic preservation pie? $902,818. That’s 1.97 percent of the total, and somewhat more than the average award.

Arrow points to Georgia value, when ranked among all states (not all entities receiving funds).

The press release from the Secretary’s office says that the division is “based on a formula that considers the size, population, and number of historic properties of each area.”

According to the press release:

The National Park Service will administer the grants through a fund established under the National Historic Preservation Act. The grants can be used through September of 2011 for historic property inventories, resource protection planning, nominations for the National Register of Historic Places, monitoring Federal historic preservation requirements, technical assistance for those seeking to preserve and protect historic resources, assisting local government preservation programs, and acquisition or development of historic properties.

The press release lists what each state and other entities will receive. The list is titled “Fiscal Year 2010 Historic Preservation Fund Apportionment to States under P.L. 111-88.”

The total received by the states will be $42,826,949, or 92.1 percent of the total. That’s an average of $856,539 for each of the fifty states. Georgia’s portion, $902,818, is slightly above the state average, then. Twenty-one states received more than the average, and none received less than $500,000.

Nine states will receive more than a million dollars; they are California ($1,476,028), New York ($1,344,989), Texas ($1,319,232), Pennsylvania ($1,167,552), Illinois ($1,131,366), Michigan ($1,101,370), Ohio ($1,093,803), Florida ($1,021,027), and Alaska ($1,002,486). Note that all are large in land area (and, except for Alaska, have large populations), and thus may be considered to have more resources than small states. These nine states will receive 22.92 percent of the total grants, and 24.89 percent of the total given to the states. When the grants to these nine states are subtracted from the total, the other fifty entities (that is 41 states and nine non-states) divide $35,842,147, for an average of just under $716,843.

Five states will receive less than $650,000. All are small in land area. They are New Hampshire ($616,382), Rhode Island ($575,378), Hawaii ($571,458), Vermont ($570,562), and Delaware ($525,518).

Generally, the lowest amount went to the nine non-states. They received a total of $3,673,051 and an average of $408,117. Puerto Rico ($640,462) and the District of Columbia ($522,668) were the only non-state entities receiving more than $500,000.

The SGA members know that the Department of the Interior is responsible for many, many historical and archaeological resources. As Secretary Salazar is quoted in the press release:

Preserving and celebrating our nation’s rich history is a vital part of the Department of the Interior’s mission. These grants from the Historic Preservation Fund will assist state, tribal and local governments in telling their stories while providing both cultural and economic benefits to their communities and to the nation as a whole.

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On 27 December 2009, the online version of Charleston’s Post and Courier published a fascinating story by Tony Bartelme titled “Research on Hunley spurs new discoveries.”

The Hunley is of course the H.L. Hunley Confederate Civil War submarine, which sunk near Charleston in February 1864, and was found by a diver in 1995. The approximately forty-foot submarine was raised in 2000. Since then, its preservation has been a major problem.

As Bartelme notes:

Iron and seawater have a complex relationship, one that sometimes resembles a love story with an unhappy ending.
Put a piece of iron, such as a submarine, in the ocean, and iron and water begin to merge, with iron swapping its ions with chloride ions in the seawater. As long as the iron stays under water, this relationship is stable, and the iron stays well preserved.
But if you remove the iron and expose it the air, the romance turns bad; new and often violent reactions begin as the iron oxidizes. After being pulled from the sea, old cannonballs have been known to spontaneously combust.
On the Hunley, metal shavings collected during the removal of some rivets got so hot they burned plastic bags. Had the sub’s conservators removed the Hunley from the sea and left it alone, the sub would be a pile of dust today, Mardikian said.

Conservators are now using a subcritical reactor, which acts like a pressure cooker to super-pressurize water, and improve preservation by reducing corrosion. Despite the name, there is no radioactivity involved in using the subcritical reactor.

Instead, it creates pressures 50 times higher than what might be found in the open air, and this intense pressure causes materials to react differently. The boiling point for water, for instance, shoots from 212 degrees Fahrenheit to 392 degrees.

Read the full story by Bartelme by clicking here.

Between 2004 and 2006, Southern Research conducted two separate data recovery investigations at the Leake site, located in the Etowah River floodplain just southwest of Cartersville in Bartow County. Conducted for the Georgia Department of Transportation, Bartow County Water Department, and Georgia Power, both of these data recovery projects were limited to the newly expanded right-of-way in advance of the widening of Highways 61/113. Through mechanical stripping and test unit excavation, the data recovery excavations uncovered approximately 4,650 square meters of the site.

The Leake site is comprised of state sites 9BR2, 663, 664, 665, 666, 667, and 668 and covers at least 115 acres; three sites (9BR17, 24, and 194) on Ladds Mountain across the river appear to have been important components of the Leake cultural landscape as well. The primary occupation dates to the Middle Woodland period circa 300 B.C. – 650 A.D, while a significant Late Mississippian village component, investigated by David Hally, Jim Rudolph, and Jim Langford during the 1988-1990 University of Georgia field schools, is present in the area of Mound A. Investigations at Leake have documented significant archaeological deposits, including the remains of three mounds, extensive midden deposits, structural remains, craft production and ceremonial feasting deposits, and a probable circular ditch/moat enclosure. With each end appearing to connect to the river, the ditch enclosure situates Mounds A and B on an island and separates the Cartersville and Swift Creek components. Non-local and ideologically-valuable artifacts indicative of Hopewellian interregional interaction, such as Ohio Flint Ridge blades, human and animal figurines, cut mica, copper, galena, and quartz crystals are present at the site, particularly within the Swift Creek area of the site. The cultural and geographical positioning were important factors for the development of Leake into a major Hopewellian ceremonial center that linked the Southeast and the Midwest during the Middle Woodland period. In short, the data indicate that the Leake site served as a gateway city between these two regions, a place where peoples from both areas congregated for rituals and ceremonies.

The Leake site complex is an archaeological resource of state (and national) significance. With this in mind, it was at the Fort Daniel Faire in Gwinnett County that the idea for attempting to place the site on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2010 Places in Peril listing was born (Fort Daniel was on the 2009 Places in Peril list). The Places in Peril list includes historic resources in Georgia that are in danger of being destroyed, whether from neglect, development, or otherwise. In conversation with Larissa Thomas at the Faire, The Profile editor, revealed that the Trust was looking for an archaeological site for inclusion on the Places in Peril list, which predominantly lists above-ground historic resources. Larissa introduced me to Jordan Poole, Georgia Trust Field Services Manager and director of the Places in Peril, who encouraged me to submit the Leake site for consideration. Dean Wood and I completed and submitted the application, and a few months later we learned that the site was chosen.

While the site boundary has never been systematically defined, the known area of the Leake site extends across several different ownership parcels. Significant portions of the site are owned by the City of Cartersville and Bartow County, both of whom have done an outstanding job of protecting their parcels. However, the preservation of several privately-owned parcels is in doubt, as the Leake site area is being rapidly developed. Although the known extent of the site does not extend to the north much beyond the railroad tracks, the area north of the railroad is an industrial park. Given the nature of the Leake site, it is not unlikely that related deposits are present north of the tracks, and there is some evidence of a fourth mound north of the railroad adjacent the river.

Less than 30 years ago, there were no modern buildings within the known boundaries of the site (see 1981 aerial photograph). By the time of the first UGA field school in 1988, one had been erected east of Mound A, while two were constructed in the area of Mound C, one of which sits atop the northern half of Mound C. By the late 1990’s when Southeastern Archaeological Services tested the site, two modern buildings had been erected in the area of Mounds A and B.

During the course of the data recovery excavations, the City was looking into purchasing a two-acre parcel on which a portion of Mound A is located. However, the landowner of the adjacent parcel, who operates a business on the site, purchased the two-acre parcel, an immediate threat to Mound A due to his plans to expand the parking lot. Already having graveled over the northern portion of Mound A on the existing parcel, the future of the southern portion of Mound A was in serious doubt. Thus, a group of concerned persons worked to get the City to swap an adjoining non-mound parcel they own with the business owner. While the southern portion of Mound A was protected in this manner, a large area immediately southwest of this mound (including a portion of the ditch) is now under the expanded parking lot.

Further, piecemeal attrition of the site has continued. The northeastern corner of the site, an approximately 6 acre area contained by the ditch feature and bounded by the highway and River Court has recently been developed despite the documented presence of a midden in this area.

During the coming year, we plan to use the exposure and support from the Places in Peril listing to raise awareness of the site in hopes that the remaining portions can be protected. We plan to conduct educational meetings in the community and with county and city officials to raise support for protection of the site. We plan to have an event at the site for the 2010 Archaeology Month. We will be doing interviews, we are forming a “Friends of the Leake Site” group (we have an informal one on Facebook), we will be regularly updating the website about Leake, and we will be giving talks and lectures. Perhaps most importantly, our goal is to raise money to purchase the privately-owned parcels for preservation. So spread the word, get involved, help us out, so that we can protect the remaining portions of the Leake site from being lost. Please do not hesitate to contact Scot Keith (home email, work email) or Dean Wood (work email) for more information.

The Savannah River Archaeological Research Program is seeking information about prehistoric metavolcanic stone quarries in the Carolina Slate Belt Region in South Carolina. As this map shows, the Carolina Slate Belt Region is prominent in the Carolinas, and extends southward into Georgia.

For more information or to convey information about quarry locations, call Christopher R. Moore at 803.725.5227, or email him by clicking here.

Download an announcement with more information by clicking here.

Read Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cameron McWhirter’s story “Science digs into Civil War sites,” dated 28 November 2009 by clicking here.

The story discusses how public archaeologists are using modern technologies to discover new information from Civil War sites. Most of the article stems from an interview with SGA member Garrett Silliman, and also mentions SGA member Dan Elliott.

The precision this technology offers is startling. To demonstrate, Silliman picked up a small plastic bag on his desk. Inside was a bullet that he recently recovered from a site at Tanyard Creek in Buckhead. Through global positioning he knew the exact location where the bullet was found. Examining its markings, he was able to tell it was a British-made bullet fired from model 1853 Enfield rifle. Because it was slightly marked, he could tell it had been rammed into a gun that had been fouled, probably from being shot a lot that day. Because the lead bullet didn’t have any impact marks, he could tell it had not hit a target, but probably just traveled through the air, then dropped to the ground. Military records showed fighting at that location. Using mapping software showing modern Atlanta overlaid with Civil War fortifications, he traced back 1,100 to 1,300 yards—the distance an Enfield-fired bullet would travel—to Rebel earthworks.

The online version of Jacksonville’s The Florida Times-Union published a story on the Society’s own ArchaeoBus on 24 November 2009, saying:

Glynn County students are getting an education this week without have to dig for it.

Check out the full story here, including four pictures taken by Terry Dickson.

View east down Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street, from Google Earth, a free downloadable program.

If you want to have coffee in an historic eighteenth century coffeehouse, you can now do so! The drinks that are offered are tea, chocolate, and, of course, coffee!

R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse was dedicated at Colonial Williamsburg on the afternoon of Friday, November 20th, 2009. The present building is rebuilt from the ground up. The original structure is only known from archaeological and archival data. Notes the Colonial Williamsburg website and press release:

Archaeological evidence recovered from the coffeehouse site reflects the importance of fine dining as well as the consumption of tea, coffee and chocolate. Charlton offered an epicurean menu that included fish, shellfish, all kinds of meat and game, even peacock. Besides hot beverages, patrons could choose from a section of wines, beer and spirits. A fragment of a Cherokee pipe suggests the presence of Indians who may have been part of an official delegation. Other finds include a number of wig curlers, indicating Richard Charlton’s connection to the wig-making business, and several bones from an anatomical skeleton that was likely used in scientific presentations.

R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse is built on its original foundations with 18th-century construction techniques and in compliance with modern building codes. The finished reconstruction will appear as close to the original structure as historical, archaeological and architectural evidence permits. It incorporates substantial portions of the building’s original brick foundations. The one-and-a-half-story framed portion of the building—35 feet square—is constructed of hand-sawn timber framing covered with cypress weatherboards and white cedar roof shingles. A central brick chimney allows two of the three first floor rooms to have functional fireplaces, while in the cellar a massive hearth is the central feature of the reconstructed kitchen. Research indicates that at least two of three first floor rooms were used for serving food and beverages which were prepared in the cellar. Other rooms on the first and second floors may have been rented or used for lodging or living quarters.

The general history page of the Colonial Williamsburg website notes:

Williamsburg was the thriving capital of Virginia when the dream of American freedom and independence was taking shape and the colony was a rich and powerful land stretching west to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes. For 81 formative years, from 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political, cultural, and educational center of what was then the largest, most populous, and most influential of the American colonies. It was here that the fundamental concepts of our republic—responsible leadership, a sense of public service, self-government, and individual liberty—were nurtured under the leadership of patriots such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and Peyton Randolph.

Tickets to Colonial Williamsburg start at $36 for adults, so your visit to R. Charlton’s Coffeehouse will not be inexpensive, but where else can you enjoy am eighteenth-century style coffeehouse!

Maps, a video of the coffeehouse, and an online tour can also be found at the Colonial Williamsburg website.

All photos used in this story are copyright 2009 by Colonial Williamsburg, and were obtained from their website.

Listening to the hype over the movie “2012,” some people are wondering if the Maya have predicted the end of the world in that year.

If you believe archaeologists, no. As the New York Times reports:

Mayan time was cyclic, and experts like Dr. [Ed] Krupp and Anthony Aveni*, an astronomer and anthropologist at Colgate University, say there is no evidence that the Mayans thought anything special would happen when the odometer rolled over on this Long Count in 2012. There are references in Mayan inscriptions to dates both before the beginning and the ending of the present Long Count, they say, just as your next birthday and April 15 loom beyond New Year’s Eve, on next year’s calendar.

If you believe NASA, no. Their website says, “Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012.”

* More on Anthony Aveni, a astronomer and Maya researcher, here on the Colgate University website.

Early European settlers were impressed by the productivity and sustainability of Native American agriculture in the Northeast. Today, as farmers begin to come to grips with the consequences of modern, mechanized agriculture, i.e., soil compaction, erosion, the run-off of fertilizers and top soil, and the cost of petro-chemicals to boost production, agronomists and some Native Americans are revisiting the techniques of 300 years ago to test their advantages.

This is how David J. Minderhout and Andrea T. Franz begin their article, “Native American Horticulture in the Northeast,” published in the Spring 2009 General Anthropology Bulletin of the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association, available here (currently free from Wiley InterScience).

They briefly summarize archaeologists’ current understanding of prehistoric agriculture and food preparation in Northeastern North America, with an eye to modern practices and our current food production situation. They note, for example, that, “Research also shows that intercropping, i.e., growing several crops in the same field, produces a diverse plant environment that is more resistant to drought and attacks by pests and plant diseases.”

One message that can be drawn from the information these authors present is that pre-modern innovations, methods, and techniques can provide us with important lessons relevant to the present.

The American Anthropological Association was founded in 1902 and “is the world’s largest organization of individuals interested in anthropology,” according to their website. Membership is approximately 10,000, with annual meetings attended by around 5000 individuals.

On November 4th 2009, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation announced its 2010 list of Georgia’s top ten Places in Peril, which includes the Leake Archaeological Site, a rich Middle Woodland and Late Mississippian-period prehistoric settlement on the outskirts of Cartersville. According to the Trust’s press release:

Located in the Etowah Valley Historic District in Bartow County, the Leake site is a prehistoric archaeological site dating as far back as 300 BC. The site contains the remnants of at least three earthen mounds and a vast moat; midden deposits with artifacts from everyday and ceremonial activities; former structures; and human burials.

The site began as a small domestic village that developed into one of the most important sites in the Southeast, both as a ceremonial and political hub. The Leake site extends along many different property parcels, some of which have already been industrially or commercially developed. The area surrounding the site is growing rapidly, so the unoccupied tracts of land in the archaeological site are in imminent danger of being destroyed.

The news release goes on:

Places in Peril is designed to raise awareness about Georgia’s significant historic, archaeological and cultural resources, including buildings, structures, districts, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy.

Through Places in Peril, the Trust will encourage owners and individuals, organizations and communities to employ proven preservation tools, financial resources and partnerships in order to reclaim, restore and revitalize historic properties that are in peril.

Read more about what excavations have revealed about this rich archaeological site at the informative website Bartowdig.com. You also may be interested in joining the Friends of the Leake Site group on Facebook.

Scot Keith, an archaeologist who lead recent excavations at the Leake Site, notes, “with help from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and numerous volunteers, we will be conducting many activities in the next year (and beyond) to foster public awareness of the site and its important place in history. This will include public education days at the site, community meetings, interviews, articles, partnerships and grants, research and fieldwork, and regular website updates.”

Food for thought

Why is the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril list necessary? What can you do to help other Places in Peril and the Leake Site?

The Fort Daniel Foundation has scheduled its annual meeting for 7:00 pm on December 15th at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center (GJAC) in Lawrenceville in the 2nd floor conference room center. It will be the first official annual meeting and voting will take place for officers, etc. For those of you who have not joined the Fort Daniel Foundation and would like to do some as a founding member, you may do so until then end of this meeting. Remember, you must be a member in order to vote!

The Fort Daniel Foundation (FDF), founded in 2009, is a nonprofit organization composed of professional and avocational archaeologists, descendents of militiamen associated with Fort Daniel during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and interested members of the general public. Our mission is to preserve the Fort Daniel archaeological site by promoting the creation of the Fort Daniel Historic Site and Archaeological Research Park, as a permanent archaeological research preserve available to researchers, historians and educators.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society has scheduled a field trip to the Roswell Mills site for Sunday, November 15. Archaeologist Jim D’Angelo, who conducted limited excavations at the site in 2008, will lead the walking tour, which will follow existing trails, including the recently constructed trail through the ruins of second 1853 mill. The tour will begin at 1 pm departing from the Old Mill parking lot at the end of Mill Street. Click here, here, and here for general information on Roswell and the mills, as well as directions.

Though this field trip is limited to historic sites along the Vickery Creek trail, there is a lot more to see in Roswell including Barrington Hall, the Visitor’s Center at the head of Sloan Street and other sites. The tour will only be a couple of hours so you may want to take in some of these other points. The Visitor’s Center will have information on these. In fact, if you can get to Roswell a half hour before the tour, it would be worthwhile to stop in the Visitor’s Center as they have a scale model of the mills along the creek and other information on the mills.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society will be having work day at Fort Daniel this Saturday, November 14, weather permitting, beginning about 9:30 am. For those who have not been out there before, this is an opportunity to see the excavation in process—feel free to come and help!

This is not, however, a public archaeology day. Contact Jim D’Angelo for more info especially if it looks like a torrential downpour as that is what it will take to cancel it (his words).

Image is a terrain map of Iraq from Google Maps.

Staff Sgt. Luke Koladish, 114th Public Affairs Detachment, writes that Sgt. Ronald Peters, a geospatial analyst whose hometown is Fort Lewis, Washington, with Multi-National Corps – Iraq C-7, has been mapping the archaeological sites of Iraq in his spare time. The article was published online on the Operation Iraqi Freedom’s official website of the Multi-National Force—Iraq on October 27th (2009).

Writes Koladish:

“Back in June, one of the engineers working on future operations wanted to see all the archeological sites in Iraq,” Peters recalled. “Everybody knows this is the cradle of civilization. There’s Babylon, Ur, some pretty famous archeological sites in Iraq.”

As bases were closed and troops withdrew from cities, the existing bases needed to expand, without infringing on historical sites.

Although the country is estimated to have some 12,000 archaeological sites, Peters has mapped only 800.

Closes Koladish:

Peter’s ongoing effort to preserve Iraq’s archeological sites is now part of the U.S. military’s diligence in caring for the ancient sites and history of the Iraqi people as U.S. forces withdraw from the country.

Read Koladish’s full article by clicking here.

The Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources is moving back into state offices at the end of this month. As a result, the office will have limited service on October 26-27, will be closed October 28 through November 3rd, and will have limited service November 4-6.

From November 1, 2009 on, their new address will be 254 Washington Street, SW / Ground Level / Atlanta, GA 30334.

Their press release notes:

All phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses will remain the same. Our new building is at the corner of Trinity and Washington streets facing Atlanta City Hall.

The Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta announces a lecture by SGA President and Fernbank Curator of Native American Archaeology Dennis Blanton, to be held on Sunday, November 1st, at 4 pm. The lecture is titled “De Soto’s Footsteps: New Archaeological Evidence in Georgia.”

The Fernbank press release says:

Hear first hand from Fernbank archaeologist Dennis Blanton as he discusses newly discovered Spanish artifacts and their significant contribution to our understanding of early Georgia History.

Fernbank archaeological expeditions have recovered elusive evidence of Europe’s expansion into the New World nearly 500 years ago. Rare artifacts of Spanish origin are turning up at an excavation in southeast Georgia where no one expected to see them. An unusually large number of metal objects and jewel-like glass beads, characteristic of the period 1500-1550, have been found in and around a surprisingly large Native American building. The findings are indicative of a place where initial, face-to-face contact occurred between exploring Spanish and native Indian people. The most plausible source of the Spanish artifacts is none other than the infamous conquistador, Hernando de Soto, who led a small army through the area of Georgia in 1540.

Access a PDF of the lecture announcement by clicking here.

You must pay the Museum admission fee to attend, unless you are a Museum member. Read more about the event at the Fernbank website by clicking here.

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.

Download or review this booklet by visiting this webpage.

Or click here to access the booklet PDF directly.

This booklet compliments the book, Grave Intentions: A Comprehensive Guide to Preserving Historic Cemeteries in Georgia, by Christine Van Voorhies. This book is available in print only, and cannot be downloaded as a PDF. Grave Intentions is a small, easy-to-read guidebook with, as the HPD website notes:

…great information on cleaning up a graveyard and tombstones, getting access to gravesites, funding your project, handling threats to graves, and legal issues.

Preservation Georgia Online for September 12–18, 2009, lists the four grants funded through statewide preservation license tag sales. The four SFY 2010 Georgia Heritage Grants total $46,285.

They include:

• • Friends of Calhoun’s GEM Theatre, Inc. for plaster ceiling repair in the GEM Theatre in Gordon County—$14,985
• • City of Hawkinsville for window repair at the Hawkinsville Opera House in Pulaski County—$10,500
• • Jenkins County Board of Commissioners for a historic structure report of the Jenkins County Courthouse—$10,800
• • Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation Development Fund, Inc. for a conditions assessment report/preservation plan for Georgia Hall (a National Historic Landmark) in Meriwether County—$10,000

The Online newsletter notes:

Georgia Heritage matching grants are available to local governments and non-profit organizations and provide greatly needed “seed” money for preservation projects all across the state. Due to the current economic situation and its resulting impact on the state budget, the Georgia Heritage appropriation was cut for SFY 2009 and SFY 2010. This year, sixteen applicants requested $257,645 to help preserve the state’s historic resources. The support of the preservation community, evidenced in a very tangible manner through tag sales, enabled four of these worthy projects to be funded.

Visit Georgia Heritage Grants online by clicking here.

To subscribe to this free weekly newsletter, or to submit news items, questions, or comments, email Helen Talley-McRae by clicking here.

Quick: where in the world is the largest concentration of Bronze Age graves?

Read on….

Bahrain is a large island in a shallow bay on the west side of the Persian Gulf called the Gulf of Bahrain. Bahrain’s modern residents can cross a series of causeways that link the island to Saudia Arabia to the west. Most of the island is relatively low-lying, flat, and arid.

Due to the petroleum industry, the country of Bahrain has had a booming economy over the last generation or so. The country also has a strong banking sector. Accompanying population growth has meant the expansion of suburban neighborhoods westward from the capital of Manama, in the northeast part of Bahrain.

New York Times photograph by Shawn Baldwin, captioned “Hundreds of burial mounds near the village of A’ali in Bahrain. The country has the world’s heaviest concentration of graves dating from the Bronze Age.”

This expansion and development threatens a landscape peppered with Bronze Age burial mounds. In fact, in an article published by the New York Times on September 17, 2009, author Michael Slackman says this is “the heaviest concentration of graves dating from the Bronze Age found anywhere in the world.” At present, some 35 areas are set aside to preserve clusters of mounds. Slackman writes:

Most of the graves contain a death chamber shaped like a boot on its side. The body was placed in the fetal position while personal items, ceramic pots, personal seals and knives were stored in the toe. The value of the graves is not, necessarily, in what they contain but in what they tell about the lives, values and funerary practices of an ancient civilization.

Google Earth screen grab of one of A’ali’s larger mound fields, now split by a divided highway.

The community of A’ali (also spelled Aali and Ali) is currently favored by middle-class families building new homes on the outskirts of suburban Manama. In UNESCO World Heritage materials online:

The Ali mound field is a large mound field of primarily Late Type divided into two parts by a north-south running highway. At the north end of the burial mound field is a group of huge mounds, called “Royal Mounds”, which have during the growth of the village become part of its urban fabric, so that the immediate neighbourhood of these mounds has been utilized for habitation and small industries, e.g. pottery and lime production.

Historically, Bahrain “is believed to have been the capital of Dilmun, which lay along a trade route linking the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia,” Slackman writes. In fact, Dilmun’s capital may have been what is now the modern community of A’ali, southwest of Manama. Certainly, long-distance trading networks developed early and were extensive throughout this region. Archaeological finds from many locations along the Persian Gulf coast indicate the ongoing presence of Bronze Age merchant ships.

Preservationists have been working with UNESCO to make the mound fields a World Heritage Site, so far without success. Online UNESCO materials note:

The Burial Ensembles of Dilmun and Tylos are the expression of funerary practices of these civilizations which flourished in Bahrain from the mid 3rd millennium B.C. till the mid 1st millennium A.D. and which played essential roles in the organization of trade between Mesopotamia, South Arabia and the Indian subcontinent.

Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News published an article dated August 23, 2009, by Mohammed al A’ Ali. He reported on the clash between the forces for development and those pushing for preservation:

Historic burial mounds in a Bahraini village, which the government hoped to have recognised as a World Heritage Site, will be bulldozed to make way for a new road, houses and a public park. Councillors have successfully argued that 62 mounds in Buri, which date back as far as 4,000 years, were standing in the way of development. However, heritage chiefs are insisting on excavating the area, near Hamad Town, before allowing the bulldozers in.

That’s the story from a distant part of the world.

How about your area? What archaeological remains are threatened near your house or neighborhood? What preservation efforts are underway, if any? Comments?

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.

The Digital Library of Georgia has many useful resources for anyone interested in Georgia’s past. It has been described as a gateway to Georgia’s history and culture through digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, government documents, newspapers, maps, audio, video, and other resources.

The Digital Library of Georgia is based at the University of Georgia Libraries, and is an initiative of GALILEO, the state’s virtual library.

Click here to go to the Digital Library of Georgia main webpage.

Click here to go to the “Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842″ webpage.

Click here to go to the main GALILEO webpage.

Each year the SGA sponsors an archaeology event at CoastFest in Brunswick. This year, in addition to interactive events under the SGA tent, the ArchaeoBus will have its resources available to the thousands of visitors who attend each year.

CoastFest is Georgia’s largest organized celebration of the state’s rich and vast coastal natural resources. Held annually on the first Saturday of October, this day-long educational festival is a free, highly interactive event for the entire family. Hosted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Coastal Resources Division, CoastFest takes place at the division’s headquarters along the Marshes of Glynn in Brunswick, Georgia.

CoastFest is held rain or shine. No pets, please.

Admission: Free
Parking fee: None
Event Phone: 912-264-7218

Location:
Coastal Resources Division of Georgia DNR
One Conservation Way, Suite 300
Brunswick, GA 31520

Presented by:
Coastal Resources Division of Georgia DNR
One Conservation Way, Suite 300
Brunswick, GA 31520

The prehistoric tool called a hand axe is large, and has a sharpened edge all the way around it. The sharpening is on both sides, so it’s a biface. It is found in the Old World and not in the New World.

The Acheulean is a stone tool industry characterized by a particular style of tool-making. Acheulean-style tools are known from across Africa and much of West Asia, and date from approximately 1.65 million years ago to as recent as about 100,000 years ago. The earliest dates for Acheulean tools are from Kenya, in West Africa. The earliest dates for Acheulean artifacts and sites in Europe are much later than the African and Asian dates.

However, Gary R. Scott and Luis Gibert of the Berkeley Geochronology Center in California report paleomagnetic dates for two sites with Acheulean artifacts in southeast Spain are much earlier than previously known. A New York Times article by Henry Fountain dated 2 September 2009 reports that these researchers obtained dates of about 760,000 and 900,000 years old for the sites of Solano del Zamborino and Estrecho del Quípar, in Spain. Samples from the layers with the artifacts and those above and below the artifacts indicates that the artifacts date approximately to the time of the last geomagnetic reversal. That reversal has been dated to approximately 780,000 years ago.

Spain is, of course, on the Iberian Peninsula, which today is separated from northern Africa by the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow body of water that is just under nine miles wide.

So, the question becomes: did the makers of Acheulean tools enter the Iberian Peninsula from the south—that is, from Africa directly—or from the east, following the northern Mediterranean coastline? Fountain writes:

“The question is, which route did they follow?” he said. Rather than coming through the Middle East and then westward, Dr. Gibert said he is convinced they came across at Gibraltar. “We think the Gibraltar straits were a permeable barrier,” he said. “It’s a provocative interpretation, but I think there is enough information to support it.”

What do you think?

NOTE: Scott and Gibert published their original report in Nature. The article is not free, but here’s the abstract:

Stone tools are durable reminders of the activities, skills and customs of early humans, and have distinctive morphologies that reflect the development of technological skills during the Pleistocene epoch. In Africa, large cutting tools (hand-axes and bifacial chopping tools) became part of Palaeolithic technology during the Early Pleistocene (1.5 Myr ago). However, in Europe this change had not been documented until the Middle Pleistocene (<0.5 Myr ago). Here we report dates for two western Mediterranean hand-axe sites that are nearly twice the age of the supposed earliest Acheulian in western Europe. Palaeomagnetic analysis of these two sites in southeastern Spain found reverse polarity magnetozones, showing that hand-axes were already in Europe as early as 0.9 Myr ago. This expanded antiquity for European hand-axe culture supports a wide geographic distribution of Palaeolithic bifacial technology outside of Africa during the Early Pleistocene.

The Georgia Municipal Cemetery Association’s Annual Conference, Tangible Links to Our Past, will be held in Rome, Georgia September 17-18 2009, at the Rome Forum Conference Center, downtown.

Topics include Cemetery Emergency Planning (statewide disaster plan for historic  cemeteries), Cemetery Advocacy (engaging your local officials), Heritage Tourism and Cemeteries. There will also be a tour of Rome’s Myrtle Hill Cemetery, and the GMCA Reception and Dinner.

Late registration is $50 for GMCA Members and $70 for Non-Members.

The conference is co-sponsored and partially funded with a Historic Cemetery Heritage Tourism Grant through the Tourism Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Registration information is available on this webpage.

National Geographic Traveler has highlighted fifty “Drives of a Lifetime.” A route along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts is one of the trips discussed. Several small detours would take you to historic places like the Tybee Island lighthouse.

The NatGeo overview reads:

Tybee Island Lighthouse in 2004.

A pungent, slightly salty smell permeates the air of the Low Country. Its source is the area’s pluff mud: the dark marsh soil left behind after the tide recedes. That smell—and term—is one of the Low Country’s many distinctive qualities. Other features that tend to leave lasting impressions on visitors include the wide, flat expanses of marsh grass, the shrill songs of tree frogs and katydids, the silhouettes of live oak trees, their long, arching limbs shrouded in silvery clumps of Spanish moss. Then there’s the seemingly omnipresent water—tidal marshes, rivers, estuaries, and the Atlantic Ocean—often with at least one shrimp boat trawling. On a road trip through the Low Country, Charleston and Savannah make convenient bookends. Some backtracking is required in between—out to the islands, and then back to the main road—but that just gives you more time to absorb the scenery. After all, this trip should not be rushed, but made slowly, Southern style.

Take this drive and you will see many historic buildings, including at the beginning city of Charleston, and at the end of the route in Savannah. Underground will be the remains of many archaeological sites. A few can be visited at museums and public parks.

After completing the driving tour, you could take short drive seaward from Savannah, and visit Tybee Island, where a series of lighthouses have helped sailors safely enter the Savannah River and go up to Savannah.

The Tybee Lighthouse website notes:

Ordered by General James Oglethorpe, Governor of the 13th colony, in 1732, the Tybee Island Light Station has been guiding mariners safe entrance into the Savannah River for over 270 years. The Tybee Island Light Station is one of America’s most intact having all of its historic support buildings on its five-acre site. Rebuilt several times the current lightstation displays its 1916 day mark with 178 stairs and a First Order Fresnel lens (nine feet tall).

Little known fact reported in the NatGeo story: the jungle scenes in the movie Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, were shot on Hunting Island, South Carolina!

Satellite view of the Poverty Point site, from Google Earth. North is to the right in this screen grab.

Poverty Point is a famous prehistoric mound and village site in far northeast Louisiana, along a terrace adjacent to a tributary of the Mississippi River now called Bayou Marçon. The most dramatic earthen structures are a series of broken concentric arcs; however, several more traditionally shaped circular/rectangular mounds predate the arc-shaped earthworks. The arcs “face” east, or toward the rising sun. In the photo above, east is to the bottom of the image.

This summer (2009), the site, a State Park, hosted a research team lead by Diana Greenlee, of the Department of Geosciences at University of Louisiana at Monroe. According to the online news website thenewstar.com of Monroe, Greenlee and ULM students undertook excavations in the central plaza area to enable them to better understand buried circular features. Greenlee says that they can now date each of the four circles they tested. “We were able to establish that the different magnetic characteristics of the circles in the plaza correspond to different kinds of constructions,” she said, according to thenewstar.com article.

The Poverty Point are dated to the Terminal Archaic, approximately 1650–700 BC. Artifacts from the site include stone tools and other objects that came from afar, so the occupants of the site had access to a long-distance trading network, or traveled far themselves to bring these special objects back home.

The Louisiana park website for Poverty Point includes the text of a 1996 (second edition) volume on the site called “Poverty Point: A Terminal Archaic Culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley” by Jon L. Gibson. The text has been divided for easier loading and reading:

Members of the SGA may be interested in attending a meeting discussing the latest budget reductions to Georgia State Historic Sites. The meeting will be on Tuesday, August 11th, at the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation offices at Rhodes Hall on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, from 10 AM to 2:30 PM.

Review the meeting agenda by clicking here.

For more information, call Jim Langford at 404-285-2001.

Download an archaeological report and list of artifacts recovered during recent research to locate, identify, and determine the level of preservation of as many locales as possible in the City of Savannah that are related to the October 9, 1779 Battle of Savannah. In short, for this research, archaeologists and SGA members Rita and Dan Elliott assembled all map information about the battle, then combined it with a recent digital map of the city to discover where prospecting for intact remains might be productive. They focused ground-truthing in modern green spaces, which again reminds us of another value of green spaces beyond their “greenness.” They examined specific locations in Madison Square, Lafayette Square, Emmet Park, Colonial Park Cemetery, Cuyler Park, Dixon Park, and Myers Park.

The report, authored by the Elliotts, is titled “Savannah under Fire, 1779: Identifying Savannah’s Revolutionary War Battlefield” and is dated June 2009. In part, the report abstract notes:

The project was extremely successful. Archeologists located a defensive ditch (almost two meters deep) dug by the British in 1779, defended during the battle, and in-filled by the Americans in 1782. The ditch lies in what is now Madison Square. Brick fragments/rubble in the ditch was part of the brick from the barracks razed by the British less than two weeks before the battle. The brick was used in the defenses around the Central redoubts and was pushed into the British trenches following the British evacuation of the city in 1782. In nearby Lafayette Square, archeologists discovered artifacts that were likely discarded by British soldiers occupying the defensive lines near and in the Central Redoubts, and by civilians associated with the soldiers. Emmet Park revealed a deep (3.5 ft.) feature that may have been constructed as part of the river battery associated with nearby Fort Prevost. Not only did archeologists discover evidence of numerous unmarked graves in Colonial Park Cemetery, but also an anomaly that appears to be one of the ditches running toward a redoubt. Archeologists found no evidence of Revolutionary War activity in Cuyler, Dixon, and Myers parks.

Perhaps surprisingly, the archaeological resources identified by this research were found to be in excellent condition.

This research was conducted by archaeologists with the Coastal Heritage Society, and primarily funded through the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, with some matching funds from The LAMAR Institute. The Coastal Heritage Society, founded in 1975 and based in Savannah, has three historic archaeological sites: Old Fort Jackson National Historic Landmark, the Savannah History Museum, and the Roundhouse Railroad Museum.

Go to this page to download the report “Savannah under Fire, 1779″ and the project’s artifact catalogue. The report is a large PDF file, over 88 MB.

Overhead satellite view of Herodion/Herodium in screen grab from Google Earth, a free program available via the Internet.

Archaeology abounds in mysteries, a few solved and many, many unsolved.

One of the latter has been the location of Biblical King Herod’s tomb. Historical records introduce details that we would not know if all we had were archaeological data, and thus records—for example, manuscripts, diaries and bureaucratic archives—indicate real events and places that also become archaeological mysteries when we seek to substantiate them.

The cover story of the July 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine discusses the search for Herod’s tomb, assumed from records to be in or around Herod’s fortified mountain-top palace, known variously as Herodion, Herodium, and Jabal al-Fraidees (the latter in Arabic). Barbara Krieger, author of the Smithsonian article, notes:

Ongoing excavations…reveal the impressive variety of facilities that Herod built at his desert retreat, including a royal theater that accommodated some 450 spectators.

In May 2007, an archaeological team headed by Professor Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University “discovered hundreds of red limestone fragments buried in the mountainside”—not in the palace at the top of the mountain.

Reassembling some of the pieces, Netzer concluded they were all that remained of a sarcophagus more than eight feet long with a gabled cover. The high quality of the craftsmanship suggested the sarcophagus was fit for a king. Plus, the extent of the fragmentation suggested that people had deliberately smashed it—a plausible outcome for the hated monarch’s resting place. Based on coins and other items found nearby, Netzer surmises that the desecration occurred during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, from A.D. 66 to 73.

Read the Smithsonian article by clicking here.

Click here to read the May 2007 article announcing the find by ScienceDaily.

Read the Wikipedia entry on this dramatic hilltop archaeological site by clicking here.

The Society for American Archaeology continues to monitor legislative actions, especially at the Federal level. In mid-June, the Society submitted a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests regarding S. 409, Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2009, also known as the Apache Leap Conveyance bill.

The letter says that the bill:

would direct the Department of Agriculture to accept certain parcels of non-federal land in five counties in Arizona from Resolution Copper in exchange for federal land in Pinal County, Arizona, including Apache Leap and the Oak Flat Campground area, the latter in which mining activity is prohibited. It is our understanding that under the legislation Resolution Copper could then conduct mineral exploration and “block-cave” extraction activities beneath the surface of the Oak Flat and Apache Leap areas.

These lands include known archaeological sites and resources, as well as places significant to several Native American tribes. Additional, undiscovered sites are also likely to be present.

Block-cave mining is a technique where underground extraction is conducted such that surface materials “fall in” because the materials below them have been removed (essentially creating “sinkholes”). This kind of action would destroy and disturb archaeological remains.

The archaeological resources are now protected by numerous federal statutes, including the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and others. Transferral of the land would remove those protections, and has raised the concern of the SAA.

Thus, SAA recommends increased protections and that tribal stakeholders be allowed to continue traditional acorn gathering unimpeded by mineral extraction and extraction.

S. 409 is sponsored by Senator Jon Kyle of Arizona, and co-sponsored by John McCain, also of Arizona. Both Senators are Republicans.

Download a copy of the SAA’s letter from this webpage. It’s called “SAA Testimony on S. 409, the Apache Leap Conveyance bill,” and is dated June 17, 2009.

The SAA was founded in 1934 and has over 7000 members from all fifty states, and nations around the world.

Information about Subcommittee action on the bill is here. Information on the Senate bill is here. The related House bill is H.R. 2509, with four co-sponsors, all Arizona Representatives. Read about the House bill here.

Planning an outing to Etowah? Note that with budget cutbacks, the park is only open Thursdays through Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm.

However, on Saturday, the 3rd of October, the park will be open for a torchlight tour from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. The walking tour will cover three-quarters of a mile, and includes a visit to the top of Mound A, the tallest and largest of the mounds on the site.

Entry fee is $2.50-$5.00.

Visit the Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site webpage by clicking here.

Ryan Blackburn, of Online Athens, the online version of the Athens Banner-Herald, has written a glowing article about the SGA’s own ArchaeoBus!

Click here to go to the article.

SGA President Dennis Blanton continues to blog about the laboratory studies now underway following this summer’s fieldwork into a very early historic site in south Georgia.

This was the fourth season of field work. Dennis writes:

It’s sobering every morning to peep into my lab and see the tabletops and counterspace no less clear of bags. We hauled a few hundred parcels of artifacts and special samples back from the field and they’re waiting in patient ranks for the next phase of work to begin. But I’m happy to say, after nearly a month now, that we’re poised to plunge into the job of processing and analysis.

And this is where the real work of archaeology begins. Fieldwork is a vital step; it remains the most traditional way we collect raw material for study. But all of the grubby potsherds and scraps of bone and even the glittering glass beads would maintain an uncomfortable silence if we neglected to wash them, catalog them, subject them to close examination, and then compare them with material from other excavations. This is a way of saying that, yes, the artifacts have a story to tell, one that surely will take unimagined twists and turns, but they tend to give up their secrets rather grudgingly.

Read the blog here.

En route to understanding the ecological context of our human past, archaeologists tend to be interested in non-human life and plant and animal communities.

The Encyclopedia of Life is a website that seeks:

to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth. At its heart lies a series of Web sites—one for each of the approximately 1.8 million known species—that provide the entry points to this vast array of knowledge.

Further:

The EOL dynamically synthesizes biodiversity knowledge about all known species, including their taxonomy, geographic distribution, collections, genetics, evolutionary history, morphology, behavior, ecological relationships, and importance for human well being, and distribute this information through the Internet. It serves as a primary resource for a wide audience that includes scientists, natural resource managers, conservationists, teachers, and students around the world. We believe that the EOL’s encompassing scope and innovation will have a major global impact in facilitating biodiversity research, conservation, and education. [quotes from the EOL website]

The EOL is free and easy to use. You can search by common name or scientific name. The full taxonomic classification is listed for each species.

The EOL’s first 30,000 pages came online in late February 2008. That’s a drop in the bucket, since scientists estimate that there are now about 1.8 million species on Earth, including fungi, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and viruses. The website is estimated to reach that goal in 2017.

The EOL invites both scientists and the general public to submit information and photos for inclusion. The EOL encourages class projects and other student participation. Numerous foundations and individual donors allowed EOL to be established and support its continued development.

The EOL is useful for archaeologists because of the detailed information it provides. The image above is a screen-grab of the EOL page for Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.), which is a hard yellow pine indigenous to Georgia’s Coastal Plain. Details like this are useful to an archaeologist trying to understand an ecosystem:

The Slash Pine grows well on a variety of acidic soils in full sun or partial shade. It does poorly in basic soil (high pH) and is not recommended for irrigation water has a high pH. Once established, it is more tolerant of wet sites than most other pines and is moderately salt-tolerant. It is not highly drought-tolerant, but more so than most other pines.

Visit the EOL’s website here.

You may not know that PDFs of back issues of the Society for American Archaeology’s magazine The SAA Archaeological Record are available for free, except for the latest issue. Volume 8, number 5, dated November 2008, is a topical issue, discussing the “New Archaic.” The seven articles were edited by Ken Sassaman, who also provides an excellent introduction. They examine data from different regions of North America, including two on patterns observed in the coastal Southeast.

Sassaman’s introduction, “The New Archaic, It Ain’t What It Used To Be,” discusses how the old idea that the Archaic was the time before agriculture and extended village life is now discredited. Indeed, archaeological research now shows that the Archaic period encompassed regional variation and considerable diversity. Sassaman notes:

One of the most striking discoveries of late are the monuments made of earth and shell by mobile hunter-gatherer populations as early as 7,000 years ago. Showcased in this issue are early mounds of the Southeast. This region boasts the most varied, dispersed, and ancient record of monument construction on the continent, and archaeologists are puzzling over the implications of these novel data for issues of broad anthropological relevance. [pg. 6]

He goes on:

In addition to the more ancient mounds of northeast Louisiana, the Southeast holds evidence for other types of monumental architecture that predate Poverty Point. Generally consisting of shell, the mounds, ridges, and rings of the South Atlantic and Gulf coast have survived the nineteenth-century bias of being considered natural phenomena, and the twentieth-century bias of being merely accumulated food refuse. [pg. 6–7]

In sum, if you are interested in reading brief but detailed syntheses of recent recent research on Archaic-period peoples, you might enjoy reading this issue, downloadable here.

Archaeologists working twenty or fifty years ago were serious and innovative researchers, however their understanding of the Archaic period differed considerably from the picture presented by the articles in this magazine. Is this difference due only to the substantial data that has been assembled in the interim? What other variables are there?

To compare the archaeology of Indiana Jones and of “real” archaeologists, the National Science Foundation presents a web experience called “Archaeology from Reel to Real: A Special Report.” For the activities of “real” archaeologists, the presentation draws on the research projects the NSF has funded.

In the Introduction, the NSF website accurately notes:

Unlike Indiana Jones, there is nary a fedora to be found in their field kits and their grants certainly don’t cover the costs of Webley revolvers or bullwhips, but it could be convincingly argued that in some respects NSF-funded archaeologists are “shadowy reflections” of their big-screen counterpart.

And yet, they go on, there are parallels between what Jones does on-screen, and what professional archaeologists do in real life. They teach, they study vanished civilizations, and they also “seek rare and precious artifacts that tell important stories about the past.” And:

Rather than relic hunters and adventurers, they are scientists, whose work is aimed at answering key questions about the past, answers that may even inform policy about contemporary problems such as how societies adapt to climate change, ecological shifts, political upheaval or mass migrations.

Most of the pages you can click through detail how archaeologists do research, including field methods, and what kind of data they recover.

The final page is a list of useful on-line resources, although the “Special Report” does not seem to have been updated since spring 2008.

Click here to visit the NSF web experience about “real” archaeology.

Bottle photograph from Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website.

If you’re interested in historic bottles, you may enjoy browsing the Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website. The website aids visitors in finding out how old a bottle is, and what type it is. The website is limited to bottles made in the USA, and to some extent, Canada, between about 1800 and the 1950s. That’s still a lot of bottles, and some major changes in bottle making technology!

Why, you might wonder, is this information presented via a website, and not a more traditional printed publication? The website states:

In order to answer or address questions related to the dating and typing a bottle, a lot of information must be presented in a way that is accessible to the user of this site. A major benefit of using the internet to accomplish this task is the ability to use hundreds (or thousands) of illustrative pictures that would not be possible (or affordable) if published in book form. Another benefit of the internet is the relative ease of revising and/or adding information to a website as corrected or new information becomes available. As soon as the information is added it is available to everyone immediately; an attribute not possible with a printed publication. Finally, the ability of the internet to easily reach more potential users than any other communication medium makes it the most powerful tool of education and enlightenment available today.

You might especially enjoy perusing scanned pages of the 1906 Illinois Glass Company Illustrated Catalogue and Price List. Thumbnails of the scans are on this webpage.

The website is sponsored by the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Bureau of Land Management of the US Department of the Interior. Click here to visit it.

The National Park Service has an e-newsletter called Heritage News you can subscribe to. It’s published monthly, and delivers timely information on events and activities of interest to the national heritage community.

The July 2009 issue has a short article on the arrests of 24 members of a looting network in July. The arrests happened on June 10th in southeast Utah and were widely reported in the national media. According to Heritage News:

The indictments were the result of a two-year undercover operation by the Bureau of Land Management, the FBI, and the US Attorney for Utah. The archeological investigation was one of the largest ever. The defendants are alleged to have stolen and profited in the sale of 256 Native American artifacts, worth an estimated $335,685, from the Four Corners region of Utah. Among the stolen antiquities were decorated Anasazi pottery, a buffalo headdress, sandals, and ceremonial masks.

Another tidbit from this issue of Heritage News: Ninety properties were listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in May 2009. One was the Boyd and Sallie Gilleland House, a ca. 1929 Craftsman bungalow in Dawsonville. Boyd Gilleland was a moonshiner during Prohibition, and built his still in his house. Most ’shiners put their stills far from their houses and deep in the woods, because they do emit a notable odor. The article says:

Reportedly, Gilleland brewed upstairs while wife Sallie cooked dinner downstairs to mask the smoke and odor of distilling alcohol. The house’s location on Georgia Highway 9, which heads straight into Atlanta, was ideal for the moonshine’s transportation and sale at local speakeasies. Millions of gallons of illicit whiskey from all over north Georgia were transported into the city during Prohibition (1920-33) and even into the 1940s.

Heritage News also lists grant information and publishes a calendar of activity on national legislation, including committee meetings and actions. Perhaps the most useful, however, is a listing of links to stories reported elsewhere called “Heritage in the News” with recent stories you may find interesting.

Read the newsletter online here.

The Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C. announces its 16th annual symposium to be held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, September 19, 2009 from 9 am until 5:45 pm.

This year’s symposium will focus on “The Caribbean before Columbus.” Speakers will include William Keegan, Florida Museum of Natural History; John Crock, University of Vermont; Scott Fitzpatrick, North Carolina State University; Peter Siegel, Montclair State University; Lee Newsom Pennsylvania State University; and others.

The symposium abstract on the Pre-Columbian Society’s website reads:

While they appear as mere blips on maps of pre-Columbian cultures, the islands of the Caribbean have been populated for thousands of years and have been the subject of serious scholarly attention by researchers from around the world for more than 100 years. The collected wisdom gleaned from this research held that archaic peoples arrived in the islands around 5000-6000 BCE and lived primitively and undisturbed for thousands of years. Even with three small incursions from the northeastern shoulder of South America, the thinking was that these island peoples were socially isolated–cut off from one another and the rest of the pre-Columbian world. They existed in small loosely organized communities–untouched and in mellow contentment–separated from others by water or mountainous terrain until the arrival of Europeans. As no monumental structures had been uncovered, how advanced could these island cultures be? New discoveries and fresh thinking call into question this view of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Today, archaeologists from many nations are active throughout the Caribbean basin, uncovering new finds–from ball courts and carved stelae to preserved remains of wooden structures and figurines found far from their places of origin. Such new findings demand new explanations. Contact and exchange throughout the Caribbean basin are the twin themes of modern day researchers. These were seafaring cultures, capable of sharing political and religious ideologies, trading agricultural and manufactured goods, expanding their frontiers, social networking across boundaries, and, at times, engaging in warlike conflicts with one another. Join us on September 19, 2009, to learn from archaeologists working in the area about their fresh-from-the-ground discoveries and their latest thinking on the Caribbean basin and it peoples before 1492.

Image of Springfield Baptist Church, the heart of Springfield community, in downtown Augusta. Image from Google Maps streetview (which is why there’s a funny partly opaque parallelogram on the right half of the image).

Next time you’re in Augusta, take the time to go downtown and visit the Springfield community. Springfield community is just west of the original downtown Augusta.

According to the fine website dedicated to the history of this community, Springfield was

a free African American community established around the time of the Revolutionary War. The Springfield Community was not an officially recognized subdivision of Augusta, Georgia. Despite this, the neighborhood, roughly bounded by the Savannah River and Jones Street on the north and south and Ninth and Fifteenth streets to the east and west, became one of the few homes to free African Americans who escaped the bonds of slavery prior to the Civil War. Springfield began to evolve after the American Revolution when many escaped slaves sought refuge, eventually growing into a thriving neighborhood in northeastern Augusta. In the South, free African Americans congregated in urban communities because they offered the best opportunities for employment. Although it is difficult to draw a boundary around this community, especially for its early years, Springfield came to represent a center of African American life in Augusta, especially in the late nineteenth century as official attitudes and policies became more segregationist. Over time, the symbol of this community, and its anchor, was the Springfield Baptist Church, still located at Twelfth and Reynolds Streets in Augusta.

Also,

The

Springfield Baptist is the nation’s oldest continually operating African American church. The congregation was established shortly after the American Revolution, probably between 1787 and 1793….

Springfield Baptist Church’s own website notes that:

Springfield Baptist Church is of national significance because it is the oldest African-American church in the United States; because it is an example of the determination of African-Americans to be independent during the slavery era; because the Georgia Republican Party originated there; because Morehouse College, which has produced so many nationally prominent black leaders, was founded there; and finally because the Springfield Church stands today as proof that African-American’s too can look to history with pride in their achievements.

For more information on the web:

Springfield community website, developed by New South Associates of Stone Mountain and funded by by the City of Augusta and the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration.

New Georgia Encyclopedia on Augusta

Wikipedia entry on Augusta

Website of the Springfield Baptist Church

New Georgia Encyclopedia on Springfield Baptist Church

For a lesson plan on Springfield community, click here.

Thanks to Jim Pomfret, Archaeologist with the Georgia Department of Transportation, for suggesting that this topic might be of interest to readers of the SGA’s website.

In the 1820s, a syllabary of the Cherokee language became widely used. It’s inventor had a birth name of George Gist (or Guess), but by this time went by a Cherokee name pronounced something like Sikwayi or Sogwali, although it is commonly spelled Sequoyah.

John Noble Wilford, in the 22 June New York Times, reports that archaeologist Kenneth B. Tankersley, of the University of Cincinnati, has found fifteen identifiable characters from the syllabary carved into the wall of a cave in southeast Kentucky. Apparently, Sequoyah made several visits to the region, and spent time in the caves seeking inspiration.

These may be the earliest known examples of the syllabary, which Sequoyah may still have been developing. This written language is known as a syllabary because the symbols (analogous to the letters we use in English) represent syllables, not individual sounds. Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary has 85 characters.

Read Wilford’s New York Times article “Carvings From Cherokee Script’s Dawn” here.

Read Ted Wadley’s article on Sequoyah in the New Georgia Encyclopedia online here.

Read the Wikipedia entry on the Cherokee syllabary here.

Sequoyah image courtesy WikiMedia Commons, here.

On June 16th, President Barack Obama’s office responded to a proposal by the House of Representatives to reduce the funding he has proposed for FY 2010 of the National Science Foundation (NSF) by $108 million. President Obama’s Plan for Science and Innovation proposes a doubling over ten years of the funding for three key federal research agencies. In his proposed FY2010 budget President Obama advocated a $555 million increase to the NSF budget, and increase of 8.5% over the FY 2009 budget. Research and agency operations would be cut as a result of the reduction in the House budget.

NSF is mandated to:

provide a central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data on scientific and engineering resources, and to provide a source of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal Government….

Many academic archaeological researchers obtain at least partial funding from NSF. Nevertheless, most archaeological projects in the USA are funded as part of cultural resource management (CRM) projects, which are mandated when federal lands, monies, or licensing are involved. Other CRM projects are funded due to state or local regulations.

Summary tables available from the Office of Management and Budget indicate that the President’s proposed budget included about $6.09 billion for NSF. The $108 million reduction proposed by the House is only about 1.8%, but that will still mean cuts to research, and may imperil at least a few potential archaeological research projects.

The OMB letter discussing this administration priority is available here. The White House document discussing the Plan for Science and Innovation is available here.

Want to learn about the decorations on prehistoric pottery from Georgia? Try the University of Georgia’s website “Georgia Indian Pottery Site.” The current version was developed this year, and improves on the previous version, which was begun in 2005. Originally, it was essentially a digital version of the SGA’s Early Georgia from 1999, volume 27, issue 1, which is currently out of print.

You can look up pottery types by general decorative style (e.g., punctated, check stamped), or by specific name (e.g., Kasita red filmed, Deptford cord marked).

This handy and informative website is worth taking time to explore.

The National Park Service, which is administered by the Department of the Interior, has gathered together an online listing of Federal laws pertaining to archaeology. As they note:

The laws and regulations that govern the preservation of the nation’s cultural heritage developed over the course of the 20th century, beginning with the protection of cultural sites on federal lands. Today, many aspects of the nation’s cultural heritage are recognized, protected, and interpreted in national parks, other public lands, and in communities. Many of these laws are broadly applicable—the Antiquities Act and the National Historic Preservation Act—while others are specific to particular lands or resource types.

Perhaps most historically important of these laws is the Antiquities Act of 1906, which has been amended once. Section 1 states:

Any person who shall appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States, without the permis- sion of the Secretary of the Department of the Government having jurisdiction over the lands on which said antiquities are situated, shall, upon conviction, be fined in a sum of not more than five hundred dollars or be imprisoned for a period of not more than ninety days, or shall suffer both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Another of my personal favorites is Executive Order 11593, signed by Richard M. Nixon in 1971. Section 1 begins:

The Federal Government shall provide leadership in preserving, restoring, and maintaining the historic and cultural environment of the Nation.

I found a few of the links to be broken, but this list is a good start for anyone interested in Federal laws, policies, and programs that relate to archaeology. Click here to go to the NPS page listing.

SGA President Dennis Blanton wears a day-job hat, as Curator of Native American Archaeology at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta. This summer he’s working on a field project excavating at an early Spanish site in Telfair County. Most exciting for those of us at a distant remove from this project, is that you can read a blog about activities on the project.

Here’s a sample from Tuesday, 2 June:

What our excavation has exposed is a structure that exceeds my expectations of size. Unlike the typical Native dwelling of the period, measuring maybe four to five meters on a side, the one we have brought to light spans no less than 10 meters on a side. Put in more familiar terms, it probably has a floor area approaching 1000 square feet!

Read Dennis’s blog in full by clicking here!

Blogs are text and/or pictures and/or videos posted on the Internet when their author can get an Internet connection, and has something he or she wants to post. A blog can be authored by one or more individuals. The series of posts constitute an on-going narrative, or a kind of diary. The word blog is a short form of the word weblog. Some bloggers post usually short entries dozens of times a day; others may not post for months at a time. Blogging is a very individualized activity.

The Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has begun a monthly e-journal, called Preservation Posts, with longer, in-depth articles compared to their weekly newsletter, Preservation Georgia Online. The first issue even has a little quiz! And, you can also read about HPD’s Underwater Archaeologist Chris McCabe’s research on the ruins of a wooden ship revealed by Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008.

Division Director Ray Luce reports that about 2000 historic preservation license plates have been sold. Buyers pay a $25 premium for the plates, and HPD gets $22 of that. Monies from sales of these plates are now the only funding HPD receives for Georgia Heritage Grants, because state funding has been “deferred” due to budget cuts. Buying these plates is one way you can support HPD’s efforts to preserve Georgia’s historic and archaeological properties.

The first issue was released on May 28th. Email Helen Talley-McRae at HPD if you want to be emailed this new, informative “publication” (and/or the weekly newsletter).

Click here to read the first issue of Preservation Posts.

Rebecca Burns writes a lively and informative blog on Atlanta called Terminus 2.0. Check it out here. She notes:

Is it paradoxical to blog about history? Maybe. But that’s the broadly conceived mission of Terminus 2.0. In a city that prefers to bulldoze than preserve, where dynamics change daily, the occasional backward glance can help put it all into context. And what’s with the name? Terminus is one of Atlanta’s previous monikers, bestowed in the 1800s when a railroad hub was planned for the locale that is now home to metro Atlanta.

Ms. Burns is interactive director of Atlanta magazine, and author of Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot (2006).

Her blogroll includes a link to thesga.org! Thanks, Ms. Burns!

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.

HPD Director Ray Luce, on left, with award recipients Melina Vasquez, Lillian Davis, SGA President Dennis Blanton, Erica Danylchak, Richard Laub, Emily Eigel, Hilary Morrish, and Catherine Edgemon.

The Georgia Historic Preservation Division presented this year’s Preservation Achievement Awards on May 5th. HPD honored SGA President Dennis Blanton for his work bringing one of Georgia’s few existing Native American dugout canoes to Fernbank Museum, among his many other activities that promote archaeology in Georgia. Dennis’s day job is Curator of Native American Archaeology at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta.

Other 2009 winners include Catherine Edgemon, W. James Green and Lillian Davis, Richard Laub, and ten graduate students from Georgia State University: Emilie Arnold, Neil Bowen, Renee Brown-Bryant, Stephanie Cherry, Parinya Chukaew, Erica Danylchak, Emily Eigel, Hilary Morrish, Melina Vasquez, and Lillie Ward.

Preservation Achievement Awards are presented for contributions in conjunction with the HPD and its programs. The honorees are recognized as having helped further HPD’s mission, vision and goals, and thereby made significant contributions to historic preservation in Georgia.

Click here to read the HPD’s press release, from which this story was written.

The 2009 Spring meeting of the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists will take place on Friday, May 15th from 1:45–3:30 pm in the Taylor building, Wesleyan College, 4760 Forsyth Road, in Macon. Click here for the GCPA website.

Editor’s Note

Back in late March 2009, GAAS and SGA member Dick Brunelle issued a challenge to thesga.org readers. He had read a January Weekly Ponder on a Copeland-Inglis brick found in an Atlanta brick street, and responded by asking who made the brick he had photographed at Hills and Dales, the Callaway family home in LaGrange, which had “LACLEDE KING” stamped on it. As a tease, he noted: The brick is more closely related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition than it is to covered bridges in Georgia. Member Jim D’Angelo was the only one to log in and comment on these brick controversies, among other things noting that he has a biography of John Randolph Copeland (1863-1935), partner in Copeland-Inglis Brick company. Now, Mr. Brunelle reveals the whoe story behind that enigmatic brick….

The answer…

Laclede Fire Brick Company as it appeared in 1854. On the hill behind the plant, can be seen the old Sublette mansion and nearby buildings of the sulphur springs resort. Clay was mined between the plant and the mansion.

The Birthplace of the Laclede King Brick

Bridge builder Horace King practiced his craft up and down the Chattahoochee River before and after his emancipation from slavery. The Townsend Truss structures he specialized in building required solid piers of durable material. Knowing he headed a family enterprise, brick making did not seem beyond possibility for this one time resident of LaGrange, Georgia.

At least, this is what I thought when I spotted the Laclede King brick at the beautiful estate of Hills and Dales in LaGrange. However, a search of Horace King family members did not come up with anyone named Laclede. Casting my net over the Internet, I fished up one Pierre Laclede Liquest.

We find that this enterprising man, a native of France, came to New Orleans in 1755. Soon, he dropped the Pierre from his name and his associates dropped the Liquest. This sort of name dropping was common among the early French in Louisiana. Laclede married an unattached woman in New Orleans, who was also enterprising and had accumulated money trading furs and other goods. She had previously been married to Auguste Rene Chouteau, and her son Auguste was now Laclede’s stepson. To further complicate an already confusing family relationship, stepson Auguste Chouteau had a half brother named Pierre. Some surmise he was a son of Laclede, but he was called Pierre Chouteau.

Laclede supposedly obtained trading rights from the last French governor for all the territory along the Missouri River. He and his stepson Auguste Chouteau established a trading post that Laclede named St Louis in April 1764 in honor of King Louis IX. Between the time he first set foot there, at the end of 1763, and the time of his death in 1788, Laclede had built up his name enough to bequeath it to things both material and political. As we now suspect, this includes bricks.

But, how can the name on our brick be close to Lewis and Clark? This clue was mainly intended to get the ponderer in the correct geographical area. However, both Chouteaus could not get any closer to William Clark than they did in September of 1797. Clark had been across the river trying to gather information to help out his older brother George Rogers Clark, who was in deep doo-doo for spending too much government money embarrassing the British while venturing into their territory.

Feeling the urge to party, William went to St Louis to scope out the town. There, he had a ball (literally) at Pierre Chouteau’s place with “all the fine girls and buckish Gentleman.” Now that they were drinking buddies, Clark would not forget his new friends when he came back across the river years later with Meriwether Lewis. The Spanish governor would not allow the Corps of Discovery to come ashore, but did accept a courtesy visit from Clark, who used the occasion to affirm his friendship in an aside with Auguste Chouteau. Meriwether Lewis used what influence he had to get Pierre Chouteau appointed Agent of Indian Affairs for Upper Louisiana in 1804.

The Chouteau brothers had considerable economic and political clout to go with their immense knowledge of the country and inhabitants of the Missouri and points west. It would take all of this to compete with the companies and political entities trying to control trade with the Indian nations. In turn, the Chouteau brothers made alliances with groups and individuals they deemed most capable to meet the challenges. One of these was William L. Sublette, previously a competitor. He became “their man on the ground” to deal with the most dangerous situations. Bill Sublette used shrewd strategy and good business ability, along with superior frontier skills, to stay alive and come out ahead.

After he gave up mountain man life, it would be Bill who would become owner of the ground that would one day yield the clay for our Laclede brick. Surprisingly, Bill aspired to create his own little utopia close to the city of St Louis, rather than live in Big Sky country. He chose a pleasing valley with a sulphur spring and “a river runs through it.” The “clear crystal stream” was called “River Des Peres”. This piece of property just happened to once belong to the husband of Auguste and Pierre’s sister Victoire Chouteau, Charles Gratiot, who had received it in a Spanish land grant of about 8000 acres.

In 1835, Bill had several log cabins and a large stone manor built on his 779 acre arcadia sanctuary. Sublette immediately put into play a gentleman farmer economy; exploiting natural resources of the property. Along with agricultural, livestock, and lumbering operations, mining of coal and clay was started. As it turned out, the clay was found to be the best in the country for making firebrick.

Gratiot’s son Paul had a fire brick kiln as early as 1837. We do not know, however, if Bill Sublette himself did anything but mine the clay. Soon, Bill’s arcadia had a menagerie of Wild West animals and a sulphur springs health resort for 60 boarders. Sadly, the healing waters did not restore health to Bill during an illness; so, he sought help in the East, but died in a Pittsburg, Pennsylvania hotel during his travels, on July 23, 1845.

William L. Sublette’s earthly remains were brought from Pittsburg and interred on his estate.

Soon, another utopia seeker was on the move in the person of Etienne Cabet. A French experimenter in communal living, he coined the word communisme; which became communism. Called the Icarian Movement, he lead his followers to found a colony in America; first in the Texas Red River Valley, then to the recently vacated haven of Brigham Young in Nauvoo, Illinois. Alas, Arcadia was not found there. The fragmented Icarians that still followed Cabet moved on to St Louis; but Cabet died at the end of 1856.

The remaining Icarians struggled on and in two years bought Sublette’s place, which was then on the block. Ironically, unhealthy conditions at the health resort were one reason that the colony to disbanded. Even more ironic, Bill Sublette’s mortal remains could not stay because of the demand for clay around the cemetery that contained them. Forced out at the point of a shovel, Bill’s remains were moved to Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis city in 1868.

Resting on 80 acres of land close by, Laclede Fire Brick Manufacturing Company was inhaling clay from the old Sublette Estate and exhaling an array of brick products. Thus, neither William Sublette nor Etienne Cabet found a final resting place in that place first called Sulphur Springs, then Cheltenham, and finally Dogtown.

However, one brick made from the clay of that place rests in the garden walk of a little arcadia created by the Callaway family in LaGrange, Georgia, where it proclaims to all that take notice: Laclede Brick is King!

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society, together with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, hosted an Archaeology Month function at Fort Daniel on Saturday, 2 May, called the Frontier Fort Faire and Public Archaeology Event.

The Gwinnett Daily News, on Sunday, 3 May 2009, published a story worth reading on the event, by Heath Hamacher. Click here to read it.

Click here to check out the calendar of events on this website.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has proclaimed that May is Archaeology Month in Georgia. (Read about the proclamation signing here.) Celebratory and educational activities celebrating Archaeology Month are planned around the state. (Read about these activities here, or check the SGA calendar here.)

The highlight of Archaeology Month for many SGA members is likely to be the semi-annual meeting of the Society on May 16th and 17th in Macon. The theme of the meeting’s presentations will be “Mounds in our Midst.” At the meeting, SGA’s new ArchaeoBus will be christened! Read more about the meeting here.

Please enjoy Archaeology Month in Georgia, and, perhaps, think about what you can do to be a better steward for our fragile archaeological resources.

On behalf of the Society, SGA President Dennis Blanton has commended members for their considerable commitment, which kept our table “staffed” during the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting last week.

I’m pleased to report that, with the help of many generous volunteers, SGA maintained a presence in the SAA Exhibit Hall for the duration of the conference in Atlanta (Wed–Sat this past week). On behalf of SGA at-large I want to extend a hearty thanks to everyone who contributed—even in the smallest way. But there are a few particular contributions that bear specific mention.

Lynn Pietak coordinated most of the effort and received tremendous assistance from her colleagues at Edwards-Pitman. At every turn E-P folks were visible and carried the load of setting up and breaking down. Our showing simply would not have occurred without their help.

Not only did Tom Gresham represent us on the first day but pulled a very long all day shift and did great work getting some of the initial kinks out.

Tammy Herron, Mary Beth Reed, and Catherine Long contributed display materials that were most helpful (as did our colleagues at UGA).

We were also fortunate to have the support of Debbie Wallsmith who represented DNR’s Parks Division and brought their own attractive material to display.

Again, I know that others were making additional contributions and we appreciate them very much.

All in all it was another successful showing—way to go!

The SAA Annual Meetings were April 22–26, 2009, in downtown Atlanta at the Mariott Marquis. Volunteers allowed SGA to maintain a booth in the Exhibit Hall, which was open 9–5—that’s a lot of hours!

The National Park Service has announced that almost $2.5 million of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies will be spent on parks in Georgia. That’s about 1/3 of a percent—that is, 0.33%—of the full $750 million budget that will be spent in our state.* The national budget will be spent on nearly 800 projects. In Georgia, money will go to (in decreasing order of money to be spent):

Chattahoochee River—for construction, maintenance, and upgrades / $736,000
Kennesaw Mountain—green improvements / $700,000
Chickamauga and Chattanooga—for maintenance and to interface with the Youth Conservation Corps / $380,000
Andersonville—to address three maintenance problems / $181,000
Cumberland Island—green improvements; rehabilitation of dormitories / $162,000
Martin Luther King, Jr.—building stabilization / $146,000
Fort Pulaski—green improvements / $70,000
Jimmy Carter—rehabilitation of walking trail / $55,000
Ocmulgee—upgrade theater doors to meet ADA requirements / $15,000

Note that every one of these parks, like many US National Parks, includes an archaeological and historic preservation component, like historic standing buildings, historic landscapes, and prehistoric and historic archaeological sites. Certainly, federal stimulus monies that support stewardship of our national heritage is very important, and deciding which projects to fund can not have been easy.

One-fiftieth of the national budget of $750 million would be $15 million. If funding were proportional by state, then $15 million would be what Georgia would get. Since we’re only getting just under $2.5 million, it would seem that Georgia is disproportionately underfunded in the NPS budget, getting only about 16.6% of an equal (1/50th) portion of the total budget.

How do you feel about this? Comments are open!

Across the country, NPS projects are intended to preserve and protect national icons and historic landscapes, to make “green improvements” (especially to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy use), to remediate abandoned mine lands, and to provide $15 million in grants to protect and restore buildings at historically black colleges and universities. In addition, funding through the Federal Highway Administration will improve park roads. For comparison, here are some non-Georgia projects the NPS budget is funding:

$54.7 million to undertake six mitigation projects to prepare for the removal of the Elwha Dam and restoration of the Elwha River basin at Olympic National Park in Washington
$30.5 million to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.
$13.1 million to demolish and replace condemned portions of the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah
$11.5 million to replace more than 5 miles of water lines at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado
$8.8 million to stabilize the Ellis Island Baggage and Dormitory Building, one of the most significant structures at Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island in New York and New Jersey
$7.3 million to restore the District of Columbia War Memorial at the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C.
$7 million for the first phase of renovating the 352-foot monument that commemorates Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval victory during the War of 1812, at Perry’s Victory and International and Peace Memorial in Ohio
$5.5 million to rehabilitate Independence Hall Tower at Independence National Historical Park in Pennsylvania
$5 million to replace the roof of the historic Old Courthouse at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in Missouri

Note that every one of these projects will receive more money than the parks across the whole state of Georgia will receive. Reminder: comments are open!

For a listing of the Georgia projects, click here. For a list of all NPS projects, by state, including Georgia, click here. These are current as of late April 2009. Also, here’s the link to the NPS Recovery Investments webpage.

NPS is slated to get $700 million of the Department of the Interior’s full stimulus budget of more than $3 billion.

On Friday, April 24, the Society for American Archaeology, at their Annual Business Meeting, held this year in Atlanta, presented the Archaeology Month Poster Award to Georgia.

Each state is qualified to submit a poster each year. The deadline for submission is in March, so the posters are from the year before each competition. So, the Georgia poster in the competition was from 2008, and is called “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period.” Read more about the poster here.

SGA President Dennis Blanton received the award on behalf of the Society, which produced the poster, during the awards portion of the Business Meeting.

Congrats to all involved for the prize-winning 2008 poster.

You know that May is Archaeology Month in Georgia, by proclamation of the Governor. Did you know that May is also Historic Preservation Month, also by the Governor’s proclamation?

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and local preservation and neighborhood organizations sponsor Historic Preservation Month. The theme for 2009 is This Place Matters!, in recognition that our heritage is important to us all.

Click here for the Governor’s proclamation.

Click here for a listing of lectures and events scheduled for the month.

Read William Bartram’s Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws; Containing An Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions, Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians, published in 1791, on the internet. You will miss the experience of turning aging pages, but you can read every word, and see some pictures, too!

This picture of the Seminole Chief (mico) is the book’s frontispiece. The mico wears many feathers, including attached to his headband and to an instrument or wand he’s holding. These may be symbols of his office and visually convey his high status.

During his travels in the late 1700s, Bartram was most interested in recording natural history, especially plants. But he traveled with Native American guides and stayed in their communities, so this book contains lots of first-person observations that archaeologists have combed to help them reconstruct Late Mississippian and early historic period Native American customs, foods, etc. Bartram also lists the names of Native towns, and some Native words.

Bartram notes on pages 32–34 about traveling up the Savannah River valley from the coast to Augusta, and of events he experienced in that then-frontier town in 1776:

THUS have I endeavoured to give the reader a short and natural description of the vast plain lying between the region of Augusta and the sea coast; for from Augusta the mountainous country begins (when compared to the level sandy plain already passed) although it is at least an hundred and fifty miles west, thence to the Cherokee or Apalachean mountains; and this space may with propriety be called the hilly country, every where fertile and delightful, continually replenished by innumerable rivulets, either coursing about the fragrant hills, or springing from the rocky precipices, and forming many cascades; the coolness and purity of which waters invigorate the air of this otherwise hot and sultry climate.

THE village of Augusta is situated on a rich and fertile plain, on the Savanna river; the buildings are near its banks, and extend nearly two miles up to the cataracts, or falls, which are formed by the first chain of rocky hills, through which this famous river forces itself, as if impatient to repose on the extensive plain before it invades the ocean. When the river is low, which is during the summer months, the cataracts are four or five feet in height across the river, and the waters continue rapid and broken, rushing over rocks five miles higher up: this river is near five hundred yards broad at Augusta.

A FEW days after our arrival at Augusta, the chiefs and warriors of the Creeks and Cherokees being arrived, the Congress and the business of the treaty came on, and the negociations continued undetermined many days; the merchants of Georgia demanding at least two millions of acres of land from the Indians, as a discharge of their debts, due, and of long standing; the Creeks, on the other hand, being a powerful and proud spirited People, their young warriors were unwilling to submit to so large a demand, and their conduct evidently betrayed a disposition to dispute the ground by force of arms, and they could not at first be brought to listen to reason and amicable terms; however, at length, the cool and deliberate counsels of the ancient venerable chiefs, enforced by liberal presents of suitable goods, were too powerful inducements for them any longer to resist, and finally prevailed. The treaty concluded in unanimity, pace, and good order; and the honorable Superintendant, not forgetting his promise to me, at the conclusion, mentioned my business, and recommended me to the protection of the Indian chiefs and warriors. The presents being distributed amongst the Indians, they departed, returning home to their towns. A company of surveyors were appointed, by the Governor and Council, to ascertain the boundaries of the new purchase; they were to be attended by chiefs of the Indians, selected and delegated by their countrymen, to assist, and be witnesses that the articles of the treaty were fulfilled, as agreed to by both parties in Congress.

Bartram’s final observations, on pages 521–522, are on the architecture of the Native Americans:

BUT in all the region of the Muscogulge country, South-West from the Oakmulge River quite to the Tallapoose, down to the city of Mobile, and thence along the sea coast, to the Mississipi, I saw no signs of mountains or highways, except at Taensa, where were several inconsiderable conical mountains, and but one instance of the tetragon terraces which was at the Apalachucla old town, on the West banks of that river; here were yet remaining conspicuous monuments, as vast four square terraces, chunk yards, &c. almost equalling those eminent ones at the Oakmulge fields; but no high conical mounts. Those Indians have a tradition that these remains are the ruins of an ancient Indian town and fortress. I was not in the interior parts of the Chactaw territories, and therefore am ignorant whether there are any mounts or monuments there.

To conclude this subject concerning the monuments of the Americans, I deem it necessary to observe as my opinion, that none of them that I have seen discover the least signs of the arts, sciences, or architecture of the Europeans or other inhabitants of the old world: yet evidently betray every sign or mark of the most distant antiquity.

This document is offered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of its digital resources called “Documenting the American South,” available here.

Browse the World Digital Library, sponsored by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and see digital versions of precious, original historical documents, including letters, manuscripts, photos, books, and maps. In keeping with the multinational membership of the UN, navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, and others may be added. The original materials, however, are not translated, but only provided in their original form. At its launch in April 2009, the site had content from libraries and other cultural institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America—contributions from 26 institutions in 19 countries.

According to the WDL website:

US Librarian of Congress James H. Billington proposed the establishment of the WDL in a speech to the US National Commission for UNESCO in June 2005. The basic idea was to create an Internet-based, easily-accessible collection of the world’s cultural riches that would tell the stories and highlight the achievements of all countries and cultures, thereby promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

The photo above is from the frontispiece of The New and Unknown World: or Description of America and the Southland (1671). The website notes:

This monumental work by the Dutch writer Arnoldus Montanus (1625?-83) reflects the fascination of 17th-century Europe with the New World. Montanus was a Protestant minister and headmaster of the Latin School in the town of Schoonhoven. He wrote books on church history, theology, the history of the Low Countries, and the peoples and cultures of the Americas and Australia. (The “Southland” in the title of his book refers to recently discovered Australia.) Montanus never visited the New World and his work contains numerous errors and fantastic conceptions about the people and animals of the Americas. Nonetheless, it became a standard work in Europe and was widely read for many years. The publisher of the work was the Amsterdam bookseller and engraver Jacob van Meurs, who was active from 1651 to 1680 and specialized in works of history, geography, and travelogues. The book is lavishly illustrated with 125 copper engravings, including 32 folded views, 70 plates, 16 maps, and 7 unusually handsome portraits of famous explorers, each surrounded by baroque framed borders. The book was translated and published in England by the editor and map publisher John Ogilby under the title, America, Being an Accurate Description of the New World (1671).

Click here to check out this particular holding at the WDL. You can even download a digital copy of this book.

On March 11th, President Obama signed the Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 1105), which funds federal departments, agencies, and programs not funded through the regular appropriations process for FY2009, which began October 1, 2008. Note that this signing was nearly half way through the fiscal year to which it applies.

Monies that will at least partly benefit archaeological and historical programs listed here total nearly $500 million, out of $410 billion total for the Omnibus Appropriations Act. That’s 0.12%. Note that additional funds had come to archaeological endeavors through the original appropriations process.

For a certified PDF of the bill, click here (1.2 MB). To read the bill online, click here to go to the link on THOMAS, the Library of Congress webpage for legislative information (named after President Jefferson). The enrolled version is the final text, passed by both the House and the Senate, and signed by President Obama.

Metcalf is a south Georgia community established in the late nineteenth-century. It has recently been threatened by developers. The Trust placed Metcalf on its 2009 Places in Peril list.

Each fall since 2005, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has released a list of the ten most endangered historic properties in the state. They are now soliciting nominations to the 2010 list. Applications are due on June 5.

Nominated properties must be “historically significant, significantly threatened, have demonstrated community commitment, have a reasonable potential for a positive outcome, or highlight statewide threats to historic properties and represent diversity in terms of geographical distribution, variety of property/building types, and issues and constituencies served.”

The Trust will work with preservation groups at each selected property to help form a preservation strategy that the local community can use going forward to save the property. The 2009 properties (announced in fall 2008) have received nearly $50,000 in matching grants to help with the preservation process.

Fort Daniel was on the 2009 list. The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society, a chapter of the SGA, has been active in leading preservation efforts at this historic site, including establishing their own separate website to chronicle their efforts.

Most Places in Peril are standing structures. Please take the time to consider an archaeological site that fits the Trust criteria. Your group can use listing on the Places in Peril list to leverage your preservation efforts. Read about the Places in Peril program here. Find the nomination form by clicking here. View the 2009 Places in Peril here.

Georgians for Preservation Action (GAPA) reports that the final state budget the Georgia legislature passed on April 3rd included $100,000 for the archaeology program, and two positions that the Senate had cut were restored.

We thank all who called or wrote legislators supporting the Georgia Archaeology Protection and Education Program. Without our efforts, the funding would have been completely cut.

An additional result of our campaign is that Georgia’s legislators now have a better understanding of the importance of archaeology and historic preservation to Georgians.

For more information on archaeology in the final budget from GAPA and a list of legislators instrumental in helping it pass (you may want to thank them!), click here.

Background stories from the Society archives:

On the Senate budget passed on March 31st, which had $100,000 in the archaeology budget, but cut two positions.

Letter from the Society for American Archaeology supporting reinstatement of funding for the archaeology program.

On the House budget from about March 25th, which gutted the archaeology program.

The SGA website’s editor has just learned that the Society for American Archaeology expressed strongly worded concerns to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Georgia State Senate about cuts to archaeology program funding during budget negotiations in late March. President Dean R. Snow sent the following letter to the Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor, The Honorable Casey Cagle, dated 27 March 2008.

Dear Lieutenant Governor Cagle:

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is greatly concerned about the Georgia House of Representative’s version (HB 119) of the state’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010. This plan would practically eliminate the state’s archaeological program precisely at a time when it is needed most.

SAA is an international organization that, since its founding in 1934, has been dedicated to the research about and interpretation and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas. With more than 7,500 members, SAA represents professional archaeologists in colleges and universities, museums, government agencies, and the private sector. SAA has members in all 50 states as well as many other nations around the world.

HB 119 cuts more than $250,000 from the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, eliminating the State Archaeologist and other positions. These reductions would seriously hamper the State of Georgia’s ability to conduct important project reviews and consultations required by federal law. If the cuts in HB 119 were enacted, the state would see a substantial delay in the implementation of stimulus projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Federal agencies are required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 to consult with HPD whenever federal actions in Georgia may affect historic properties, including archaeological sites. HB 119 will eliminate the review staff needed by the state to respond in a timely fashion.

In addition, federally-required consultations with Native American tribes on federally-funded projects would also be delayed or eliminated, potentially exposing federal agencies to legal challenge, further delaying implementation of needed stimulus projects. A number of legally-required project surveys on state lands would have to be contracted to professional consulting companies, which may incur costs to the state greater than the amount of spending reduced by the legislation. The proposed cuts would also end funding for proper storage of the artifact collections recovered from state lands. These materials belong to the people of Georgia and deserve to be curated in a scientifically sound manner. Finally, the State Archaeologist’s Office provides public education to Georgia’s residents and visitors regarding the state’s historic and prehistoric past. This critical service to the public will be lost if the cuts are allowed to stand.

While we understand that many states are facing difficult fiscal situations due to the current economic situation, the House budget’s proposed reductions to the HPD are counterproductive and will cause the state more problems than it will solve. These reductions will result in a substantial delay in the implementation of badly needed stimulus projects, difficulty for the state to carry out legally-required reviews and consultations, and the inappropriate care and storage of irreplaceable archaeological resources.

We respectfully urge the State Senate to restore full funding for the state archaeology program in its version of the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

Regards,

Dean R. Snow, President

Georgia’s Historic Preservation Division periodically teams with the Georgia Trust to offer a day-long meeting with assorted speakers who introduce participants to the services and programs the two organizations offer. Consider attending the next Preservation 101 orientation, offered on May 5th. Cost is $30 per person, which covers program materials, continental breakfast, and the afternoon break. Lunch and parking costs are not included.

For more information, including registration form and directions, check out the DNR website here. The registration deadline is Tuesday, April 28 and the event will be held in downtown Atlanta.

Agenda

8:30 – 9:00 Refreshments will be available.

9:00 – 9:15 Welcome & Introductions

9:15 – 10:00 Preservation Achievement Awards Presentation – Historic Preservation Division

10:00 – 10:30 Why Preserve? – Historic Preservation Division Director Ray Luce

10:30 – 11:00 Archaeology Protection & Education – Historic Preservation Division Deputy Director & State Archaeologist David Crass

11:00 – 11:30 The Georgia Trust’s programs and services – Georgia Trust President and CEO Mark McDonald

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch on your own

12:30 – 2:30 HPD staff presentations about their programs
Historic Resources Survey Program – Kenneth Gibbs
National and Georgia Registers of Historic Places – Gretchen Brock
Certified Local Government program – Jennifer Martin Lewis
Regional Preservation Planning – Leigh Burns
African American Resources and GAAHPN – Jeanne Cyriaque
Question time

2:30 – 2:45 Refreshments will be available.

2:45 – 4:45 HPD staff presentations about their programs
Environmental Review and Compliance – Betsy Shirk
Federal and State Tax Incentives – Ced Dolder
Grants – Carole Moore
Architectural Review – Bill Hover
Summing up: How all these programs work together – David Crass
Question time

4:45 Wrap-up and adjourn

On Thursday, 2 April, Governor Sonny Perdue proclaimed May Archaeology Month for 2009. The proclamation states:

Whereas: Georgia’s archaeological sites are important to our state’s heritage, making the arrival of American Indians more than 10,000 years ago and documenting the exploration, colonization and founding of our nation by Europeans, Africans and Asians; and

Whereas: Georgia’s archaeological sites lie under forests, farms and cities as well as beneath rivers, streams and coastal waters. These sites, which hold clues about our state’s rich and diverse history, are fragile and endangered by forces such as erosion, uncontrolled development and looting or vandalism; and

Whereas: Georgia’s archeological landscape features sites with artificial earthen mounds created by diverse Native American cultures, primarily between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1550. These remarkable monuments are evocative reminders of prehistoric societies that once flourished in every corner of the state; and

Whereas: The study, interpretation and preservation of our archaeological sites offer important educational, cultural and economic benefits to all Georgians; and

Whereas: Georgia’s archaeologists seek to increase our citizens’ awareness of our state’s archaeological history as a means to protect and preserve these irreplaceable links to our past; and

Whereas: Georgia Archaeology Awareness Month offers Georgians an opportunity to explore “Mounds in Our Midst: Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia”: now

Therefore: I, Sonny Perdue, Governor of the state of Georgia, do hereby proclaim May 2009 as Archaeology Month in Georgia.

Click here to download a PDF of the Proclamation.

To see the original picture of the signing on the Governor’s website, click here.

The Friends of Scull Shoals seeks to foster education and outdoor recreation enjoyment by preserving and sharing the natural and historic resources of the Scull Shoals area from its base in Greensboro. The Scull Shoals area is part of the Oconee National Forest. Archaeological occupations in the area range from early Native American periods through historic times. The most dramatic historic structures are the remains of a cotton-mill settlement.

Historic Scull Shoals village began as a frontier settlement in 1782, and by the early 1800s had flourishing mills, boarding houses, stores, a large warehouse and store combination, a distillery, a toll bridge, and other enterprises.

Visit the Friends of Scull Shoals website here to read more about the Scull Shoals area, and about events at the Scull Shoals site, including during Archaeology Month.

The Friends of Scull Shoals’ latest newsletter is downloadable by clicking here.

When the March 2008 tornado struck the downtown area, Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery especially suffered from the root balls brought up by toppled trees. Historic Oakland Foundation Director of Restoration and Landscapes Kevin Kuharic recognized that some of the root balls had the potential for containing human remains, and requested assistance from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). State Archaeologist Dr. Dave Crass.

Dr. Crass in turn recruited Dr. Jeffrey Glover, an archaeology professor at Georgia State University, who marshaled GSU students to do the fieldwork. GSU students and DNR personnel were assisted in this sensitive recovery mission by Atlanta city employees and volunteers.

Careful examination of the root balls did not reveal any human remains. However, one root ball had two small Civil War-era porcelain buttons, probably for shirt collars or cuffs.

On 25 March, the Historic Preservation Division published a press release (click to download it) detailing this information, from which this story was written. The HPD has a webpage with useful information about historic cemeteries.

On March 21st, SGA Vice-President Catherine Long attended the State Social Studies Fair on behalf of the Society and the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists. She judged student projects addressing archaeological topics. Winners were 5th grader Destiny Jackson, with her project entitled “What Archaeological Remains Did King Tut Leave Behind?,” and 8th grader Jack Doresky, whose project was titled “Southeastern US Indian Removal.”

Destiny Jackson attends Charles L. Gideons Elementary, Atlanta City Schools. Her directing teacher was Darlene Dobbs.

Jack Doresky attends Blackmon Road Middle School, Muscogee County Schools. Chuck Yarbrough was his directing teacher.

Each winner received a $50 check and educational materials from the SGA and the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists. The Fair was hosted at Dutchtown High School in Hampton.

 

On the 31st of March, Georgians for Preservation Action, a group that works in partnership with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, reported the following:

The Senate Appropriations committee just passed the SFY 2010 budget. The senate committee did add back $100,000 of the $279,000 archaeology budget cut by the house. They then eliminated 2 vacant historic preservation positions (one of which is an archaeology position in the $279,000) for $100,000. This leaves a net balance of $50,000 in the archaeology budget, which is not enough to fund even one position with benefits. The other eliminated position is the architect’s position in the technical services unit who reviews tax act projects, grants and 106 projects. The changes increase the likelihood that Federal and state projects would be delayed in the historic preservation office because of lack of resources and that DNR will have to pay for consultants in order to comply with state and federal law.

The full Senate will vote on April 1st, and the final budget approval is set for Friday, April 3rd.

To read more, and to find out which Senators and House members are on the key committee(s), click here.

For a previous story on this issue, click here.

Georgia’s Historic Preservation Division circulated its first online edition of Preservation Georgia Online (formerly Preservation Georgia), a weekly newsletter. The newsletter includes stories and a detailed calendar of events relevant to historic preservation in Georgia, including some archaeology events. You can also keep up with grant programs and National Register news. To subscribe, click here.

Late on the afternoon of March 24, Georgians for Preservation Action, a group that works in partnership with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, circulated an email reporting that the Georgia House budget for SFY 2010 cuts over $279,000 in funding for the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, effectively gutting the state’s archaeology program. Read more about this situation on the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists’ website here.

UPDATE: On March 26th, Georgians for Preservation Action sent an email saying they couldn’t determine why HPD’s archaeology program had been targeted for the extensive budget cuts by the House. We urge you to visit the GCPA website for more information.

Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society and SGA member Terry Hynes recently “directed” a small project in the famous Valley of the Kings in the Theban Hills in Egypt’s Nile Valley. Terry also toured Luxor and boated on the Nile during her trip-of-a-lifetime in early January.

Terry is quite knowledgeable about and well-trained in archaeological field methods. She has worked for many seasons at the Topper Site in South Carolina, at various ElderHostel projects especially in the Caribbean, and all across Georgia. She also has volunteered uncounted hours at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History doing research and working in the laboratory.

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.