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

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

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

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

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.

SGA’s 2008 poster for Archaeology Month is “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period.” In this dramatic and eye-catching presentation, three human figures in outline dominate the poster’s imagery.

The figure on the left is of a Spanish Conquistador. He is identifiable because of the shape of his helmet, and because of his sword.

The figure in the middle is a Native American. He wears a breechclout and carries upward-pointing arrows.

The figure on the right is a Spanish Catholic friar or priest. He wears a baggy garment and a Christian cross.

All these figures are male. Why do you think the poster was designed with only men, and no women and children?

Archaeology Month events in 2007 focused on the theme “Conflict: Georgia’s Expanding Boundaries, 1733-1833.”

Click here to download a copy of SGA’s 2007 poster commemorating this theme.

SGA’s 2004 topic for Archaeology Month revolved around the new edition of Frontiers in the Soil.

The book, with its compelling cartoon images, was the basis of the 2004 Archaeology Month poster.

Read more about the book Frontiers in the Soil here.

In 2002, the Society focused Archaeology Month events around prehistoric archaeological sites in southwest Georgia, specifically the famous site of Kolomoki.

Click here to download a copy of SGA’s 2002 poster commemorating this theme.