Issue number 151 of the SGA’s quarterly newsletter, The Profile, is now available as a downloadable and printable PDF. All stories in The Profile all were originally posted to this website.

SGA President Catherine Long summarizes the year’s events for the Society for Georgia Archaeology, and previews upcoming activities in 2012.

As you consider your charitable gifts for the 2011 tax year, the SGA asks that you add the Society’s Endowment Fund to your list. The Fund supports educational outreach and the preservation of archaeological sites. The SGA is a registered non-profit organization. If you have already donated to the SGA for 2011, the Society thanks you.

Preston Holder was the most productive archaeologist of the Georgia Coast during the Federal Works Progress Administration era (WPA was created in April 1935), and, in fact, the SGA helped fund his salary prior to the WPA. Some artifacts from Holder’s work were displayed at the Visitor’s Center at the entrance to the St. Simons causeway. Kevin Kiernan discusses Holder’s work in the November 2011 issue of the Society for American Archaeology’s Archaeological Record, which is previewed in the full story.

Diaries are one of many primary sources about the past. Primary sources are records from people who had first-hand experience with what is recorded in the materials they have left behind. On this website we have a diary—of Abby the ArchaeoBus. The ArchaeoBus is a major outreach project of the SGA, and billed as Georgia’s mobile archaeology classroom. Using Abby’s diary as an example, consider the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as aids to understanding the past.

Catch up with the news of the SGA’s Augusta Chapter, the Augusta Archaeological Society, by reading the December issue of the AAS’s newsletter, The Debitage. The issue details activities of the AAS in 2011, and plans for a holiday party on December 8th.

The SGA thanks outgoing Early Georgia Editor Tom Pluckhahn for the four years of quality work he’s given the Society.

The well-attended October 2011 Frontier Faire at Fort Daniel, sponsored by the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society, a Chapter of the SGA, and the Fort Daniel Foundation, hosted a Trading Post, tours, a candle-maker, both Girl and Boy Scouts, a food area and more. The 2011 Frontier Faire is considered a definite success and will serve as a model for next year’s Faire.

Chica Arndt, President of the Coastal Georgia Archaeological Society (CGAS), will be speaking at the Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, meeting of the Hilton Head Chapter of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina. The meeting is free and open to the public, and will be held at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn at 1 pm.

President Catherine Long details the 2011 Fall Meeting, in Athens. Members and guests of the SGA enjoyed papers in the morning and afternoon of Saturday, 22 October, with the sessions split by a brief Business Meeting and a lunch break. The group reconvened in the evening at the Terrapin Brewery for silent and live fund-raising auctions. Over $1400 was raised for the SGA’s Endowment Fund, after expenses.

See lots of photos of the SGA’s ten tables and the ArchaeoBus at CoastFest 2011, held in October in Brunswick, by checking out the full story. Well over 9000 people attended CoastFest, and hundreds toured the ArchaeoBus and the exhibits under and around the SGA tent. The SGA installation was supported by 18 volunteers, many from the Golden Isles Archaeological Society, and also from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and the United Kingdom.

Step right up and contribute to the SGA’s Endowment Fund, and help the SGA twice! One way is your check; the second way is that the Coosawattee Foundation has issued a challenge grant—the Foundation will match up to $250.00 any donation received by December 31 in support of the Endowment Fund. Contributions made to SGA, a non-profit organization, help support education initiatives throughout Georgia and protect archaeological sites.

The University of Georgia Student Association for Archaeological Sciences recently sponsored a day-long atlatl workshop with Scott Jones, primitive technologist and expert in atlatl manufacture and use. Twelve SAAS members and their faculty advisor, Jared Wood, gathered at Scott’s outdoor classroom at “The Woods” just northeast of Lexington, and listened to Scott’s exciting lecture, then practiced primitive skills, and had great fun taking aim at cardboard quarry. The full story includes many exciting photographs of the outing.

The ArchaeoBus spent Friday, October 21st, 2011 at Georgia Council for the Social Studies conference in Athens, attended by 510 educators. The ArchaeoBus, accompanying displays, and the door prize the SGA offered were all well-received.

This week, 24–31 October, 2011, the SGA’s ArchaeoBus is at Fort Hawkins and open to the public, while excavations are in progress. This is the first time the ArchaeoBus has visited active excavations! Fort Hawkins, on a hill above the Ocmulgee National Monument and downtown Macon, dates to 1806, before Macon was founded. On the 31st, attend a Press Conference at 3:00PM, when you can see all that was found during the week, and tour the ArchaeoBus. At 5:00PM, the first Fort Hawkins Halloween Hauntings will begin, with ArchaeoBus tours a major highlight of this free, fun, family event.

UPDATED 12 Oct, 4:23pm. Join members and guests of the SGA at the Society’s Fall Meeting on the 22nd of October, in room 171 (first floor) of the Zell B. Miller Learning Center on the University of Georgia Campus in Athens. Read the abstracts of the presentations you can hear at the all-day meeting. Modest registration fee. Then, after a supper break, rejoin attendees at the (free) silent and live fund-raising auctions at Terrapin Brewery.

Leading national archaeological organizations are partnering to participate in National Archaeology Day, on 22 October 2011. What will you do to celebrate? In addition, across the US and Canada, there are events throughout the whole month of October. What will you do to celebrate archaeology this year? And, it’s not too soon to start planning your 2012 National Archaeology Day celebrations!