May is Archaeology Month in the state of Georgia, and also Historic Preservation Month, but did you also know that May is Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Awareness Month? The Georgia Lyme Disease Association sponsors this month to promote awareness about these diseases as well as encourage prevention practices. Find more information online here, where you can find resources, stories, statistics, and articles detailing the signs and symptoms of tick-borne diseases. In Georgia, ticks may be active year round, but they are most active on calm, cool, damp (humid) days over 60 degrees. You can engage in some prevention by avoiding tick infested areas, using tick/bug sprays, and checking yourself thoroughly after venturing outside.

Historical and archaeological books and articles commonly tell the story of the past either using a timeline (a sequential version of the past) or using a specific topic—a place or person or theme—to anchor the tale. This story notes that there’re two sequential versions of Georgia’s past on this website—a table and a prose post. The full story contrasts these with Caldwell’s volume on research prior to the flooding of the Allatoona Reservoir, and a book on food and the human past (and future)—both with topical foci. Caldwell’s volume is recommended to anyone interested in Georgia’ prehistory.

Where was Fort Daniel? This frontier fort was long believed to have been on a ridge-top knoll on Hog Mountain in Gwinnett County. In 2007, the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society, a Chapter of the SGA, began a research program under the direction of Dr. James D’Angelo to locate physical remains of the fort using two forms of subsurface remote sensing, metal detection and ground penetrating radar. This detailed article reports the happy results of that research.

A January 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal by Cameron McWhirter discusses battlefield archaeology in the Kennesaw/Smyrna area, highlighting research by SGA’s own Garrett Silliman.

On October 6, 8, and 13 of 2010, Blue Ridge Archaeological Guild members assisted Becky Bruce-Vaughters (US Forest Service archaeologist) and Dr. Jack Wynn (US Forest Service archaeologist, retired) in conducting shovel tests, metal detection, and artifact collections at two historical sites near the shoreline of beautiful Nottley Lake in Blairsville, Georgia.

The report GPR Survey at Gascoigne Bluff, St. Simmons Island, Georgia presents the findings of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey conducted during the SGA’s 2010 fall meeting. GPR survey of a portion of Gascoigne Bluff on St. Simons Island was performed on October 16, 2010, and report author Dan Elliott was assisted by SGA members in completing the survey. This project was a joint public outreach and research effort by the LAMAR Institute, the Society for Georgia Archaeology, and the Cassina Garden Club.

Even the national news recently picked up on the story about Camp Lawton, where investigations, including a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey, have revealed the exact location of this Civil War/War Between the States prisoner of war camp that was established in 1864.

This story explores one particular hand tool that archaeologists frequently use: the shovel. Did you know that the field archaeologist in Georgia usually uses only two types of shovels? And that they are used for specific activities? And that they are usually sharpened so they cut the soil? Read all about it in the full story!

Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. recently tested seven prehistoric late Lamar (Mississippian) farmsteads in Oglethorpe County, finding post and pit features. This project provided a good opportunity to study a series of closely-grouped Wolfskin phase sites.

Archaeological crews from the American Museum of Natural History have been excavating on St. Catherines Island for over 30 years. Research this fall focused on the McQueen Shell Ring. Data suggests that the ring was the only substantial Late Archaic presence in this section of St. Catherines Island. (The full story may be slow to load due to a large figure.)

The National Park Service’s 2010 workshop on archaeological prospection techniques entitled “Current Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in the 21st Century” will be held May 24–28, 2010, at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton, North Dakota. Registration is $475. The full story has a link to the application form and more information.

The Coastal Heritage Society of Savannah has been sponsoring archaeological research on Revolutionary War archaeological sites across the city as part of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program (your tax dollars at work!). The report of this highly successful research is now complete, and available as a downloadable PDF.

The Society for American Archaeology has 7000-plus members, and is “an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas.” PDFs of back issues of the Society’s magazine The SAA Archaeological Record are available for free, except for the latest issue. You may enjoy perusing them. In particular, the November 2008 issue is recommended; it has a series of articles on our current understanding of the Archaic period in North America.

Every once in a while news about the archaeology of southeastern North America is reported in mainstream publications. In June, the New York Times includes a report on carvings found on the wall of a cave in southeast Kentucky which may be an extremely early version of Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary. The final syllabary had 85 characters, each representing a syllable.

Many academic archaeological research projects are funded at least in part by the National Science Foundation. President Obama has made it an administration priority to as part of his Plan for Science and Innovation to double funding to key research agencies over the next decade. The House of Representatives in turn has proposed a reduction in the President’s proposed increase for FY 2010 for NSF.

Humans are humans; we tend to like some of the same places on the landscape no matter who we are and when we are alive. This means that some of the same places were occupied over and over. What makes a location more—or less—attractive to human visitors or inhabitants?

Southern Research has recently carried out a number of projects in Georgia that may be of interest to the members of SGA. Barnes Cemetery Relocation, Bibb County The Barnes Cemetery was first recorded in 2007 during a reconnaissance for the Macon-Bibb Industrial Authority conducted by Southern Research. The reconnaissance was required by a site certification [...]

The wooden building known as Gum Creek Courthouse is over a century old, and can be viewed in northern Newton County.

In 2008, TRC’s Atlanta office has been working on a stream of large pipeline projects across the Southeast and into the Great Plains, continuing with the kind of projects that kept us busy in 2007. In addition to survey and testing for the various pipelines, TRC has carried out a number of other out-of-state projects [...]

In December we held our meeting with festive flare by combining two events. Members provided a pot luck dinner, with a cool presentation by Jack Wynn on the “Archaeology of Upland Peru.” We had the Andes as a snowy backdrop in many of the slides Jack took of the sites and the archaeologists he met. [...]

Since the summer, TRC has continued to work hard on pipeline (and other) projects across the Southeast. In Georgia, we have carried out a handful of survey projects in DeKalb, Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Houston, McDuffie, and Whitfield counties, with nothing especially interesting to report. One project that seemed to have potential for some good [...]

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) has been conducting an archaeological investigation at the traditional site of one of Georgia’s earliest frontier forts, Fort Daniel, in Hog Mountain (Hamilton Mill), Gwinnett County, Georgia. New study of old documents shows that Fort Daniel was not original to the site, but rather constructed in late 1813 to [...]

Screening at Callaway Gardens Site 9Hs157. Southern Research, Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc., and the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation held an archaeology demonstration dig in conjunction with the Summer Meeting of the American Council of Engineer Companies/Georgia on June 16th. The ACEC met this year at the Southern Pines Conference Center at Callaway Gardens in Pine [...]

Terracon archaeologists and historians continue to maintain busy field schedules across the southeast. The summer and autumn seasons have sent our staff to southwest, northern, and coastal Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, and the far reaches of northwest Virginia. Recently we have completed Phase I & II surveys for GDOT of a 32-mile corridor road [...]

—photo by John Trussel John Trussell and Stephen Hammack visited two small caves along the Houston-Macon County line in August 2006 to look for petroglyphs. Only the Houston cave was large enough to crawl into, though John (2007 OAS Treasurer) put on his thinking cap and opted to take pictures. John’s photo of Stephen emerging [...]

Southeastern Archeological Services (SAS) has completed a data recovery excavation project and several surveys in Georgia in the past few months. We have current survey work ongoing in Sumter and Lee counties, Pickens County, and Gordon County. Tom Gresham and Rob Benson just completed data recovery excavations on a buried, stratified site on the banks [...]

Over the last three months, TRC has become very busy with a number of large archaeological projects across the Southeast. Here in Georgia, we’ve conducted archaeological investigations in Cobb, Coweta, Forsyth, Fulton, Gordon, Hall, Henry, Lowndes, and Whitfield counties. The most exciting project we’ve been working on is for a planned Civil War battlefield park [...]

Archaeologists with EEG recently completed the evaluations of 11 sites on Robins Air Force Base in Houston County, Georgia. Sites 9HT55 and 9HT56, both near Echeconnee Creek, were the only two found to be eligible for listing on the National Register. The former had seven components (Early, Middle, and Late Archaic; Early and Middle Woodland; [...]

The 1990 issue of Early Georgia (volume 18) featured Thomas H. Gresham’s article “Historic Patterns of Rock Piling and the Rock Pile Problems.” In the introduction, Mr. Gresham notes: Rock piles, a term that can be broadly applied to a wide array of prehistoric and historic features, have long been of interest to the archaeologist [...]