The classic rule in preservation is that you can’t preserve something until you know you have it.

—Timothy P. Whalen, Director, Getty Conservation Institute*

This basic fact about heritage management is the reason that laws require archaeological survey—that is, the search for archaeological resources—prior to ground-disturbing development, including roads, buildings, and other infrastructure. The survey is a research step that is intended to locate hidden or previously unknown resources (in practice, surveys often also check records and files for known resources).

Of course, once you know the resource exists, managing it is another tricky undertaking.

Image from Getty website here.

The Whalen quote comes from Randy Kennedy’s article in the New York Times online titled “In History-Rich Region, a Very New System Tracks Very Old Things,” and dated 24 August 2010. The article focuses on:

…an ambitious Web-based system that will allow archaeologists and conservators…, for the first time, to gain access to decades’ worth of records about Jordan’s sites and to monitor the condition of those sites much more easily.

This pilot monitoring system, called the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities, has been developed for the country of Jordan. The MEGA-Jordan system is essentially an electronic inventory system that includes locational data; it may well be expanded for use in other geographic areas. The ease of access to Web-based mapping tools and open-source software increasingly make such systems possible, updatable, and cost-effective.

Preservation is an issue with many scales. The above is discussing what is involved in managing resources scattered across large land areas. Preservation and conservation are also an issue at a smaller scale—for instance, what museums, other institutions, and even individuals do to conserve collections and ancient objects.

The online resources of Whalen’s Getty Conservation Institute include a PDF titled “The Nature of Conservation: A Race Against Time” authored by Philip Ward (1986). Ward notes on page 64:

Conservation will necessarily evolve into different forms. It is possible that the two major activities, prevention and restoration, may become separated in some institutions.

Clearly, both at the national scale, and at the scale of the collection, prevention of vandalism and destruction, and maintenance of the resources are key issues.

* The Getty Conservation Institute is a branch of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

The University of Alabama’s Historical Map Archive includes digital versions of early twentieth century soil maps of Georgia.

However, to view the maps you must download the free Mr SID plugin. Mr SID is a Windows Shell Extension made by Lizardtech, only available for Windows XP or Vista. The company website notes: “The MrSID® file format is a proprietary technology that provides tools for the rapid compression, viewing, and manipulation of geospatial raster and LiDAR data.”

Download the free Mr SID plugin from this webpage.

Link to the Historical Soil Survey Maps of Georgia.

Link to the full Archive collection.

Thanks to Dan Elliott for this research tip….

Is there an out-of-print University of Georgia Press history book that you’re interested in reading?

You can do it now! The University of Georgia Press has partnered with the Digital Library of Georgia project to supply free online versions of many interesting and important works.

Consider James C. Bonner’s 1964 History of Georgia Agriculture, 1732-1860. Bonner describes the early land and labor systems of the state. This may sound pretty dry. But Bonner includes some interesting observations, like this regarding Colonial horticultural experimentation on page 13:

It was believed that the Georgia climate would produce exotic plants not grown elsewhere in the British possessions. To test this theory a “Trustee’s Garden” was laid out at Savannah, comprising a ten-acre experimental plat having a wide variety of soils. In this garden were grown oranges, olives, apples, pears, figs, vines, pomegranates, cotton, coffee, tea, bamboo, and also palma christi and other medicinal plants. After eight years of growth, the olive trees bore fruit which failed to mature, and cultivation of these trees was abandoned. Orange trees were more successful, and in 1770 more than 3,000 gallons of the juice alone were exported from the colony. This fruit was grown on the Georgia coast for more than a century afterwards, although subject to the hazards of winter freezes. The crop finally succumbed to the low winter temperature.

And it gets more interesting! The Trustees’ Garden still exists! The remaining parcel is in Savannah’s historic district, and includes the Charles H. Morris Center, shown in the photo below from the Garden website.

The agricultural experiments Bonner describes, however, were very important to the economic development of this poorly understood continent.

So, here’s a question. Did you notice that one of the medicinal plants Bonner mentions is “palma christi”? Do you know what that is?

Photograph of People Working in a Cotton Field; ARC Identifier 1633434 / Local Identifier 83-ML-4-90

Here’s a picture of people working in a cotton field. There’s no information about where it was taken. Where do you think the people and the field were? Why?

When was the photograph taken? The archival information is not terribly helpful. The photo is tagged “Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1876–1959″ by the National Archives, which make the image available online, but the span is over seven decades, so rather general. But wait, down further in the online record, the photo is part of a series called “Agricultural Marketing and Rural Life, compiled 1902–1938.” But does “compiled” help us narrow the date the photo was taken?

The US National Archives and Records Administration keeps papers, photographs, moving images, and more, only a very few of which are available online. Congress established the Archives in 1934, and staff immediately began to search government files for materials to store. The Archives now have 37 facilities scattered nationwide.

Perhaps you’d like to search the online records listing yourself. Click here to browse the subject tags. Or click here to browse the latest Prologue Magazine, which showcases materials from the Archives.

Are you looking for historic photographs of our National Parks?

The National Park Service’s Historic Photograph Collection includes more than two million images, and you can browse the two thousand they’ve posted online.

The Collection has six photographs posted online that are of Ocmulgee National Monument. The Monument’s webpages are here.

Here’s one (Catalog Number: HPC-000591) from the 1930s, when the earthlodge was being excavated. The photographer is uncredited.

At the top is one (Catalog Number: HPC-000790) from about 1941. It was taken by Glenn W. Peart. It shows the reconstructed earthlodge.

The mounds and occupation at Ocmulgee dates to the Early Mississippian period. Read more about it here in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Take a minute to browse the collection and see what you can find!

Looking for an historical map of North Carolina?

You’re in luck! The Carolina Digital Library and Archives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now has debuted North Carolina Maps, an online resource that includes digitized versions of more than 3000 maps dating from the late 1500s through 2000, and detailed maps for each of North Carolina’s counties. The online collection includes Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, which, among other things, can be helpful in discovering building locations.

The project notes:

Each map was digitized at a resolution high enough to enable viewers to zoom in close enough to see and read even the smallest details on each image. All of the original scans have been maintained and are available for research, publication, and display.

…and…

An effort has been made to identify and include every available map of North Carolina, or of regions, counties, or towns within the state.

Click here to go to the home page of North Carolina Maps.

History professor Loren Schweninger at the University of North Carolina—Greensboro has spent eighteen years collecting data on slaves across fifteen states and the District of Columbia. This information is now available through a database offered on a website hosted by the University’s libraries. The database is called the Digital Library on American Slavery.

Schweninger and his associates put considerable time and effort into gathering this data. At present, the database includes 2,975 legislative petitions and approximately 14,512 county court petitions, only a sample of those available. The database includes over 1100 records from Georgia, obtained from the state archives. The University’s press release notes:

Building the database for the archive was painstaking work. Schweninger visited about 160 county courthouses in the South and 15 state archives between 1991 and 1995. “The first three years, I was on the road 540 days,” he said.

The database is organized for flexible searching; you can search by slave name, or browse subjects. The subject listing has breadth. One even is American Indians. The database is comprised of what are termed “Petition Analysis Records.” These are court records from across the South, generated when someone petitioned the court on some issue.

Here’s an example from a Jefferson County (Louisville, Georgia) court record from 1799 (PAR # 20679901). The abstract of the two-page petition is:

Reuben Beckum claims that he has been slandered by Frederick Evans, sustaining damages of $3,000. Beckum, who describes himself as a “good true honest and faithful citizen from the time of his nativity,” charges Evans with accusing him of being a rogue and a Negro, and of keeping a Negro in South Carolina to steal property. He asks the court to award compensation for the damage caused by the uttering and publishing of these “false feigned Scandalous, Malicious and approbrious english words.”

Fortunately, the database records the results of this name-calling court case—the petition was denied. One can’t help but think there’s much more to the friction between Evans and Beckum, but you’d have to dig into archival records yourself to find out!

NAGPRA stands for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This is a federal law, originally passed in 1990 (with only minor amendments since), which:

Provides for the ownership or control of Native American cultural items (human remains and objects) excavated or discovered on Federal or tribal lands. Vests ownership or control of human remains and associated funerary objects: (1) in the lineal descendants of the Native American; or (2) if the lineal descendants cannot be ascertained, or the funerary objects and so forth are unassociated, in the Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization on whose land the remains or objects were located, or which has the closest cultural affiliation with the remains or objects (and makes claim for them), or, if the land was Federal, in the Indian tribe recognized as aborginally occupying the area (unless a different tribe, by preponderance of the evidence, makes a stronger claim). Provides for disposition of unclaimed Native American cultural items according to regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior.

NAGPRA is in the news in March 2010 for three reasons.

First…

First, the National NAGPRA Program launched “the online Culturally Affiliated Native American Inventories Database summarizing data from museums and Federal agencies that have NAGPRA compliance obligations” on March 1st.

Reference databases tend to be quite useful…. Here’s the link to all of the NAGPRA online databases, and here’s one to the new Culturally Affiliated Native American Inventories Database. This database:

is a transmission for public use of data from museums and Federal agencies that have NAGPRA compliance obligations. Many of the Native American human remains described here have been culturally affiliated as a result of consultation with tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. All individuals on this database should be represented in a Notice of Inventory Completion. The tribe or tribes designated as eligible to receive the human remains in each inventory are noted in the remarks section of the record.

Second…

Second, on March 15th:

The National Park Service…announced a final rule has been published in the Federal Register establishing a process for the disposition of Native American human remains that are in museums or on exhibit in the United States and which have not yet been culturally affiliated to a tribe or Native Hawaiian organization. There are currently more than 124,000 Native American human remains listed under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) as unidentifiable, 4,000 individuals have been returned to tribes for re-burial in 82 agreements approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

This takes effect in May 2010. It’s specifically meant to address what institutions must do legally with Native American human remains that are considered unidentifiable as to affilation with modern, living Native American peoples (tribes).

Some clarification on the term “culturally unidentifiable” is included in the law (Federal Register, vol. 75, no. 49, Monday, March 15, 2010, page 12403, and here online). It says:

Culturally unidentifiable refers to human remains and associated funerary objects in museum or Federal agency collections for which no lineal descendant or culturally affiliated Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization has been identified through the inventory process.

The law goes on (same page):

Disposition means the transfer of control over Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony by a museum or Federal agency under this part.

This transfer process is also sometimes referred to as repatriation. Strictly speaking, repatriation refers to the return of someone to their own country.

The law (Federal Register, vol. 75, no. 49, Monday, March 15, 2010, page 12379, and here online) clarifies:

In brief, this rule pertains to those human remains, in collections, determined by museums and Federal agencies to be Native American, but for whom no relationship of shared group identity can be reasonably traced, historically or prehistorically, between a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and an identifiable earlier group. These individuals are listed on inventories as culturally unidentifiable Native American human remains. The rule requires consultation on the culturally unidentifiable human remains by the museum or Federal agency with Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations whose tribal lands or aboriginal occupancy areas are in the area where the remains were removed. If cultural affiliation still cannot be determined and repatriation achieved, then the Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization may request disposition of the remains. The museum or Federal agency would then publish a notice and transfer control to the tribe, without first being required to appear before the Review Committee to seek a recommendation for disposition approval from the Secretary of the Interior. Disposition requests, which do not meet the parameters of the rule, would still require approval from the Secretary, who may request a recommendation from the Review Committee.

In response to this final rule, expect museums and institutions it applies to to once again review their collections.

Third…

Most recently, the professional archaeological community has expressed concern for funding for the NAGPRA Grants Program. This program seeks:

to increase the number of successful repatriations through the support for projects that increase the ability of tribes and museums to facilitate consultation and work together through the NAGPRA process.

Funding for this program, as with all federal programs, has received close scrutiny each year. For Fiscal Year 2011, again as with many programs, there’s a proposed cut in the budget. This is of special concern because grant applications can be expected to increase, especially in response to the final rule for culturally unidentifiable human remains mentioned above.

In response to this situation, on March 19th the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), a national organization with more than 7000 members, provided written testimony to the House Appropriations Committee “in regards to funding for the NAGPRA Grants Program, which is essential to the continued success of repatriation efforts in the United States” for Fiscal Year 2011.

Download a copy of the SAA’s testimony from this webpage.

In the written testimony, the SAA noted:

Of concern today is the issue of funding for the NAGPRA Grants Program in FY2011. The administration’s budget proposal, if enacted, would cut funding for the program by $581,000, instead of providing a much- needed increase to reflect current demand. SAA respectfully requests that Congress reject this proposed cut, and increase funding to a level of $4.2 million, as recommended by the 2008 National NAGPRA Review Committee report, in order to meet demonstrated need.

The SAA testimony documents how demand for NAGPRA funds has been increasing, and can be expected to increase. The SAA, therefore, has joined the National NAGPRA Review Committee in requesting increased funding for the NAGPRA Grant Program for FY2011.

Finally…

Although many high-dollar programs are in the news these days, there are also many very important smaller programs in the news. Some link strongly to our nation’s archaeological heritage, such as these events related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The University of Georgia Libraries have a special section called the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Among the materials available there is a rare map collection. Some of the maps have been scanned and are available in digital form online.

This is the eastern portion of a 1796 map (labeled Negative 4911; the author is Tanner). The original depicts roads or trails and rivers from the Georgia Coast westward to the Mississippi River. Indians still held the interior, but the map shows the encroachment of Euroamericans from both the Atlantic and, to some degree, the Gulf Coasts.

This item is in the Rare Map Collection online, in the group of maps called “Frontier to New South.” Click here for that listing.

What other interesting materials can you find in the online collections held by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library?

Georgia’s Secretary of State’s website includes useful reference materials including the Georgia Archives. Current featured content on that website includes the Virtual Vault, which, the website says:

is your portal to some of Georgia’s most important historical documents, from 1733 to the present. The Virtual Vault provides virtual access to historic Georgia manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records housed in the state archives.

The “Touring Georgia” section of the Virtual Vault includes four photographs from around Clayton, including one of this lovely and bucolic farm.

While you are likely to expect digital versions of important government records, like tax digests and death certificates, take a look and see what else you find—and let us know what surprises you or what you’re glad you’ve found—online!

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.

The Southeast Region Archives, supported by your tax dollars, house diverse historical records collected by the government. They note on their website:

Records in the National Archives tell the story of southern families and communities, technological advances that changed lives, and social and economic forces that shaped the makeup of our society.

Most people go to the Archives to look up records and do research. I went there recently and looked at photographs and records of houses and farms purchased and destroyed to create an impounded lake in Tennessee. This project was done by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which was chartered by Congress in 1933. The lakes were created primarily to reduce flooding and to enable power generation at the dams. They also became important recreational destinations, and improved opportunities for economic development.

Below is a photograph of a farm that was destroyed so the land could be flooded, I think to make Douglas Reservoir, near Dandridge, Tennessee.

The Douglas Dam was completed in 1943, and lies on the French Broad River, which is part of the Tennessee River drainage, which has nine TVA dams with hydroelectric plants. Hydropower constitutes only about 10% of the power TVA generates; other power sources are from fossil-fuel plants (60%) and nuclear plants (30%). Green power contributions are negligible. Hydroelectric facilities are integrated into the dams that impound the water, and use the power of the water flowing because of gravity from higher in the reservoir to the lower elevation below the dam to generate electricity. The water flows through a turbine as it falls, making the turbine move. This movement is converted into electricity. The TVA provides a drawing of this here.

The TVA cautions fisherfolk to eat smaller, younger fish and avoid the fatty flesh and skin to reduce exposure to toxins like PCBs, chlordane, DDT, dioxins, and mercury, which are mostly in the mud at the bottom of the reservoirs, rather than in the water.

Many families were uprooted when these dams and reservoirs were built. The government can legally take people’s land through laws pertaining to eminent domain, even if the owners do not consent. The government can do this if the land is converted to public use.

Eminent domain laws are a legal means for our country to balance the needs of all (public needs) against the rights of the few. In the USA, eminent domain was adopted from British laws extant at the time the Constitution was drafted in the late 1700s. However, our government cannot take lands (property) without just compensation, and only if it benefits the public good.

A family who loses their farm and lands so that a dam and reservoir can beconstructed suffers a great loss; however, a whole region that endures less flooding and has more and more inexpensive electricity enjoys considerable benefits. Nevertheless, balancing the good of all against the rights of few is tricky and difficult. Should the family receive the same money for their farm as they would if they sold it to another farmer or a neighbor? Should they receive more or less?

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.

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.

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.

You may not know about free software that lets you “fly” across the Earth’s surface, viewing satellite pictures of the surface below. The software for doing this is provided free by Google, and is called Google Earth.

As they say on their website:

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places, and share with others.

Remember, you need a fairly fast broadband connection and video processor on your computer to do this.

One fun thing to do with Google Earth is to overlay old maps on the modern landscape. The example here is a historic map that I found in the Library of Congress online map collection. This map was created in 1864 by Robert Knox Sneden (who lived 1832–1918), and shows the Atlanta area as of 1 September 1864, complete with batteries, earthworks, and the locations of both Union and Confederate forces, as well as city streets. Remember that the city of Atlanta fell to Sherman’s army only a week later, on 8 September. The Virginia Historical Society holds the original map, which measures 45 x 34 centimeters.

In this article, I’m just examining a portion of the entire 1864 Sneden map, the part that spans downtown Atlanta. The top image shows the small cropped area of the old map on the right, with the same area from Google Earth (north is “up” in both cases). I’ve put arrows to the same features on both maps. They are a particular street and the location of the Civil-War-period train station. You can see the city plan is very similar, except for the interstate corridor east of downtown, and some alteration of the north-south rail line on the west side of downtown.

Below is a picture that shows how when you overlay the map image on Google Earth (or “drape” it), the software gives you bright green “handles” to stretch and manipulate the inserted image atop Google Earth’s satellite view.

Why don’t the maps match exactly? Do you know what the global positioning system is? How has map-making changed since 1864?

Here’s a link for the Sneden map.

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.

This is just a partial list….

Bartowdig is a website about a single Native American archaeological site in northwest Georgia. Part of the site is beneath a state highway. Widening of that highway precipitated recent research to mitigate the impact on the part of the ancient community that would be destroyed by road construction. The site contains the remains of a Native American occupation that lasted from approximately 300 B.C. until A.D 650. These remains include three earthen mounds and a large circular ditch, along with an extensive “midden” that represents a dark soil mixture of decomposed organic refuse and artifacts that surrounded numerous residences. The site was excavated in advance of the widening of State Highway 61/113, with over 50,000 square feet excavated. The Leake site archaeological investigation revealed that this community was a major sociopolitical center during the prehistoric Middle Woodland period, figuring prominently in the interaction among peoples from across Southeastern and Midwestern North America.

Archaeological excavations in 2003 and 2004 required in advance of improvements to a four-way intersection investigated the Spier House, which was once a grand Antebellum plantation house surrounded by acres of farmland near Fairburn. The house was built in 1851 by Allison Spier, a successful politician and planter, and destroyed several decades ago. Researchers found that the house had become an archaeological site of three granite chimneys, a stone and brick-lined basement, a well, and the ruins of three outbuildings. The Spier House ruins contain some unusual features for a nineteenth-century house in Georgia, including: 1) a basement, 2) a stacked hearth chimney in the basement and floor above, and 3) the chimney masonry style. Constructing a residence with a basement was extremely rare in rural Georgia. In addition, most early Georgia houses did not contain a chimney with stacked hearths. Chimneys built with cut granite were not unusual, but the immense size of the slabs and exquisite craftsmanship of the Spier House chimneys is quite distinctive. This website was produced on behalf of GDOT by New South Associates of Stone Mountain, which conducted an in-depth archaeological investigation and an architectural historical study.

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.

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.