Submitted by Stephen Hammack (sthrnarchaeology@pstel.net)
Mercer students examine C-47 crash site from the 1940s—now an historic site!
The Environmental Management Division at Robins Air Force Base has been busy this summer and fall working with local students and helping to coordinate the base’s annual Native American Heritage Observance (NAHO) month. Three archaeology students from Mercer University, Leah Casler, Joey Rantz, and Kristen Stacey, volunteered to help conduct a Phase I survey in the Ocmulgee River floodplain, near Horse Creek, this summer. This was an area that archaeologists had previously identified as a potential site based on finding seven sherds of a Lamar vessel in a posthole test dug in 1986. Leah, Joey, and Kristen assisted the base archaeologist in digging 17 shovel tests at 10-m intervals throughout the potential site area, thereby learning the basics of the survey methodology. No material was recovered this summer, but a few additional shovel tests are planned for this fall or winter. Additionally, more students plan to assist in digging some test units at a site near Echeconnee Creek this winter. As Mercer has no field schools available at this point, and the anthropology major is an independent study program with Professor Joanna Watson, the Environmental Management Division, which oversees the base’s Cultural Resources program, is happy to help provide some training while getting some free labor in return. The photo shows the students at the site of a C-47 plane crash that is soon to be defined as a historic archaeological site.
Robins also celebrated NAHO month in November, a nationwide federal celebration taht is in its fourth year at the base. This year events included having primitive skills demonstrations by Scott Jones at Robins Elementary school and between buildings 300 and 301, a corn roast, public awareness talks by the base archaeologist at Robins Elementary and at Tucker Elementary in Perry, and a luncheon featuring a presentation by Cherokee Indian Diamond Go-Sti from north Georgia.
Posted online on Saturday, December 20th, 2008