Ocmulgee Indian Celebration
[The Ocmulgee Indian Celebration]{.underline} will be held September 17th and 18th at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia! The annual Ocmulgee Indian Celebration
Blue Ridge Archaeology Guild (BRAG)
Wednesday, September 14th, 6:00 PM
Parks and Recreation building at 365 Riley Rd. in Dahlonega, Ga. 30533.
The guest speaker for the September’s meeting will be Daniel M. Roper, a writer, editor and publisher of the quarterly magazine, GEORGIA BACKROADS**.** This magazine features short stories of unique Georgia history, travel and nature articles. Dan, who received his undergraduate degree in forestry, will be speaking on the subject “They are not Trail Trees!” to counter a belief that bent trees are guides. His discussion on the trail tree issue, will cover why the historical and scientific evidence strongly suggests that bent trees are natural rather than of Cherokee origin. A question and answer session will follow the talk.
The September meeting will also include a vote for officers whose terms are expiring. The nomination committee met and recommended the present slate of officers return for the next year: All agreed to serve another year. The nominees are: President: Wayne Hooper, Vice-President: Tony Shore, Secretary: Jack Wynn, Treasurer: Russ Wright, At-Large Board: Lynne and Beatrix Clark, Manny Carvalho and Chris Worick. Members will also be asked to vote on recommended increase in dues to cover projected future expenses in 2017.
The guest speaker for the next meeting on October 12th will be Dr. Bill Balco , Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Georgia. Dr. Balco will share with us the latest information on his continuing digs in Italy and Sicily from this summer.
Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society (GAAS)
After a summer break, GAAS meetings return in September! Meetings will be held every second Tuesday of the month September-May at the Fernbank Musuem. The next will be:
Tuesday, September 13, 6:30 pm
Fernbank Museum of Natural History 676 Clifton Road Atlanta, GA 30307
(In the Auditorium on the bottom level to the right of the main exhibit
hall)
The guest speaker will be James B. Langford. Langford serves as president of the Coosawattee Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded in 1987 to promote the conservation of American Indian occupation sites and related native lands. His talk centers around the period immediately before and after Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto appeared in NW Georgia in 1540. The population of the area was on the rise – an acceleration that had been going on for almost 150 years as evidenced by new villages and hamlets that had been springing up in the Etowah-Coosa–Coosawattee Basin since about 1400AD. By 1600AD, or within about 50 years of DeSoto’s arrival, about 95 percent of the local population had disappeared. Multiple epidemics and disruption of the political and social structures of the Coosa Chiefdom almost completely destroyed the complex cultures that had inhabited NW Georgia for several hundred years.
Researchers did not understand the complexity of the social structures in NW Georgia until the 1970s and 1980s when they began to focus on several of the archaeological sites in these river valleys. Mr. Langford will talk about those early days of examining the sites, the ceramics and the European artifacts and how the evidence began to tell a remarkable story of exploration, death and survival. The DeSoto diaries had been well-known and studied for many years, but no one knew exactly where the events in the diaries took place. Now we know a great deal more, and the physical evidence gives us a rich insight into how these people lived and died and how the survivors created new societies.
Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS)
Tuesday, September 20, 7:00 pm
Guest speaker Kelly Bradley, the Director of 19th Century Historic Houses at the Atlanta History Center, will be speaking about living history. Born into a long line of teachers, in her teenage years Kelly headed off to college with the intention of one day teaching high school socials studies. Flash forward almost two decades, five major changes, and three universities later, and she has yet to find her way into a classroom. Kelly has made the AHC her home for the last eight years by finding new ways to educate youth and adult visitors about all things history.
GARS will be having a group tour of the 33-acre campus of the Atlanta History Center on Saturday, September 24. The Atlanta History Center is a unique oasis nestled among one of Atlanta’s most historic neighborhoods. Award-winning exhibitions, historic houses, enchanting gardens, and interactive experiences offer something for everyone looking to explore our Atlanta’s past. Meet in the main atrium (by the admissions desk) at 10:30pm. The admission fee for this field trip is FREE for GARS members! Check the event page on facebook for more information.
GARS website is new and improved! Please visit thegars.org to see more upcoming events, including the 8th annual Fort Daniel Frontier Faire on October 15! Additionally, GARS had a laboratory kick-off day on September 10 for volunteers to learn about future archaeology lab days for processing Fort Daniel artifacts; look for those opportunities beginning in November!
Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (OAS)
Monday, September 12, 6:30 pm
Mercer University Science and Engineering Building, Room 202 (change
from usual), 1550 College Street, Macon 31201.
This month’s speaker is historian Arron Bowers presenting, “The Confederacy, Myths, Misconceptions, and that D***** Flag”. Please plan to join us as Arron shares with us a historical perspective formed over sixty years of study on questions such as “Why do we commemorate the losing side of a conflict?’ and “Was it really a “civil war.”?-and “What exactly is the Confederate flag anyway?”
Please visit their website www.sgaoas.com and attend the OAS meeting to see upcoming events including Artifact ID days. Their next ID day will be on October 8th at the McIntosh House in Indian Springs from 12 to 4 pm.
Posted online on Sunday, September 11th, 2016