Arkansas Archeology Month 2016 was celebrated with a wide variety of presentations, activities, demonstrations and displays. Activities included artifact ID, flintknapping, basketry/weaving, spear throwing and tool demonstrations, tours, open houses, discovery boxes, lab days, a spring dig, mock and shoebox digs, and workshops. Presentations were given on Historic Washington, Van Winkle Mill, Ozark bluff shelters and the Breckenridge shelter, the Trail of Tears, Spring Equinox at Toltec Mounds, prehistoric agriculture, novaculite, Camp Monticello, Mesoamerican archeology, and the Clovis Culture. Other topics presented included prehistoric games, 19th Century and Native American pottery, music archeology, archeology of the prairie, and historic bottles. There was a Native American art display and an Archeolympics event. The University of Arkansas Press offered a statewide archeological book sale the entire month of March!
Aspects of Arkansas historic and prehistoric archeology were shared with some 1,700 individuals through 47 programs held at 35 venues around the state. Many of the programs were shared via Society, Survey and Chapter Facebook pages and other social media outlets, which included information on the activities as well as photos. Programs were also written about in newspapers and communicated to the public through television and radio. In addition, a Governor’s Proclamation was received from Governor Asa Hutchinson declaring March 2016 Archeology Month!
Besides the Research Stations of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, participants included:
State Parks: Davidsonville Historic State Park, Hampson Archeological Museum State Park, Lake Dardanelle State Park, Parkin Archeological State Park, Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Lake Catherine State Park, and Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park.
Museums: Arkansas State University Museum, Arkansas Tech University Museum, Delta Gateway Museum, Faulkner County Museum, Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum, Texarkana Museums System – Museum of Regional History, and University of Arkansas Museum Collections.
Libraries, Colleges & Others: Arkansas Tech Anthropology Club, Delta Rivers Nature Center, Ko-ko-ci Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society, Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society, Rick Evans Grandview Prairie Conservation Education Center, Southern Arkansas University, Tunican Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society, University of Arkansas Little Rock, Ouachita Baptist University/Riley-Hickingbotham Library, University of Arkansas Environmental Dynamics Department, Cabot Public Library, University of Central Arkansas, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Fayetteville Public Library, Ark-Homa Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society, Garland County Library, Oaklawn Center on Aging, Central Mississippi Valley Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society, Searcy County Historical Society, Fred J. Taylor Library, University of Arkansas Monticello, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Desha County 4-H, University of Arkansas Press, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.
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Special thanks go to Archeological & Environmental Consultants L.L.C. in Austin, Texas and Parkin Archeological State Park as well as the Bill Jordan Public Education Fund for their donations in support of Archeology Month 2016.
The Archeology Month poster was sponsored by the Arkansas Archeological Society. It featured the 2015 Society Training Program with a picture of participants surveying a cemetery and was included in the national display of Archeology Month Posters at the 2016 Society for American Archaeology meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Many thanks are given to all those who provided programs, donations, volunteer hours or participated in some way to make Archeology Month 2016 a great success!
Marilyn Knapp
Archeology Month Coordinator
Read about Archeology Month 2015
