One Year Anniversary…

This month is both the one year anniversary of my permanent arrival in Magnolia and the one year anniversary of the discovery of the theft of the Cedar Grove ceramic vessels from the AAS-SAU Research Station facility in the Bruce Center.

I’ll be posting a one-year report to the blog in the next couple of weeks…that’ll take care of the anniversary of my tenure as AAS-SAU Research Archeologist….but as for the stolen pots…

Last week, the Magnolia Banner-News ran a nice front-page, above-the-fold story that hopefully puts the pots back into the public memory (so they can keep an eye out for them) and may drum up some donations for building our security measures. Look here for a PDF of the article.

The Magnolia Banner-News continues to do a great job of covering both the case and archeology in general.

All of you out there…keep your eyes out for the pots…Click here for PDF list of what was stolen or here for a full color web site version. The Offical Press Release regarding the theft can be found here.

Coalition for Ozark Living Traditions

Earlier this week I caught wind of a new organization (thanks to Mary B.) called “The Coalition for Ozark Living Traditions” (COLT). According to its mission statement, COLT is a not-for-profit organization established to support individuals and organizations that participate in and support the cultural traditions and traditional arts of the Ozarks region.

You can check out their yahoo group here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COLT_list/

At any rate…at first blush I thought this group might fall into the “defenders of the pure, unspoiled Ozarks” category (those of you familiar with my work know that my dissertation attempts to deconstruct both negative and positive stereotypes about the history of the Ozarks)…but I just got this notice about a “Talking Ozarks Symposium” which looks like it may take a more nuanced view of Ozark history. I mean, just admitting that there has been Ozark In-Migrations (in the plural) is a step toward anti-essentializing the region.

Talking Ozarks Symposium Update

Co-sponsored by C.O.L.T. (the Coalition for Ozark Living Traditions) and the Arkansas Folklife Program, the 2006 Talking Ozarks Symposium will take place September 8-9 in Pocahontas, AR. The theme for this year’s event will be Ozarks In-migration. We invite talks, papers, panels, and presentations on aspects of cultural change to the Ozarks region as a result of new populations. Topics may be historical or contemporary and may examine both cultural and environmental aspects of population additions to the Ozarks. For more information and/or submissions contact either Rachel Reynolds (fiddlestixrr@hotmail.com) or Michael Luster (luster@aol.com) PO Box 102 Mammoth Spring, AR 72554. The Arkansas Folklife Program is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arkansas State University and the Arkansas Department of Heritage. The Coalition for Ozark Living Traditions is a not-for-profit organization.

Bush Pardons Two Tennessee Moonshiners

The Knoxville News Sentinel (and the Facing South blog) reported earlier this month that President Bush has pardoned two Tennesseans convicted decades ago of moonshine charges. The pardons, of course, will restore full U.S. citizenship to the men, including the rights to vote and buy a gun.

My favorite line from this piece comes from Charles E. McKinley, 75, of Pall Mall, Tennessee (one of two pardoned moonshiners):

“I’d almost be a Republican after that.”

No word, however, on granting voting rights to the thirteen percent of African-American men–1.4 million–who are disenfranchised due to felony convictions….the majority of these convictions are, of course, for the possession of (and intent to sell) controlled substances..Apparently not all controlled substances are equal in the eyes of the administration.

Read more about the pardons at:

http://www.southernstandard.net/news.php?viewStory=26654

In Arkansas:No Bullet Holes in Elvis

I don’t know if people outside of the state are aware that we in Arkansas have recently rediscovered the ivory-billed woodpecker (Nancy McCartney, curator of Zoology at the UofA Museum informs me that it is properly Campephilus principalis)–a bird that was thought to have been extinct since the 1940s. I, of course, found it amusing that the code-name that researchers used for the bird prior to a confirmed sighting was “Elvis.” (No, really we’re looking for Elvis….I heard there was an Elvis sighting around here).

Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters did a piece that appeared Dec. 11th on the woodpecker entitled “‘Elvis’ woodpecker draws searchers to Arkansas“..funny enough, but it is a quote in the last portion of the piece that caught my attention….

What happens if they find one?

The first priority is protecting the bird, and treating it if it is injured, Andrew said. That could include closing off the area, he said, though wildlife officials plan to work closely with local communities to avoid cramping their style. So far, he said, local residents had been supportive. Signs describing the ivory-bill have weathered well in Arkansas, Andrew said. “We have signs that were put up in April that have not one bullet hole in them — which is a reflection, I think, of the community’s reaction to the bird.”

A Woman’s Work…

The Open Collections Program of Harvard University Library recently announced the completion of its first on-line collection: “Women Working, 1800-1930,” & it is promising, indeed.

Featuring approximately 500,000 pages and images documenting women’s roles in theU.S. economy between 1800 and the Great Depression, including working conditions, conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygiene, conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the work place, and social issues: digitized pages and images of selected rare and historical books, institutional papers, personal papers, diaries, and photographs from Harvard’s network of libraries, archives, and museums.

The collection is completely free and available to anyone with access to the Internet. The second Open Collection, entitled “Emigration and Immigration, 1789-1930″ will become available in Spring 2006, and a third Open Collection on contagion and infectious disease between ca.1700 and 1930 is also forthcoming.

Projects such as this & the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project make me happy to be a historical researcher in the 21st century….

Old Davidsonville, Arkansas!

11/8/2005: Friends & fellow AAS-ers make the news in Jonesboro by excavating an early nineteenth century trash feature containing lots o’ artifacts at Old Davidsonville State Park….

http://www.jonesborosun.com/archivedstory.asp?ID=17011

A Halloween Posting:The Mysterious Skull of William Wirt

William Wirt was born on November 8, 1772 at Blandensburg, Maryland and died February 18, 1834. He was a prominent lawyer in the early days of the republic, a statesman, and an author.

Wirt acted as prosecutor in the conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr in 1807 and served as United States Attorney General from 1817 to 1829. Over the course of his career, he argued over 170 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1832 Wirt was the unsuccessful nominee of the Anti-Masonic Party for the Presidency of the United States….His head, apearantly, has been sitting on a shelf in D.C. Council member Jim Graham’s office for a year and half.

A Washington Post article of October 20, 2005 outlines how Doug Owsley, reknowned forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian and famous skull measurer, had to climb down into the Wirt family crypt and confirm that the skull was indeed that of the Honorable Mr. Wirt.

“The mystery of the missing skull is a macabre tale that includes grave-robbing, an eccentric collector, a Washington politician, a former attorney general and a mysterious skull sitting in an old tin box. It all began around Christmas of 2003, when Bill Fecke, then manager of Washington’s Congressional Cemetery, got a phone call from a man who wouldn’t identify himself. “What do you know about William Wirt’s skull?” the mysterious caller asked…”

Sounds like a movie trailer, doesn’t it? Read the whole article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902374.html

Archaeologists and Beer

I’ve always known that there is a deep connection between archaeologists and beer. My friend Greg Vogel has consistently informed his students that he has learned more about archaeology in bars (such as Fayetteville, Arkansas’ Maxinie’s Tap Room pictured below) “talking shop” with grizzled veterans of the discipline than he has ever learned in a formal classroom. This is true of my own experience as well. . . .

But now archaeologists can claim that we can make an important contribution to the world of beers (ok. . . maybe more quirky than important).

Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware has made a beer similar to a drink brewed in China about 9,000 years ago and they started with a formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China.

Check out this article for more details:

http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002633.php


http://www.discover.com/issues/nov-05/features/stone-age-beer/

“Andy you’d best skedaddle”…

Civil War grafitti found during rennovation of former President Andrew Johnson’s home in Greenville, Tn.

More at:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_re_us/civil_war_graffiti_1

Electoral College 7, College of Cardinals 21

Ben S. Pollock of the Ozark Poets & Writers Collective writes in his blog “Brick” :

“Ever wonder if the Electoral College and the College of Cardinals get together to play ball every so often, like Michigan and Notre Dame?”–Monday, April 11, 2005