Congratulations to Lydia Rees and the rest of us who helped her put together the Bluff Shelters of the Arkansas Ozarks website. This website summarizes current knowledge about bluff shelters in a visually appealing and approachable format. This year our site was chosen to receive the “Outstanding Achievement in Preservation Education” award at the 2017 […]
Check out the Summer issue of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly published by the Arkansas Historical Association…Lydia Rees and I have an article in this issue entitled “Beyond the Bluff Dweller: Excavating the History of an Ozark Myth”…This is our first peer-review collaboration. I hope it is the beginning of a long-running partnership.
Today is a little bit of a sad day for me. Today is Lydia Rees’ last day working at the Arkansas Archeological Survey. Two years ago Lydia (my wife) quit her CRM crew chief position and stepped into a grant-funded position at the last minute when I could not swing a tuition waiver for a […]
One of the most interesting aspects of archeology in the Arkansas Ozarks is many dry bluff shelters and caves that have been intermittently occupied for 10,000 years. The dry conditions created in these caves and shelters provide a rare glimpse of the kinds of artifacts that usually rot in the wet climate of the Southeastern […]
I am proud to have a contribution in the newest publication in the Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series—Research, Preservation, Communication: Honoring Thomas J. Green on His Retirement from the Arkansas Archeological Survey, edited by Mary Beth Trubitt. ARAS Research Series No. 67. My contribution is entitled “Regnat Populus: The Intersection of Historical Archeology Research and […]
I’m happy to report that Historical Archaeology of Arkansas: A Hidden Diversity has just been published by the University of Tennessee Press. This volume is edited by my friend, former student & colleague Dr. Carl Drexler and I could not be prouder. The volume had its origins in a pair of conference symposia–one at the […]
Yesterday I was elected as the new Chair of the State Review Board for Historic Preservation. The SRB (that’s what we call it for short) is an advisory board to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The SRB is charged with the review of National Register of Historical Places (NRHP) nominations and nomination appeals and to […]
Dr. Leslie C. “Skip” Stewart-Abernathy Retires, June 30, 2015 After 38 years of service with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, Leslie C. Stewart-Abernathy―known to us as “Skip”―retired June 30, 2015. Skip was born Leslie C. Abernathy III on May 11, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee. He grew up, however, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In 1970, he received his […]
March is Archeology Month in Arkansas. Each day during March, you can hear an “Arkansas Archeology Minute” from myself and Marilyn Knapp on KUAF 91.3 FM, the University of Arkansas’s NPR affiliate. We got the idea from two places. Unearthing Florida—a project of WUWF Public Media, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), and its founder, […]
Time for an update…as many folks know, I have just made a huge change this summer…moving from Magnolia in southwestern Arkansas back to Fayetteville in the Ozark Mountains. This has been a pretty stressful move, but it looks like many of the kinks are getting worked out. I have been the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s UAF […]
farther along... 