SHOVELMONKEY'S TEST PIT

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Have Trowel, Will Travel. Every spring, hordes of archaeologists and students of archaeology sharpen up their trowels and take to the agricultural fields and outskirts of cities, prepared to dedicate their summers to the investigation ... [Archaeology - Topix.net]
comment [] 3:48:09 PM

Monday, March 27, 2006

Just wallow in all that is Archaeology!!! This is what it is all about folks. Layer after layer of cultural strata.

Dig It!

comment [] 11:42:58 PM

Monday, February 27, 2006

Better Carbon Dating Revises Some History. Advances in radiocarbon dating are leading scientists to revise estimates of when early modern humans arrived in Europe. [Archaeology - Topix.net]
comment [] 6:46:46 PM

"Intelligent design" costs Dover over $1,000,000. February 24, 2006: On February 21, 2006, the Dover Area School Board voted, unanimously with one absention, to pay $1,000,011 in legal fees and damages resulting from the verdict in Kitzmiller v. Dover. The eleven plaintiffs -- local parents who challenged the constitutionality of the Dover Area School B ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 6:46:35 PM

Antievolution bill in Utah defeated. February 27, 2006: Senate Bill 96 was defeated by a 48-26 vote in the Utah House of Representatives on February 27, 2006. The bill was the culmination of about half a year's worth of public antievolution statements by Senator Chris Buttars (R-District 10), beg ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 6:46:24 PM

Cahokia Mounds gets $837,800 for preservation. The Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site (Illinois, USA) says it is inching closer to its goal of preserving one of the world's most precious archeological gardens. The site was awarded... [Stone Pages Archaeo News]
comment [] 6:46:11 PM

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Ill. Cahokia Mounds Receive State Funding. For years, administrators at Cahokia Mounds longed to acquire more property near the ruins of a prehistoric city, fearing that artifacts on the coveted private land could be forever lost to development. [Archaeology - Topix.net]
comment [] 6:50:34 PM

Researcher seeks secrets of Kennewick Man. Ground to the bone, the teeth of the famous fossil skeleton, Kennewick Man, look as if they've spent a lifetime gnashing rocks. But it's from these worn choppers that Thomas... [Stone Pages Archaeo News]
comment [] 6:50:19 PM

French caver makes historic find. An amateur French caver has discovered prehistoric cave art believed to date back 27,000 years - older than the famous Lascaux paintings. Gerard Jourdy, 63, said he found human and... [Stone Pages Archaeo News]
comment [] 6:49:59 PM

Expansion of Cahokia Mounds is just ahead. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency is looking to expand the Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site (USA) by purchasing more of the original land that encompassed the ancient city. At the... [Stone Pages Archaeo News]
comment [] 6:49:48 PM

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Creationists seek a redesign. The court ruling forbidding the teaching of intelligent design as science in Pennsylvanian public schools has weakened the ID movement

[New Scientist - Evolution]
comment [] 5:14:26 PM

Did oxygen boost fuel rise of large mammals?. Researchers claim a sudden increase in oxygen levels 50 million years ago prompted creatures like giant sloths and sabre-toothed cats to evolve

[New Scientist - Evolution]
comment [] 5:14:10 PM

Ohio's antievolution lesson plan under challenge. February 10, 2006: Although a proposal to remove the controversial "Critical Analysis of Evolution" lesson plan from the Ohio model science curriculum was narrowly defeated at the January meeting of the Ohio state board of education, the proposal is likely to be renewed at the board's February meeting, thanks to both a thinly disguised reproach from Ohio Gover ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 5:13:40 PM

Creationist interference at NASA?. February 8, 2006: Creationism emerged as a subsidiary theme as allegations of political interference with climate science at NASA were in the news. In a story in The New York Times (January 29, 2006), Andrew Revkin described climate scientist James E. Hansen's allegations th ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 5:13:27 PM

Sunday, February 5, 2006

I recently attended the Current Research in Tennessee Archaeology conference at the Ellington Agriculture Center in Nashville, Tennessee. This year there were several good, exciting papers.....lets face it they can't all be winners. Several papers caught my interest such as:

Nance, Benjamin (Tennessee Division of Archaeology). 1997. SURVEY OF CIVIL WAR PERIOD MILITARY SITES IN EAST TENNESSEE. The Tennessee Division of Archaeology is currently studying Civil War period military sites in East Tennessee. The goal of this project is to record those sites related to military activity that still retain some archaeological integrity, and add the information to the Division's site files. This project is a continuation of previous surveys of Middle and West Tennessee, each of which resulted in a completion report. The final report for the current survey will be a synthesis of information covering all three regions of the state.

Beahm, Emily L. and Kevin E. Smith (Middle Tennessee State University). 2006. CASTALIAN SPRINGS (40SU14): A MISSISSIPPIAN CHIEFDOM IN THE NASHVILLE BASIN OF TENNESSEE. Artifacts from Castalian Springs (40SU14) have played a prominent role in discussions of the chronology of Mississippian shell gorgets and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. This extensive mound site was investigated by Ralph Earl in 1820 and William Myer in 1891, 1893 and 1916 1917. While these investigations produced some of the most widely illustrated Mississippian artifacts from Tennessee, contextual information has generally been limited to two brief articles by Myer. Using Myer's unpublished fieldnotes and correspondence and the results of summer 2005 test excavations, the authors provide a more detailed interpretation and description of this chiefdom center.

Allen, Daniel S., IV (Cumberland Research Group, Inc). 2006. APPLIED ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE HERMITAGE SPRINGS SITE (40DV551); A MIDDLE ARCHAIC THROUGH EARLY WOODLAND AGGREGATION SITE IN THE CUMBERLAND RIVER VALLEY. Toward the end of the Early Archaic cultural period in southeastern North America the climate became warmer and dryer than today. Termed the Altithermal, this climatic change marks the beginning of the Middle Archaic period (ca. 7500 5000 B.P.). It is currently believed that the changing climate of southeastern North America forced hunter/gatherers in the early stages of horticulture to adapt to the climate by shifting between upland hunting camps on the edges of river valleys and floodplain camps during drought and the heat of summer and fall. This type of settlement pattern is thought to have resulted in permanent aggregation sites, especially on upland formations overlooking the confluence of spring branches with productive river valleys, and carefully delineated group territories expressed archaeologically by prehistoric cultural sites including corporate cemeteries. The Hermitage Springs site (40DV551) is a prehistoric aggregation site discovered in 2001 during grading for residential development in northeastern Davidson County. Archaeological relocation of the human remains, sampling of the archaeological features, and salvage of archaeological data commenced in mid-October 2004 and continues to date. Archaic and Woodland period people intensively harvested fish, shellfish, gastropods, and turtles, and subsisted largely by hunting deer, turkey, bear and smaller mammals, also relying on acorns, nuts, and a variety of other plant resources. Preliminary analysis suggests the site represents an extensive corporate aggregation site and cemetery used from the Middle Archaic through Early Woodland periods. The project is on going in the field and this presentation is designed to provide up to date highlights of the project.

Avery, Paul G. (MACTEC Engineering and Consulting). 2006. WOOD'S MINE: BARITE MINING IN MONROE COUNTY, TENNESSEE. Barite is a dense white mineral with several industrial uses. Mining activities aimed at the extraction of barite ore began as early as the 1870s in east Tennessee, with the center of this industry located near Sweetwater in Monroe County, Tennessee. The remains of Wood's Mine (40MR700) were recorded during a survey for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Historically known as the Ballard Mine, the site represents one of the earliest barite mines in the county. This paper examines the history of barite mining in Monroe County with particular emphasis on Wood's Mine and its role in the industry.

McKee, Larry (TRC, Inc.). 2006. TWO CEMETERIES AND A KILLED BUILDING: THREE RECENT TRC PROJECTS. In 2005 the Nashville office of TRC excavated burials at two separate nineteenth century cemeteries in Middle Tennessee and also participated in a salvage operation at Evergreen Place (the Jim Reeves Museum) in northeast Nashville. Work at one of the cemeteries, on the outskirts of Franklin, was done under the sponsorship of a descendent who wanted to move her ancestors and their large stone monument to a church graveyard. The second cemetery, near Alamaville in Rutherford County, was a family burial ground on the site of a new school complex. The salvage operation at Evergreen Place was carried out as part of a settlement over a disputed demolition permit issued to tear down what was probably Davidson County's oldest standing building. Not only were all three interesting archaeological exercises, but these also illustrate the wide range of clients seeking help from our profession.

Peres, Tanya M. (Middle Tennessee State University). 2006. A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CONTEXTS FROM THE FEWKES SITE (40WML). The Fewkes site faunal assemblage, excavated by DuVall and Associates as part of a Phase III data recovery for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, was analyzed and evaluated in light of its potential to provide significant information about Middle Mississippian subsistence practices and environmental conditions of the area around the Fewkes site during the time of occupation. Specific goals of the analysis included: (1) defining the subsistence strategies and practices of the people whom inhabited the site; (2) determining the relationship of the site to the surrounding ecological habitats, and (3) determining the seasonality of the site. Additionally, the Fewkes faunal assemblage was compared to animal exploitation practices as outlined for the Cumberland River drainage model of Mississippian period sites. The results of the analysis of selected contexts will be presented in this paper.

Simek, Jan F. Alan Cressler, Joseph C. Douglas, Amy Wallace, Ken Oeser, and Annette Oeser (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). 2006. FIVE NEW PREHISTORIC CAVE ART SITES IN TENNESSEE. Over the past twelve months, five new prehistoric cave art sites have been discovered in Tennessee, designated 43rd - 47th Unnamed Caves in our regional nomenclature. These additions bring the total number of art caves known in the Southeast to 52. Three of the caves are owned by the State of Tennessee, their discovery and analysis sanctioned by state archaeological permits. A fourth is under Federal stewardship. The sites contain a variety of art, including both petroglyphs and pictographs. Most appear to date late in Tennessee's prehistoric sequence (i.e., Mississippian), although there may be at least one early site among the new discoveries.

Anderson, David G. (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), John E. Cornelison, Jr. (National Park Service), and Sarah C. Sherwood (UT Archaeological Research Laboratory). 2006. SHILOH INDIAN MOUNDS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK: RESEARCH RESULTS OF THE 1999 2004 FIELD PROGRAM AT MOUND A. Multidisciplinary research associated with excavations into threatened portions of Mound A at Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark have revealed a wealth of information about the chronology, natural environment, associated material culture and architecture, and appearance of the mound when it was under construction and in use. Mound A was a complicated and symbolically charged structure, whose upper stages were built between ca. A.D. 1100 and 1300. While the focus of local populations, occasional contact with societies at great distances occurred. The ongoing support of the Chickasaw Nation and the National Park Service proved critical to the success of the project.

Pike, Meta G. and Scott C. Meeks (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). 2006. NEW RADIOCARBON DATES ON HUMAN COPROLITES FROM BIG BONE CAVE (40VB103): EXAMINING TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL TRENDS OF EARLY AGRICULTURAL BEHAVIOR IN THE MIDSOUTH. Nine accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates recently obtained from human paleofecal remains at Big Bone Cave range from 220-320 cal B.C. (2170-2270 cal B.P.), indicating a terminal Early Woodland temporal association. These dates are consistent with a suite of eleven previous radiocarbon dates from Big Bone Cave, which places the primary utilization of the site during the Early Woodland period. Macrobotanical remains from the paleofecal specimens, combined with information from the regional paleoethnobotanical record, are examined with regard to the timing and spread of plant food production in the Midsouth.

comment [] 7:41:00 PM

Thursday, February 2, 2006

A second antievolution bill in Michigan. January 30, 2006: House Bill 5606 was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives on January 24, 2006, and referred to the Committee on Education, chaired by the bill's primary sponsor, Brian Palmer (R-District 36). If enacted, HB 5606 would amen ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 8:42:14 PM

Evolution Sunday!. January 31, 2006: Hundreds of Christian churches all over the country are taking part in Evolution Sunday, February 12, 2006. Michael Zimmerman, the initiator of the project, writes, "For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 8:41:56 PM

"Intelligent design" belittles God, says Vatican astronomer. February 1, 2006: The director of the Vatican Observatory, Father George V. Coyne S.J., delivered a talk in which he argued that "the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, while evoking a God of power and might, a designer God, actually belittles God" on January 31, 2006. His talk, entitled "Science Does Not Need God. Or Does It? A Catholic Scientist Looks at Evoluti ... [National Center for Science Education]
comment [] 8:41:41 PM

Dog graves show ancient humans cared. One of the most extensive surveys of the earliest known dog burials suggests humans domesticated canines much later than other studies show. The survey, which suggests domestication occurred between 13,000... [Stone Pages Archaeo News]
comment [] 8:41:15 PM

A skeletal glimpse of the past. SNEADS FERRY a ' When Robbie Lynn unearthed a skull Monday while digging behind a house under construction in the Chadwick Shores development in Sneads Ferry, he initially thought it was a turtle shell. [Archaeology - Topix.net]
comment [] 8:41:01 PM

Skeletons were those of African slaves. University of Wisconsin researchers say skeletons found in a Mexican cemetery were those of the earliest-known African slaves in the Western Hemisphere. [Archaeology - Topix.net]
comment [] 8:40:25 PM