Archaeology Month 2017
October 2017 is North Carolina Archaeology Month
The Office of State Archaeology will host a series of events throughout the month of October in celebration of North Carolina’s archaeological heritage. Events will include weekly lunchtime lectures on topics such as the archaeology of Cherokee households (Dr. Ben Steere, Western Carolina University), and two evening lectures at the Museum of History on the archaeology of Catawba coalescence (Dr. Steve Davis) and Moravian archaeology as understood through excavations at Old Salem (Dr. Michael Hartley). A symposium on October 19th will highlight the great research projects completed by staff, students, and interns through the OSA Research Center this year on collections from Brunswick Town State Historic Site, Halifax State Historic Site, and Charles Towne (31BW133). An updated schedule with lecture titles will be posted as these events are finalized - please check often for updates!
Evening Lecture Series
Archaeology of the Catawba Nation after the Treaty of Pine Tree Hill
Presented by: Dr. R.P. Stephen Davis, Jr.
In 1760, following a devastating smallpox epidemic that destroyed more than half the nation, the Catawbas signed a treaty with South Carolina that provided a secure reservation, 15 miles square, in return for relinquishing claim to a much larger tract spread across much of Piedmont North Carolina and South Carolina. Having abandoned their earlier towns in the vicinity of Nation Ford, within a few years the tribe resettled along the Catawba River near the reservation’s southern boundary. This talk discusses the archaeological and documentary record for three of the newly-established settlements – Old Town, Ayers Town, and New Town – that date between the early 1760s and 1820. This was a period during which the Catawbas negotiated rapidly changing social, political, and economic conditions, and the successful strategies they employed are reflected in the archaeological record.
North Carolina Museum of History | 5 East Edenton, Raleigh, NC
Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 - 6:30 pm
An Archaeologist’s View of Wachovia
Presented by: Dr. Michael O. Hartley
Now approaching his 35th year of archaeological study of the Moravians of Wachovia, Dr. Hartley, Director of Archaeology at Old Salem Museums and Gardens, will talk about past, present and future historical archaeology there.
North Carolina Museum of History | 5 East Edenton, Raleigh, NC
Wednesday, October 25th, 2017 - 6:30 pm
Lunchtime Lecture Series
Lithic Material Use in the Upper Yadkin River Valley and Its Implications for Southeastern Late Woodland Exchange Networks
Presented by: Dr. Eric Jones
Over the last several decades, archaeologists have become increasingly interested in a variety of cultural behaviors along the edges of the Mississippian world. Although most research has focused on the Mississippian side of this boundary, there is obvious utility in understanding the societies on the other side, particularly where interaction across the cultural frontier may have occurred. This research seeks to understand the economic behavior among one of these societies, the Piedmont Village Tradition (PVT) in the upper Yadkin River Valley (UYRV). It compares the relative counts and weights of local and non-local materials between fifteen sites and analyzed the reduction characteristics of flake assemblages at three sites. The goal is to understand how these different lithic materials were being used and what their patterning tells us about PVT exchange patterns, or lack thereof. The results suggest that UYRV communities did not have equal access to rhyolite sources, which were used by PVT groups across the Piedmont. Two later sites, previously reported by Ned Woodall, had higher concentrations of Appalachian chert, suggesting interactions shifted toward Mississippian neighbors over time. Research like this can help us address several broader topics, such as the size and structure of Pre-Columbian trade networks and the economic relationships between hierarchical and egalitarian neighbors.
North Carolina State Archives Building | 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC
Thursday, October 5th, 2017 - 11:30 am
The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast
Presented by: Dr. Ben Steere
Please join us as Dr. Ben Steere, director of the Cherokee Studies Program at Western Carolina University, discusses his new book, “The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast.” The book, published by the University of Alabama Press, explores the evolution of houses and households in the southeast from the Woodland to the Historic Indian period (200 B.C. to 1800 A.D.). It documents and compares more than 1,000 houses and other structures built by the original inhabitants of North America, with data compiled from 65 archaeological sites in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as the southern parts of Missouri, Indiana and Illinois. Steere uses domestic architecture to reconstruct daily life at Native American communities and identify social, cultural and economic changes in native societies.
North Carolina State Archives Building | 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC
Monday, October 16th, 2017 - 11:30 am
North Carolina’s Ceramics Through the Centuries
Presented by: Dr. Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton
Not long ago, Pennsylvania potter, Jack Troy declared “if North America has a ‘pottery state’ it must be North Carolina, as there is probably no other state with such a highly developed pottery consciousness,” –and he is right! Long before written records existed, American Indian Potters were hand-molding clays for burial urns, smoking pipes, ornamental beads and food storage and consumption. American Indians today continue in the same age-old tradition of hand coiling pottery. For later settlers of European origin and their descendants North Carolina’s pottery heritage evolved in other unique ways: it is the most southern state with a well-developed earthenware tradition (ca. 1750s); it is the most northern state with an alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition, in addition to its salt-glaze; and its early potters used a variety of kiln types (updraft, downdraft, crossdraft) in a variety of shapes (round, square, rectangular) burning earthenware and stoneware. It is known for its abundant clays, strong family networks (or clay clans), its survival and resurgence of the craft, and diversity of its continuous heritage. While this overview highlights pottery from the past, let it be said that the potters’ wheels in North Carolina have never stopped turning.
North Carolina State Archives Building | 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC
Monday, October 23th, 2017 - 11:30 am
Student Research Symposium
The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (NC OSA) in association with the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties is hosting a public presentation to discuss recent research by staff, students, and interns utilizing extant artifact collections curated at the Archaeology Research Center, and field research on certain state historic sites. This symposium will highlight the myriad of research possibilities available through the OSA and its Research Center.
Six Decades in the Water: A History of North Carolina Maritime Archaeology
