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Arkansas Archeological Society - AAS
Categories: Education Adult Education Arts & Entertainment Museums Adult Education, Museums [Edit]
University of Arkansas2475 N Hatch Ave
Fayetteville, AR 72704
(479) 575-3556
One review for Arkansas Archeological Society - AAS
1 review in English
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Review from Rachel C.
11/10/2007
Do you like snakes, mosquitos, chiggers, 100 degree heat, 97% humidity, 6am workday start, sunburns, salt tablets, out houses?
YOU DO! Well then, have I got a vacation for you!
IT ALL STARTED WITH - -
Dr. Charles R. McGimsey III publishing a book in 1972 that would quietly blow all professional archeology out of the water!
That book was "PUBLIC ARCHEOLOGY."
A LITTLE BACKGROUND: Dr. McGimsey had the foresight to see the train that was screaming down the tracks. He knew that at the rate we were going all our archeological history, pre-history, and physical evidence was going to be destroyed before we had a chance in hell of documenting it. There just weren't enough professional archeologists, anthropologists, money, nor time to save it all from the land developers, the environmentalists, the farmers, the highway crews, the pothunters, the landfills, the population growth, and those of us who were just digging up our back yards to put in swimming pools, septic tanks, and gardens.
He knew that the professionals needed help . . . but how? There were plenty of amateurs out there, but they were mostly the ones destroying the information, whether intentionally or unintentionally. So, Dr. McGimsey hit on a plan. If there weren't enough professionals, why not train the amateurs to help the professionals? Train them to know what was really important and how to preserve that knowledge. Kill two birds, so to speak. Stop them from destroying sites and teach them how to preserve them and why.
And so A PROGRAM WAS BORN. A summer training program to teach amateurs to work alongside the professionals to know how to recognize and preserve the archeological sites of Arkansas. In the summer of 1972 that 1st training program was born.
It was a test. A test to see if the public would be interested.
AND INTERESTED THEY WERE. They came from all over the country to learn about PUBLIC ARCHEOLOGY.
SKIP TO TODAY: That 1st training program was so successful, that today, 35 summers later, Arkansas still is training amateurs to survey, to dig, how to map & record a site and all the multiple other tasks that are required to preserve our past. That 1st program was so successful that many other states have initiated similar programs to preserve their archeological sites.
How do I know about this program?
Did I read Dr. McGimsey's book?
YOU BET I DID!
And I know about the Arkansas program personally because I have been there and spent summers digging & learning.
Surveying, excavating, and mapping!
I have my own trowel, line level and salt tablets!
I know how to recognize novaculite, sherds, and a cottonmouth!
I know what it's like to dig in 95 degree heat with the humidity hovering around 97% and the mosquitos thick as thieves.
I've walked the fields & woods that were so overgrown that my main tool was a machete! I cut my 30th birthday cake in the field with that same machete.
THIS PROGRAM ISN'T FOR WIMPS! But it is a program for those who want to understand the mystery of our past, who want to help preserve that past and who are not afraid to get dirt under their fingernails and chiggers in places that aren't mentioned in polite company.
Have I been there? YOU BET I HAVE! I'm a LIFETIME MEMBER of the Arkansas Archeological Society.
YOU CAN JOIN TODAY TOO! You could be in the field digging next summer. Tell them I sent you. All you need is a tent and 2 weeks vacation. I'll loan you my trowel, if you are going to excavate; or my machete, if you're going to learn to be a site surveyor. (Oh, and a snake bite kit might come in handy too!)
Head to http://www.arkarch.org.
Check them out. JOIN!
CHEAPEST VACATION YOU'LL EVER HAVE!
