Kentucky Archaeology Month 2016 – 30 Days of Kentucky Archaeology
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| Photo: Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C./Art Resource (The earliest writing in the system developed by the Cherokee known as Sequoyah has been found in a Kentucky cave.) |
By: Nicolas R. Laracuente, MA
Archaeology Review Coordinator, Kentucky Heritage Council
Welcome to Kentucky Archaeology Month 2016! For the last two years
the Governor has proclaimed September as Kentucky Archaeology Month and
we have celebrated a wide array of interesting archaeology projects and
public events that take place throughout the Commonwealth, especially
the annual Living Archaeology Weekend
(http://www.livingarchaeologyweekend.org). LAW is Kentucky’s oldest and
largest public archaeology event, which has taken place since 1989 in
Daniel Boone National Forest/Red River Gorge. This year the 28th annual
LAW will be Sept. 17 at Gladie Visitor Center in Slade, KY, and as
always this is free to the public.
To kick things up a notch from previous years, we are borrowing an
idea from our neighbors to the south. For the last two years, Tennessee
has celebrated Archaeology Awareness Month (also during September) with a
blogfest. 30 posts in 30 days on any aspect of Tennessee Archaeology (
https://tennesseearchaeologycouncil.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/30-days-of-tennessee-archaeology-2015-day-1/). Surely, we have more than enough material here in Kentucky to join them.
We are already starting to see posts roll in, so check the KyOPA website (
http://www.kyopa.org/30-days-of-kentucky-archaeology/) daily for new posts! There may be a story on something that is right in your backyard.
Aside from LAW there will be plenty of other things to see and do
during September. Watch for future posts on public archaeology days at
Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site (
http://parks.ky.gov/parks/historicsites/wickliffe-mounds/) or archaeology during the Gaslight Festival in Louisville (
http://www.jtownchamber.com/gaslightfestival.aspx).
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some invitations to artifact wash
nights, where volunteers join archaeologists and students at the Office
of State Archaeology in Lexington to sort and clean artifacts recovered
from field schools and other excavations.
There are a few upcoming presentations as well – The Eastern Kentucky
Archaeology Group will be hosting a Larry Gray at the Boonesborough
Campground Recreation Building on September 28. Gray will be discussing
his research on prehistoric ceramics recovered from a site in the Red
River Gorge.
Watch the Kentucky Archaeology Month Calendar (
http://www.kyopa.org/kam-calendar/) for details on these and other events.
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Check out these links for more information on Kentucky Archaeology:
http://www.livingarchaeologyweekend.org/
http://archive.archaeology.org/0907/trenches/cherokee.html
http://heritage.ky.gov/kas/
http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/kentucky/8-things-archaeologists-ky/
Last month we participated in the Ohio River National Freedom Corridor Conference (ORNFC) in Maysville, KY (check out the group's website: http://www.ohiorivernationalfreedomcorridor.org/ ). We engaged in a lively panel discussion about the Parker Academy Project and related themes with a large audience from all over the US. Our panel is discussed in more detail here: https://parkeracademy.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/parker-academy-at-the-2016-underground-railroad-conference/ 
