September is Kentucky Archaeology Month!

Kentucky Archaeology Month 2016 – 30 Days of Kentucky Archaeology

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/