All posts by Jan Johansen

Announcements, Workshops

Flintknapping Workshop on 5/2/15

Flintknapping Workshop

Saturday, May 2, 2015

2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

 

Dr. Susan Gleason

Archeologist, Phoenix Obsidian Designs

Experienced Lithic creator and instructor, Susan Gleason will teach Society members flint knapping techniques with obsidian.  This will be an opportunity to enjoy hands on time with obsidian.

Dr. Susan Gleason earned her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside in 2001. Her dissertation, “In search of the Intangible: Geophyte Use and Management Along the Upper Klamath River Canyon” reflects her research in topics on prehistoric technologies including flintknapping. Flintknapping is a process of making stone tools. Her research has also focused on ethnobotany or how people interact with plants. As an artist, she has developed unique arrowhead jewelry and created a line of educational materials.

Her business, Phoenix Obsidian Designs, produces tools to assist archaeologists and other educators to teach about prehistory. In addition to educational tools, the company produces museum quality replicas of archaeological artifacts for a variety of uses. Phoenix Obsidian Designs provides a line of supplies to support experiments in prehistoric technologies. Producing educational materials is the focus of her business.

Dr. Gleason has had a wide variety of field and laboratory experiences and as a consultant, contractor, and scientific illustrator. She has given numerous lectures and demonstrations with an emphasis on flintknapping and lithics. She is or has been a curator and collections manager. She has numerous publications and reports to her credit; and has presented a variety of papers on topics in archaeology and ethnobotany. And, she has been professionally recognized with a variety of honors and awards.

Reservations for this event are required so that Susan knows how many tools and how much material to bring. Please contact Roger and Lydia Peake at rapeake@att.net to reserve your flintknapping spot by Monday, April 27th.

Fees:  $10.00 cost of the workshop is the teaching cost and includes whatever take-home “points” that are made by participants. Each participant pays this cost.  A $30.00 cost includes the tools she provides for each participant’s use (e.g. leg protection etc.) AND the teaching cost. So, she is selling the tools used by each participant for $20.00. The “tools cost” is voluntary and would be paid by each participant who chooses to keep the tools.

Since we will be working with sharp objects, leather gloves, eye protection, and a heavy towel to protect legs and arms are a must.  Long pants and long sleeves are also necessary protection.

Bring your favorite dish for a pot luck dinner after the workshop.  Invite your friends to participate and join the society.  This is a member only event.  Questions?  Please contact Roger and Lydia Peake at rapeake@att.net

Announcements, Seminars

Eclectic Archeological Exchange – “Hittites” on 3/21/15

Eclectic Archeological Exchange

Saturday, March 21, 2015

1:00 to 4:30 p.m.

 Paul K. Davis

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. member

“Hittites”

From about four thousand years ago until about three thousand years ago,
peoples and nations called “Hittite” were a major force in the Middle East, based in what is now Turkey, extending into northern Syria, with
interactions from Iraq to Greece and Egypt.  When the first Hittite kingdom was founded, only the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Indus people had writing systems.  The Hittites were next to learn to write.  By the end of the last Hittite kingdom, the Chinese, Phoenicians, Greeks, Olmec and Maya could.  We only learned much of the Hittites in the last century and a half.  Thanks to archaeology our knowledge is still growing.  The Hittites made significant contributions to ancient civilizations, such as how to smelt iron and how to train horses, and their influence affected many later civilizations including our own.

 

Seminars, Uncategorized

2015 Scholar Symposium on 1/18/15

Annual Scholar Symposium
By
2014 Scholarship Recipients
Kasey Cole
Jesica Jayd Lewis
Heather MacInnies
Sunday, January 18, 2015
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
at
Yolo County Library, Arthur F. Turner Branch
1212 Merkley Avenue,
West Sacramento, CA 95691

In 2014 Sacramento Archeological Society awarded six scholarships to support archeological/anthropological education. Antonietta Catanzariti was unable to use the award in 2014. If conditions in Iraq improve, she hopes to use it in 2015. Julia Prince’s the stable isotope analysis of a sample population from the Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center Cemetery for her thesis has been delayed; hence she will be presenting later in 2015 after the analysis is complete.

Three of the recipients will be speaking on the experiences made possible by the scholarships.

• Kasey Cole is a graduate student at California State University, Chico majoring in Anthropology. She intends to work in the field of Zooarchaeology. To strengthen her research and communication skills she attended the Zooarchaeology and Field Ecology Field School organized by Jack Broughton, Ph.D. from the University of Utah. This field school was an intensive four-week course located at Eagle Lake in Northern California.

• Jesica Jayd Lewis is a graduate student at North Carolina State University (NVSU) majoring in Ancient History with a minor in Classical Archaeology. Her goal is to earn a Ph.D. and teach and research history and archaeology professionally. This year Jesica participated in the Palatine East Potter Project (PEPP; Rome, Italy) and the Najerilla Valley Research Project (NVRP; Camprovin, Spain). Both projects will contribute to her research for her Master’s thesis on cycles of economic complexity in marginal spaces of the Roman Empire.

• Heather Macinnes is a graduate student at California State University, Chico majoring in Anthropology. She plans to work as a professor of bioarchaeology and consult on forensic anthropology cases. She attended the Aditu Servicios Arquelogicos Mortuary Archaeology Field School in Uharte-Arakil, Navarre, Spain. This field school was involved with the excavation of a 12th century Romanesque church that was built on an earlier Roman Mansion. The main objective of the project was to lean about the medieval population of Navarre through the assessment of skeletal indicators of diet, pathology, and biological profile (age, sex, ancestry and stature).

Uncategorized

2014 Annual Meeting

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s Annual Meeting

 Featuring “Perspectives on Betty Hope Plantation Excavation”

by Scholar, Bonny O’Neill, CSU Chico

 Saturday, December 6, 2014,  2:00 – 6:00 p.m.

 At our annual meeting Bonny O’Neill a California State University, Chico recipient of 2014 scholarship majoring in Anthropology will be speaking on the Betty Hope Plantation Field School in Antigua.  Last year at our October celebration of California Archaeology Month at Maidu Museum & Historic Site professor, Georgia Fox, CSU Chico spoke about the excavations at the Betty Hope Plantation that had progressed from the great house to the distillery and boiling house.  This last summer Dr. Fox led further excavation of the site.  The slave quarters were the target.

Bonny attended this field school and will present her experiences.  Since Bonny studied the archaeology of cross-cultural contacts and the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Ghana at the University of Ghana, Legon, she offers additional perspective.  Bonny’s goal is to become a professional archaeologist with focus on gender and feminism.  We are pleased to have her share her learning experience.

The agenda for the event is as follows:

2:00 – Spirits, appetizers, and annual business meeting

3:30 – “Perspectives on Betty Hope Plantation Excavation” by Bonnie O’Neill

4:30 – Dinner, socializing, and raffle