Category Archives: Announcements

Announcements frm SAS

Eclectic Archeological Exchange – Australian Aboriginal Dream Time Rock Art and Early Homo Sapiens

Eclectic Archeological Exchange
“Aboriginal Dream Time Rock Art and Australian Early Homo Sapiens (Mungo Lady and Man)”
Saturday, June 10, 2017
12:00 p.m.
SAS avocational members, Tom and Jan Johansen visited Australia in November 2016. They focused on rock art and early Homo Sapiens in Australia. On June 10th they will share photos and stories from their exploration. The rock art sites visited included: Split Rock near Cooktown, Ubirr in Kakadu near Darwin, Anbangbang, Burrunggui and Nanguluwurin in Kakadu, Uluru near Alice Springs, Bunjil, Billimina and Manja near Grampians, and Ku-ring-gai near Sydney.
The main early Home Sapien archaeological site visited was Mungo Lake. At this site Mungo Lady (dated to 40,000 BP) and Mungo Man (dated to 34,000 BP) were excavated.
Please RSVP by June 1 to Carolyn  at sabrina53@earthlink.net.

Annual Scholar Symposium

Annual Scholar Symposium
By
Scholarship Recipients
Sunday, January 15, 2017
12:30 – 5:00 p.m.
at
Yolo County Library, Arthur F. Turner Branch
1212 Merkley Avenue,
West Sacramento, CA 95691

University of California Scholars will be presenting on their involvement in recent archaeological research.
Roshanne Shirley Bakhtiary – University of California, Davis graduate student. “Stable Isotope Evidence of Seasonal Shellfish Harvesting and Consumption in Prehistoric Central CA”. The summer of 2016 she directed a field school where an inland midden deposit in Santa Clara County (CA-SCL-330) was excavated. She used the scholarship award to conduct stable oxygen isotopic analyses of ancient shellfish collected from the site.
Amanda Dobrov – University of California, Berkeley student. “Roman Amphoras of North Africa: Markers of A Pan-Mediterranean Economy”. The summer of 2016 she was part of a team at the American Academy in Rome in connection with the Palatine East Pottery Project, (PEPP).
Sarah A. Hall – California State University, Chico graduate student. “Re-examining Stature Estimation Methods in a US Historic Cemetery: Skeletal Analysis of Remains at Valley Medical Center.” The summer of 2016 she studied adult skeletons from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Cemetery (SCVMCC) collection, housed at California State University, Chico.
Anna Khrustaleva – University of California Santa Barbara student. “Excavation in Lower Illinois River Valley: Investigations at the Audrey-North Site”. During the summer of 2016 she attended a six week excavation project under the direction of Dr. Grey Wilson, UCSB on Audrey-North Site, a lower Illinois Mississippian River Valley occupation site.
Jason Miszaniec – University of California, Davis, graduate student. “Exploratory Testing and Mapping of a Large Prehistoric Village, Shaktoolik , Alaska”.  During a two week field season in 2016 he collected organic samples for radiocarbon dating from the Difchahak (NOB-005) site at Shaktoolik, Norton Sound, Alaska. The funds that he received from Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. were applied to the cost of radiocarbon dating of samples.
Jewell Cora Soriano – University of California Berkeley student. “After Reform: A Study of Land-Use Pattern Following Rapid Social Change in the Bolivian Altiplano”. The summer of 2016 she worked on an archaeological project in Bolivia. The Taraco Archaeological Project has been excavating the area since 1992 and during the 2016 summer began a targeted mapping project of key archaeological sites on the Taraco Peninsula.

Annual Meeting Featuring Neandertal Research and Carbonized Wood Identification

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s Annual Meeting

Featuring

“Current Neandertal Research and Identification of Carbonized Wood Remains”

By University of California Scholars

Saturday, December 3, 2016

12:00 – 6:00 p.m.

 

At our annual meeting we are pleased to have four University of California Scholars who received SAS scholarships present their research, field work, and training. Naomi Martisius, Susan E. Lagle and Samantha Dunham have been studying Neandertals in Europe. Each will speak on their research and experiences. Mallory Melton is analyzing the La Blanca wood assemblage.  She will speak on her training in taxonomic identification of carbonized wood remains that she received at the Boston University’s Wood Identification Workshop.

Scholar Symposium on 1/17/2016

Annual Scholar Symposium

By

Scholarship Recipients

Sunday, January 17, 2016

1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

at

Yolo County Library, Arthur F. Turner Branch

1212 Merkley Avenue,

West Sacramento, CA 95691

 

Agenda

1:00 Allison Blair – “Imprisoned in Ireland”

1:40 Leah Hansard – “The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project 2015 Field Season”

2:20 Rachel Davies – “Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Oregon – Older than Clovis Excavation”

3:00 Break

3:10 Derek A. Boyd – ““Anthropology Abroad: Osteological Investigations of Two Historic Cemeteries Housed at the Museum of London, Centre for Human Bioarchaeology”

3:50 Julia Prince-Buitenhuys – “Insights into Dietary Ethnogenesis at the Santa Clara County Medical Center Potter’s Field”

4:30 Wrap up and prep for a 5:00 close of facility

  • Allison Blair is a senior at University of Nevada, Reno majoring in Anthropology and English.  Her career goal is to become a National Park Ranger.  To expand her experience she attended the Spike Island Field School in Cobh, Ireland during the 2015 summer.  The island housed a prison from the 1800’s.  The school continued to search for missing convict burial grounds excavate of a walled cemetery and the site of the Wooden Prison, a temporary prison building.  This project was intended to provide insights into Ireland’s prison system.
  • Derek A. Boyd is a graduate student at California State University, Chico majoring in Anthropology. During the summer of 2015 Derek spent a month in London collecting data for his master’s theses. He analyzed patterns of trauma on human skeletal remains from two socio-economically disparate post-Medieval communities. At the Royal College of Surgeons in London he searched through historical documentation of pathology reports, patient records, and other miscellaneous items to gain an understanding of how trauma was treated in the post-Medieval period. In this presentation he plans to share with the Sacramento Archaeological Society his experiences as an independent researcher in London, as well as the preliminary results of his Master’s thesis research.
  • Rachel Davies graduated from California State University Sacramento.  Her interest is in great basin Zooarchaeology.  During 2015 summer she participated in the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter field school.  Excavations from this site have produced findings that suggest Western North America may have been occupied by pre-Clovis people as early as 16,000 B.P. This last summer excavation began in the 7,600 old Mazama volcanic ash layer and worked down.  We will be excited to hear of the findings.

 

  • Leah Hansard completed a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Classics at the University of California, Davis in the spring of 2015 and is now a first year graduate student in Art History at the University of Texas, Austin.  She would like to become a curator of classical art and archaeology and lead excavations in the Mediterranean.  As a second year participant at the Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project in Italy, she worked as a Trench Master-in-Training and deepen her archaeological skills.  We will be interested to hear about the excavation.

 

  • Julia Prince-Buitenhuys is a graduate student at California State University Chico majoring in anthropology.   She was studying the migration and acculturation that occurred in Santa Clara Valley between 1870 and 1935 by performing stable isotope analysis on a sample population from the Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center Potter’s Field.  This analysis provides insights into dietary practices and the general immigration status of those interred at the cemetery.  We are very interested to hear her assessment of the ethnogenesis process for this region in this period of time.

Annual Meeting – Cory Wilkins “The Archaeological Conservancy” on 12/5/2015

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s

 Annual Meeting

Featuring

“The Archaeological Conservancy in CA”

By

Cory Wilkins

Western Regional Director

The Archaeological Conservancy

Saturday, December 5, 2015

2:00 – 6:00 p.m.

At our annual meeting we are pleased to have Cory Wilkins, Western Regional Director of The Archaeological Conservancy (TAC) speak on

(1)   General descriptions of all properties TAC currently owns in California and Nevada

(2)   A detailed discussion of TAC’s most recent purchase, the Siemer Preserve on the edge of Big Valley and near Bieber, announced in TAC’s attached Fall 2015 American Archaeology magazine at pages 48-9 by Deanna Commons.

(3)   Other properties in California and Nevada that TAC is currently considering purchasing.

The agenda for the event is as follows:

2:00 – Social hour.

3:00 – SAS Annual Meeting

3:30 – Presentation

4:30 – Dinner, socializing, and raffle

 

PLEASE provide your RSVP by December 1 to Carolyn at  sabrina53@earthlink.net.

Talking Stone and Sacred Stories on 11/7/2015

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.

Co-sponsored by the Mythological RoundTable® Group of Sacramento,
a chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Presents

TALKING STONE AND SACRED STORIES

Saturday, November 7, 2015

10:00 -11:30 a.m. and 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Hosted by Maidu Museum & Historical Site

1970 Johnson Ranch Drive, Roseville, California 95661
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – SUGGESTED DONATION $5

 

Program

10:00 a.m. – Tour of Maidu Rock Art

11:00 – Screening: A WALK THROUGH TIME: A STORY OF ANDERSON MARSH

11:30 to 1:00 – Lunch break (Bring your own lunch or get lunch in the area and enjoy museum)

1:00 p.m. – Screening:  TALKING STONE: ROCK ART OF THE COSOS

2:00 – Guest Speaker Lecture with Dr. Alan Garfinkel Gold: “Stone Age Metaphors:  Sacred Stories and Symbolic Songs of the Immortal Bighorn”

 

For more information view our event flier.

Texas Archaeological Tour starting on 10/11/2015

Texas Archaeological Tour of Pre-Clovis/Clovis/Paleoamerican sites starting on 11/11/2015 

Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 to Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015

Starting at Austin, TX concluding at Houston,TX with variable ending points depending on your schedule

Archaeologist, Mike Collins, PhD, tour host

 

Sacramento Archeological Society is pleased to offer an extensive archaeological tour of 29 locations in Texas, including 19 Paleoindian sites (three Pre-Clovis sites, 10 Clovis sites and 6 Late Paleoindian sites).  These date from 15,500 to 500 B.P.

The tour is hosted by Mike Collins, PhD (Research Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos) and director of Gault School of Archeological Research (GSAR).

Sites planned to be visited include:  Gault, Friedkin, Wilson-Leonard, Spring Lake, Knibbe, Kincaid, Arenosa, Devils Mouth, Seminole, Eagle Nest, Bondfire, Big Lake, Midland, Shifting Sands, Lubbock Lake, Plainview, Black Water Draw, Horne, and McFaddin Beach.   Additionally, we will visit University Museum and Private Collections that came from these sites.

If you are interested in joining us for all of part of this tour, contact Dennis Fenwick at dennis.t.fenwick@msn.com  or 916-373-1465 (cell). For more information view our event flier.

 

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