The Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Archaeological Society will be held Friday, April 20, 2012 at Sorin Hall on the campus of Hamline University.  Dr. Michael Michlovic, Professor of Anthropology at Minnesota State University – Moorhead will present a lecture titled “A Survey Archaeologist’s Perspective on Southwestern Minnesota Prehistory.”  The presentation will focus on the 2010 Swift County survey, while at the same time addressing some ideas about culture change, diffusion, and the beginnings of more settled life-ways in the later portion of the prehistoric period.  Some attention will also be devoted to the potential significance and drawbacks of archeological survey in an area such as the Minnesota prairies. 

Dr. Michlovic’s lectures are always entertaining and informative.  The cost is $20 per person which includes a buffet dinner and the event is open to everyone, member or not.  For additional information check out this link.

Olmstead Counties First Residents:  Archaeology Overview and Recent Survey Results. 

Dr. Constance Arzigian, Senior researcher at the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center and associate lecturer in Sociology and Archaeology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, will present an overview of past cultures in the Rochester area, from big-game hunters at the end of the Ice Age to the first farmers at 1000 A.D.  In 2010, as part of the Statewide Survey of Historical and Archaeological Sites, Dr. Arzigian received a grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to study previous archaeological findings in Olmsted County and conduct a new archaeological survey of the region. This lecture will present her findings and interpret them within the broader context of research on Native cultures of our region.  The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Rochester Public Library on Sunday, March 25 from 2 to 4 pm.  Check out this link to learn more.

The dates and location for the 2012 Lake Superior Basin Workshop have been announced.  It will be held Friday March 16th and Saturday March 17th at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.  The workshop is free and open to the public.

I hope at this point we have the email notification glitch corrected.  No one who subscribed to the blog was being notified of new entries.  You might want to scroll down the page to check out the entries you’ve missed.

After languishing for centuries in obscurity, the archaeological ruins ofPetra have become much better known in recent years, thanks to popularization by the movies, UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, and (relatively) favorable political conditions in Jordan. Nevertheless, the Nabataean people, who were responsible for building the spectacular monuments we see today at Petra, remain under-examined and little understood, although their remarkable civilization flourished in the Near East for over four hundred years.  This lecture will provide an introduction to this enduring legacy at Petra, while also setting the enigmatic Nabataeans and their cultural achievements within a broader historical context.  Speaker Dr. Jeff Pearson is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Classics for the 2011-2012 academic year at Macalester.  The lecture will be held Thursday, February 2, 20012 at 6pm in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall in the basement of the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center at Macalester College.  It is sponsored by the Minnesota Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America.

The Minnesota Office of the State Archaeologist has posted the report completed by the Duluth Archaeology Center (DAC) for the Legacy Amendment funded archaeological survey of Minnesota Archaeological Region 9, the Lake Superior Shore.   Points and Pits: Archaeological Investigations in Minnesota’s Region 9, the Lake Superior Shore, Carlton, Cook, Lake and St. Louis Counties, Minnesota will be a firm foundation for future research in the region.  As with other areas chosen for survey by the Advisory Board, Region 9 was represented by a relatively small number of recorded archaeological sites (a total of 34 prior to this survey).  The hope was to gain a better understanding of the region’s archaeology by increasing the number of recorded sites to provide a better sample for researchers. 

The question has always been, are there few recorded sites in the region due simply to a lack of survey or is the lack of sites due to small numbers of prehistoric inhabitants?  This investigation suggests the latter.  DAC’s survey visited previously recorded sites and looked for new ones using a GIS based survey methodology.    Hampered somewhat by the time frame inherent in the Legacy Amendment projects, which limited survey to late fall and spring, DAC located 6 new sites during field survey and verified an additional 20 based on informant reports and museum collections.  The report documents the activities conducted for the investigation and provides a summary of prehistoric archaeological sites known in Region 9.  Check it out.

Old Dirt – New Thoughtsis an archaeology and education blog created and maintained by a college professor/archaeologist at Hamline University.  Much of the author’s field work takes place in Alaska, but he still finds time to do some archaeology with his students around Minnesota and the Hamline neighborhood.  Currently the blog is featuring excavations at the Hamline University campus in St. Paul.    Check out this link to see their latest findings.