Arkansas History Commission

Dr. Jamie Brandon of South Arkansas University in Magnolia will speak on “Historical Archeology in Arkansas:  Why do we  dig up the recent past?” at the 1914 Schoolhouse in Historic Washington State Park at 7 PM on Tuesday, March 6, 2007, in honor of Archeology Month in Arkansas.  His talk will touch on previous work at Washington and other sites around the state as well as future plans for the Washington and Mound Prairie areas.

Dr. Brandon earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Texas in 2004 and is an archeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey headquartered at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.  He assumed duties at the SAU station last summer after the retirement of Dr. Frank Schambach, a renowned specialist on the Caddo Indians.  His territory includes eleven counties in southwest Arkansas.

With seventeen years experience in the field, Dr. Brandon has worked on projects in Arkansas and eleven other southeastern states.  He has authored and co-authored numerous papers and technical reports, has presented many papers at professional conferences and lectured widely on his work.

The public is invited to bring artifacts, either pre-historic or historic, for examination.  The archeologists of the Arkansas Archeological Survey do not attempt to appraise or assign a monetary value to artifacts but will try to identify, date and comment on the significance of the artifact.

This event is sponsored by the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA) and Historic Washington State Park.  It is free to the public.  For additional information, call SARA at 870.983.2633 or e-mail peggy.lloyd@arkansas.gov.   SARA is open from 8-4:30 Tuesday to Saturday.