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| The Friends of Catawba Archaeology and the Upper Catawba Archaeology Project |
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Thanks to our new members... Robert WhitlockMartha Whitlock Jeremiah White Carl and Linda Wall Richard Valentine John Sullivan Eric Stuenkel George and Malinda Stuart Dennis Stotts Frank and Theresa Smeeks Jessica Smeeks Chase Smeeks Gertrude Simmon Carolyn Sharp Pamela Sanders Arlene Roman Charles and Mary Rodning Kathy Robinson Sharon and James Powell Peggy Poe Robert Murray Tammy McGee Christopher Matthew Will Madison Robert Locke Franklin Lilly John and Laura Lafferty Vernon and Donna Ketron Rebecca Hemphill David Heavner Lorie Hansen Virginia Hammon Mary Lou Furr Meagan Freeman David Daniel Bob Covert Scott Counsell Elsie Combs Kelly Coffey Joan and Roger Cannon Gene Calloway Rodney and Martha Brown Barbara and Ben Bradshaw Denise Bishop Carol Berry Karen Baker Elizabeth Anderson Please check back here for announcements! |
HELP REDISCOVER THE PAST: SUPPORT ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE UPPER CATAWBA VALLEY The Warren Wilson College Friends of Catawba Archaeology has been formed to connect the residents of western North Carolina to our archaeological project by enabling them to directly support this important research. All gifts to the Friends of Catawba Archaeology are fully tax-deductible. Contributions in any amount are welcome and will be put to work in archaeological research and education in the Catawba Valley. Our investigations into the Berry site and upper Catawba Valley archaeology are just beginning. Over the next several years we will be submitting grant applications to organizations such as the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Science Foundation to provide funding for our excavations, laboratory analysis, and reports. Among other things, we will seek funding for equipment and supplies, photographic film and developing, radiocarbon dating, artifact conservation, remote-sensing surveys, geomorphology and studies of micro-sediments such as intact floors, and for analyses of animal bones and plant remains. We hope to be successful in our search for funding but we will also need funds beyond what the grant organizations can provide. We need your help. Will you join us to support the Upper Catawba Archaeology Project? As a Friend you will receive a project newsletter and receive invitations to special programs. THE UPPER CATAWBA ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT Our investigations at the Berry site are part of a long- term research project concerned with the sixteenth- century settlement of Native Americans in the upper Catawba River valley. Over the next several years we hope to conduct archaeological investigations at the Berry site and other sites that that will help us to learn the answers to these research questions: · In 1701, John Lawson describes the Catawba Indians as living along the Catawba River near the present-day North Carolina/South Carolina state line. How long had the Catawba lived in this area? How were people living in the upper Catawba River valley in the 15th and 16th centuries related to the 18th-century Catawba Indians? · It appears that a large population of Native Americans inhabited the upper Catawba River valley from around A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1650. However, by 1701, the region seems to have been depopulated. What is the cause of the depopulation - disease brought by the Spanish or perhaps political and social upheaval resulting from the interactions of Native groups and the Spanish intruders? · Archaeologists refer to the people living in the upper Catawba region in the 16th century as the Burke culture. These people appear to have been organized into chiefdoms, with political and social ties with other native chiefdoms in the Piedmont regions of South Carolina and Georgia. What is the nature of political institutions and social organization in these native chiefdoms? What kinds of political and kinship ties related chiefdoms in the upper Catawba valley to those in South Carolina and Georgia? Please visit the Warren Wilson College Archaeology web page for links to information about our archaeological field schools in the upper Catawba Valley, about native cultures and Spanish explorations of western North Carolina, and to papers we have presented at archaeological conferences about our archaeological project. www.warren-wilson.edu/~arch Principal investigators: Dr. David G. Moore, Warren Wilson College Mr. Robin A. Beck, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ilinois Mr. Christopher B. Rodning, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MEMBERSHIPWe invite you to join the Friends of Catawba Archaeology. Members receive newsletters and announcements about fieldwork and other activities related to our study of native chiefdoms and Spanish expeditions in western North Carolina during the sixteenth century. We need your help in supporting these ongoing archaeological investigations in the upper Catawba Valley. Please consider becoming a member and making a contribution to our Upper Catawba Archaeology Project. Your contributions are tax deductible. They will directly support archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis. DONATIONS
Please send your name, address, and check to the Friends of Catawba Archaeology, Warren Wilson College, PO Box 9000, Asheville, NC 28815-9000, or print out our Membership form here For more information, please contact Dr. David Moore at (828)771-2013 or by mail at Warren Wilson College, CB# 6076, PO Box 9000, Asheville, NC 28815-9000. LINKS PRINCIPALS |