Don't forget Lara Croft Archaeology awareness month aims to change public perceptions
Karen Poulson knows the word archaeology conjures up images of ancient Egypt, temples and Indiana Jones.
She's hoping to change that perception during September, Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month.
"Some of the most important discoveries about the past are here in Illinois. You really don't have to go to a foreign country or the Southwest or the seat of the birth of our nation to find exciting archaeological sites," said Poulson, who chairs the awareness month committee.
And along those lines. . . . 'Archaeology Days' teach Cahokian culture, science
The smell of wood-fire smoke filled the air at Cahokia Mounds as the sound of a stone ax chopping into a log mingled with the laughter of children throwing sticks at rolling stones.
For a moment, it was almost like stepping back in time more than a thousand years to experience what life was like for the Cahokia Indians, and visitors to the second Cahokia Mounds Archaeology Days had the chance on Saturday to experience some of the things the ancient people might have done during the hazy days of summer.
Memphis riverfront project will wait for archaeologists
A nearly 28-(m)-million-dollar riverfront project in Memphis might have to wait while a closer look is done at the city's riverboating past.
Workers expected to begin driving piles this fall for the Beale Street Landing project. But when cobblestones were pried up in a 1994 survey, a preservationist who helped conduct it says all kinds of refuse and artifacts were there -- most of them preserved because they were waterlogged.
Guy Weaver heads a cultural resources management firm. He says the site of the new project covers a potential treasure of information about the city's steamboat days.
Bison breakthrough
Rows and rows of dusty animal skulls adorn the walls of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, but one skull will make its television debut at 8 p.m. on the PBS show “History Detectives.”
OU archaeologist Leland Bement said this 5,000-year-old bison skull and a spearhead embedded in it represent the missing evolutionary link between two species and a wealth of information about an ancient people.
The show will focus on the effort to prove the authenticity of the skull, depicting a historical mystery solved by high-tech scientific sleuths.
This is kind of a nice show the few times we've seen it.