Campus Cemetery Stroll Sponsored by UAHuntsville's Center for Public History, Friday November 16, 5:30pm

On Friday, November 16th at 5:30 p.m. UAH’s Center for Public History will host a campus cemetery stroll with noted local historian Jacque Reeves.

Come join us and learn more about UAH’s very own historical burial ground that includes a Revolutionary War soldier who fought with George Washington at Valley Forge.

UAH Public History students will also highlight their work in the community and on campus as well as showcase UAH's newest program of study.

Visitors can park in front of the University Center and should be at Union Grove Gallery by 5:30 p.m.

Free food and drinks will be provided by the Public History Club!

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: First Floridians 15 November 2012

Thursday, November 15

Dr. James Adovasio, Mercyhurst College

“The Invisible Sex: Some Thoughts on the Role of Women in Prehistory”

12:45 PM, Wilson Hall 168

Since the discoveries of stone artifacts associated with the remains of extinct fauna in mid 19^th century France, a variety of often negative stereotypes have persisted about the roles of women in the past. A fundamental failure to recognize and evaluate evidence contradictory to these stereotypes in addition to the stressing of stone tools and the hunting of megafauna by mature males has created a faulty interpretation of life in this period. If mentioned at all, women as well as the old and the young of both sexes are characterized solely as minor players. Careful assessment of the available information from both the Old and the New World indicates that the andro-litho-centric view of the past with its “men in furs sticking sharp spears into large animals” image is fatally flawed. In this talk, evidence for a very different behavioral scenario is presented.

“The First Floridians: Early Humans on the Submerged Gulf Coast of Florida”

7:30 PM, Chan Auditorium

In his second talk Dr. Adovasio will discuss the geo-archaeological exploration of the inner-continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico where a tremendous amount of side-scan sonar and sub bottom profile data, including nearly 2000 targets of interest, has been generated. Highlights of the 2008-2009 field seasons include the documentation of two lengthy paleo river systems. These sites are replete with Paleo-Indian sites and it is assumed that the paleo-channel is, likewise, flanked by early occupations. The results of this research will substantially enhance our understanding of the utilization of coastal environments in the late Pleistocene and, more broadly, the early colonization of the New World

October 23 Public Lecture on Manhood at the New England Witch Trials, by Dr. Richard Godbeer, University of Miami

The history department at UAHuntsville is pleased to announce the fall History Forum.

On October 23, 2012, Dr. Richard Godbeer from the University of Miami will share his latest research on New England witch trials and manhood in the 17th century.

Dr. Godbeer's public lecture is entitled “‘Your wife will be your biggest accuser’: Reinforcing Codes of Manhood at New England Witch Trials.”

The lecture will be at 7:00 p.m. in 419 Roberts Hall on the University Alabama in Huntsville campus.

Dr. Godbeer has made outstanding contributions in religious and gender studies. His 1994 work Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England was published in 1994 by Cambridge University Press and won the Annual Book Prize of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. In his 2005 Oxford University monograph entitled Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, he broke down New England stereotypes while detailing the Stamford, Connecticut, witchcraft hysteria.

In 2004, Dr. Godbeer again overturned conventional wisdom, this time about the sexual values and customs of colonial Americans in his The Sexual Revolution in Early America, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This work was a Selection of the History Book Club.

More recently, Dr. Godbeer compelled readers to re-think early American gender roles and sexuality, showing how sentimental, even physically expressive, relationships between eighteenth century men provided a basis for nation building in The Overflowing of Friendship: Love Between Men and the Creation of the American Republic also published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

At the moment, Dr. Godbeer is working on a biography of Henry and Elizabeth Drinker, a prominent eighteenth-century Philadelphia Quaker couple.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Phi Alpha Theta Fall Faculty Lecture Series

The Tau Omega chapter of the international history honorary Phi Alpha Theta announces the Fall Faculty Lecture Series.

Kicking off the series is Professor Evan Ragland, with a lecture on "Making Trials in Early Modern Medicine" on October 10, 2012, at 7pm.

Next in the line up is Dr. Kira Robison, discussing "The Creature Within: Defining the Fiend in Medieval Anatomy," on October 17, 2012, at 7pm.

The following week, Dr. Anna Alexander will explore "It Rained Fireballs: The Petroleum Disaster in Mexico City," on October 24, 2012, at 7pm.

Concluding the series is Dr. Christine Sears, discussing "All Humble Mariners: Sailors and Democratic Discourse in the Early Republic," on October 31, 2012, at 7pm.

All lectures are held in Roberts Hall room 419 and are free and open to the public.

Please come and bring a friend!

National Archaeology Day Events 20 October 2012

National Archaeology Day

Saturday, October 20

Artifact Identification and Amnesty Event: 1:00-5:00 PM

Wilson Hall Theatre Foyer

                       

“Archaeology in Huntsville's Backyard: Prehistoric Cultures of the Middle Tennessee Valley” 7:00 PM

Ben Hoksbergen, Cultural Resource Manager/Installation Archaeologist, Redstone Arsenal

Wilson Hall Theatre

Have you found an object you think might be an artifact? Do you know you have an artifact but want to know more about it? Have you picked up artifacts on public land and want to ease your conscience? Professional archaeologists will be on hand at the National Archaeology Day event to identify artifacts you bring in and tell you more about them. They can also help you record archaeological sites you've found. Archaeologists from the Army and TVA will also be accepting artifacts from the public that were collected on federal land. It's illegal to collect artifacts on federal land or from federal waterways, but for this day only, anyone who turns in artifacts from federal land will be safe from prosecution and will be secure in knowing that the artifacts they collected will be available for professional study and public exhibit. Archaeologists from TVA will also be hosting children's activities, and there will be plenty of educational displays and literature to browse. Co-sponsored by the AIA, Redstone Arsenal, TVA, the Alabama National Guard, the Alabama Archaeological Society, and Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research.

For our evening talk, Ben Hoksbergen will discuss the Middle Tennessee River Valley of north Alabama, which has some of the richest archaeological resources in North America. Evidence of dense prehistoric occupation in the area goes back at least 13,300 years. Archaeologists have been systematically investigating sites in the valley over the last century and have uncovered a wealth of information about the people who populated the landscape before the arrival of Columbus. Hoksbergen will explore this rich cultural history, summarize what we've learned so far, and outline the mysteries that have yet to be solved.

Phi Alpha Theta Brown Bag Series

The Tau Omega chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the international history honorary, is sponsoring a Brown Bag Lunch Series in Spring 2012. Meetings are on Wednesdays from noon until 1pm in Roberts Hall 422.

Here are the scheduled presenters and topics:

March 7: "Whitaker House: Following the Road to Restoration of an Antebellum Home in Lincoln County, Tennessee" (by Jillian Rael)

March 14: "Information Overload as a Unifying Trend in Early Modern Natural Philosophy" (by Joshua Riddle)

April 4: "Alexander Hamilton and the Transformation of the American Economy" (by Matthew Menarchek)

April 11: "Grover Cleveland and the Restoration of the Kingdom of Hawaii: a Foreign Policy Failure" (by Janis Dye)

Bring your lunch and hear from some graduates and graduate students of the UAH History Department. Time is allotted for questions after each presentation.

Classics Week Lectures by Dr. Norman B. Sandridge set for Friday March 30

UAH's Society for Ancient Languages is bringing Dr. Norman B. Sandridge of Howard University to campus for the 2012 Classics Week.

Dr. Sandridge will give two public lectures, both on Friday, March 30, and both in Roberts Hall 419.

11:30 AM
"Managing the Envy of Leaders and Followers in Xenophon's Education of Cyrus"

7:00 PM
"Where Do Ideals of Leadership Come From? The Case of Philanthropia in Xenophon's Cyrus the Great"

Please come to one or both lectures and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Underwater Maya 1 March 2012

Dr. Heather McKillop, the Doris Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Studies at Louisiana State University will give two talks on underwater archaeology of Maya sites in Belize.  Dr. McKillop is author of several books, including The Ancient Maya:  New Perspectives and In Search of Maya Sea Traders. 

In her midday talk she observes that since wood normally decays in the tropical landscape of the Maya area, the stunning preservation of wooden posts and artifacts in a peat bog below the seafloor in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides new information about Classic Maya buildings and life-ways. Dr. McKillop established the Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology (DIVA) Lab at Louisiana State University. In the spring of 2011 her team set up a remote lab in their jungle field camp in Belize, where they did 3D scans of artifacts and returned them for storage at the underwater sites. In this presentation, she highlights use of a 3D laser scanner and 3D printer. She notes that digital images are critical to preserving a record of deteriorating artifacts, and digital images and 3D prints that create plastic replicas of the artifact, are also important for teaching, displays, study, and an effort for the local people to protect the underwater Maya sites by investing in them through tourism.

Describing the topic of her evening talk, Dr. McKillop relates, “While walking in a shallow lagoon in southern Belize in search of 'briquetage'—broken pots used to boil brine over fires to make salt—we made an accidental discovery that has transformed our knowledge of the ancient Maya. We found wooden posts and artifacts—including the only reported ancient Maya canoe paddle—perfectly preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor...In this presentation, I summarize the discovery and mapping of some 4000 wooden posts between 2005 and 2009, as well as the ongoing field research excavating 'Ancient Maya Wooden Architecture and the Salt Industry.'”

What: “Underwater Maya: 3D Digital Imaging and Site Preservation”

When:  March 1 (Thursday) 2012

Where:  12:45 p.m. Wilson Hall 168, UAHuntsville

What:  “Underwater Maya: Discovery, Mapping and Excavating in a Peat Bog Below the Sea Floor, Belize”

When:  7:30 p.m. March 1 (Thursday) 2012

Where:  Wilson Hall Theatre, UAHuntsville

Please come and bring a friend!