Explore Philly’s Buried Past, 2021
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In October of 2021, PAF hosted the annual ‘Explore Philly’s Buried Past!’ event virtually Online in a series of three video presentations. These short videos share the recent work of researchers with the public. They can be seen below or at our YouTube Channel:
Archaeology Month Video 1!
Founding Monsters: Ben Franklin’s Mastodon Tooth and America’s Founding
Dr. Bernard Means explains how the tooth of a mastodon–an extinct relative of today’s elephants–was found digging in property associated with Benjamin Franklin. This presentation references the Founding Monsters comic book to explore why Franklin and other founding fathers pursued the skeletal remains of mastodons and other giant Ice Age beasts.
Bernard Means is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory. In the Virtual Curation Laboratory, Means and his students are creating 3-D digital models of historical, archaeological and paleontological objects used for teaching, research, and public outreach. Dr. Means and his students have created 3-D models of dozens of artifacts recovered from a number of local archaeological sites which have been used in museum exhibits (including at the National Constitution Center) and for other educational uses.
Archaeology Month Video #2! Enjoy!
Trials and Tribulations of Digging the Trail to Pottstown
Listen along as Dr. Kenneth J. Basalik discusses the results of work on two Native American sites investigated as part of the Schuylkill River Trail project south of Pottstown. The work highlights how sometimes archaeologists need to tease out what happened and when it happened in the past from limited information gathered in the field.
Kenneth K Basalik is a Cultural Resources Manager with more than 38 years experience in performing archaeological survey, historic building evaluations, and other historic preservation related tasks. A graduate of Temple University (PhD, MA) and the University of Pennsylvania (BA), he founded the firm of Cultural Heritage Research Services, Inc. (CHRS) in 1981, which has been providing comprehensive archaeological, social science research, and historic preservation services to governmental and private clients throughout the country, including in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Archaeology Month Video #3! Enjoy!
Groundhog Archaeology: A Tale of Bioturbation in South Philly
One part archaeology and one part storytelling, Dr. Deirdre Kelleher’s presentation demonstrates how animals like groundhogs can impact and disturb archaeological sites. Click above to learn the tale of South Philly groundhog and the bioturbation they caused.
Dr. Deirdre Kelleher earned her PhD in Anthropology at Temple University. Her dissertation research involved an archaeological excavation and artifact study of a site on Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia, the oldest continuously inhabited residential street in the United States, that was home to eighteenth-century artisans and tradespeople. Deirdre has worked in state government reviewing archaeological projects throughout New Jersey. She is an executive committee member of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum.
Archaeology Month Video #4
Community-Oriented Digital Archaeology: a Multi-Course Curriculum
This short video presentation shares three case studies that use digital technologies and geophysical surveys (e.g., 3D, magnetometry, drones) to non-invasively explore three African American cemeteries in our area– Eden, Ebenezer AME, and Mt. Zion AME — and to synthesize and interpret the research findings so as to enrich African American community history.
Jason T. Herrmann is Kowalski Family Teaching Specialist for Digital Archaeology at the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Over the past two years, Dr. Herrmann has integrated this burial place research into his teaching, creating a fieldwork practicum for training archaeology course students that contributes to the mission of preserving African American cemeteries.
We hope you’ve enjoyed #ArchaelogyMonth with us! You can check out all our videos on our YouTube channel here:
You can see past ‘Explore Philly’s Buried Past’ programs (schedules of talks), 2019-2011 here…
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