Ancient American DNA

Major archaeology news!  A team of researchers have sequenced DNA from a young boy from the Clovis era (~12,000 years ago).  The major result: genetically, most contemporary American Indians are directly related to the Clovis people.

Ancient DNA Ties Native Americans from Two Continents to Clovis (Richard Harris, NPR, 13 February 2014)

Here is a link to the original article: The genome of a Late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana (Rasmussen et al. 2014) 

The remains, which were found on private land, were not subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).  The researchers have consulted with local tribes in Montana, though, and a reburial is planned for later this spring.

Ancient Genome Stirs Ethics Debate (Ewen Calloway, Nature, 12 February 2014)

To learn more about the Clovis culture, check out the Center for the Studies of the First Americans at Texas A&M and the Wikipedia article.

Clovis point (In the workplace) Example of a Clovis fluted blade that is 11,000 years old Image courtesy of the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources.

February - Indigenous Burmese

Note: If the University of Oklahoma closes due to weather, 

we will reschedule this meeting for Tuesday, February 11th.

December: The Spiro Story

The Cleveland County chapter of the OAS will be meeting on TUESDAY, December 3rd, at 7pm at the Sam Noble Museum.  We will be celebrating the holidays and watching The Spiro Story.  This 1950s film was produced by KOCO-TV in association with the University of Oklahoma.  It documents the archaeological excavations at the Spiro Mounds site conducted by OU with assistance from the Works Progress Administration from 1936-41.

All are welcome!  Come join us to learn more about the history of archaeology in Oklahoma.

Also, renewal letters for 2014 membership in the Oklahoma Anthropological Society have just gone out.  Watch for yours in the mail, or visit the OAS website if are not a current member and want to join.

October Updates

Once again I've fallen behind on my updates.  Lots of anthropological stuff going on in Oklahoma and around the country right now, though, so onward!

1. Masterworks of Native American Art: Selections from the Fred and Enid Brown Collection.  This great new exhibit just opened at the Sam Noble Museum.  It will be up through January 5, 2014.  These works of art reflect developments in the Native American fine arts movement from around 1960-2010.  

This exhibit is truly spectacular.  Two of the pieces are by Yatika Starr Fields - for a sample of his artwork, check out his website.  This youtube video shows the artist in action.

Also, don't forget to check out the Museum's Ethnology blog!

2. We have continued to update the Sam Noble Archaeology Blog throughout the summer with our interns entries on artifacts from Spiro: http://samnoblearchaeology.wordpress.com/.  The latest entry, though, is a little different.  It focuses on a recent donation to the Museum by Ms. Lois Bookout and the personal meaning of this donation to her family.  

3. Once again archaeology and anthropology are on the defensive following an opinion piece in USA Today.  Researchers across the county have written detailed rebuttals highlighting the significance of social science research and its impacts on global cooperation, scientific discovery, and student training.  They also strongly refute several claims in the original piece about the relative expense of this research and the proper role of the elected officials vs. trained specialists in assigning relative value to research projects.  The following responses make for interesting and enlightening reading:

     Archaeology and Our World (Sturt Manning, Cornell University)

     The Berkeley Blog (Rosemary Joyce, UC Berkeley)

     James Doyle, Brown University

     Assemblages (Adam Smith, Cornell University)

Spiro Artifacts on SNOMNH Blog

Last spring, the Archaeology Department at the Sam Noble Museum was lucky to have three undergraduate interns helping with our Spiro inventory and repackaging project.  For their final paper, the interns each wrote about five artifacts they worked with during the semester.  Some of these artifacts will be familiar to those who have read about the Spiro site, but others are virtually unknown.  This summer we will post one of our intern's artifact descriptions every week on the blog samnoblearchaeology.wordpress.com.  Check it out!

Engraved conch shell from Spiro.

Copyright Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum

of Natural History, University of Oklahoma.

African American History in Oklahoma - May 6

Come join us on Monday, May 6 to learn about Rosenwald schools in Oklahoma. Allison Archambo from the Oklahoma Historical Society has been working with avocational historians to document these forgotten buildings that represent an important period of African American history in Oklahoma.

Spring OAS Meeting and New Archaeology Blog

Are you ready for the Spring meeting of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society?  It is coming up on April 20th in Norman, with a wonderful theme: "OAS - A is for Anthropology".  Program and meeting details are available here: OAS Spring Meeting Agenda

Featured speakers include a number of OU professors and grad students: Lauren Cleeland, Susan Vehik, Patrick Livingood, Asa Randall, Holly Andrew, and Bonnie Pitblado.  Their topics range widely: parasites, gender relations, politics, climate change, and collaboration between professional and citizen archaeologists.  Talk about relevant!

Also, the Archaeology Department at the Sam Noble Museum has a new blog: SamNobleArchaeology.  Currently the blog is focused on a major project to inventory and rehouse collections from the Spiro mound site, with the help of a generous grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Watch for updates, especially after mid-May when our undergraduate interns have finished writing a series of entries on Spiro artifacts.