Archeological Society of Virginia

This page has announcements about where excavation, training, certification, and other archaeological opportunities may be found. News items are also included.

Check here often for the latest info we've received. If we haven't got it here, and you know of info of interest, please send it to us.

ASV Annual Meeting Flyer and Registration Form

The 2010 ASV Annual Meeting will be held October 28-31 at the Clarion Hotel Historic District, 351 York Street in Williamsburg. Phone (757) 229-4100. ASV and ESAF room fees are $69.00/room if booked prior to the meeting. It will be held in conjunction with the Eastern States Archaeological Federation Annual Meeting.

Click here for the Annual Meeting Flyer and Registration Form. Click here for the revised Call for Papers which has been extended to September 15, 2010.

ASV Student Paper Competition

The Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV) provides cash prizes to the best student papers presented at the Annual ASV Meetings, this year held jointly with the Eastern States Archaeological Federation Annual Conference. This year's meeting will be held October 28-31 at the Clarion Hotel Historic District, 351 York Street in Williamsburg. The competition is open to undergraduate students and graduate students. Three official award categories exist, recognizing student research contributions in Prehistoric Archeology (The McCary Award), Historical Archeology (The Williams Award), and Collections-Based Research (The VMNH Award). Two judges will evaluate the presentations. Students need not specify the award category in which they are interested.

Awards of $100.00 are provided to contest winners, once their winning paper is submitted to the ASV Quarterly Bulletin. In addition, award recipients will receive a free one-year membership in the Archeological Society of Virginia.

Click here for Contest Information.

ASV Annual Awards Nominations

The ASV presents awards at the Annual Meeting in several categories. Society members nominate candidates and the Awards Committee evaluates them and makes the decision. Click here to download the awards form. The Awards Committee is listed on the Officers page.

1. The Avocational Archeologist of the Year Award recognizes an individuals outstanding contribution to VA archaeology. This award may be a cumulative award or in recognition of efforts within that year.

2. The Professional Archeologist of the Year Award recognizes an individuals outstanding contribution to VA archaeology. This award may be a cumulative award or in recognition of efforts within that year.

3. The Out-of-State Award is for outstanding service to Virginia archeology. This award is made to an Out-Of-State recipient who has contributed in an outstanding fashion to VA archaeology.

4. The Hall of Fame Award is made to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the history of Virginia archeology. This is a posthumous award, awarded once every 5 years. The first recipient was Thomas Jefferson, recognized as the father of American stratigraphic archaeology.

5. The Past-President's Award is given to the immediate past-president of the ASV.

6. The Site Survey Award is given to an individual and to a chapter which records the greatest number of archaeological sites at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR)within the last year.

A point will be given for each site survey form updated to current standards. The DHR database is composed of site survey forms from the past 70 years of survey and many are completely out of date. Normally, an award for the highest number of sites would be made on the basis of newly recorded sites.

7. A Scholarship for outstanding students in anthropology, archeology, or history.

Kittiewan Archaeology Week Flyer and Registration Form

The 2010 Kittiewan Archaeology Week will be held from June 19-27, 2010. The plan is to investigate the suggested ice house depression near the manor and to locate Dr. William Selden's office. Probing in the cemetery for field stones and markers, and transit mapping will also be conducted during the week..

Click here for the Kittiewan Archaeology Week Flyer and Registration Form.

The 2010 Eastern States Archaeological Federation 77th Annual Meeting will be held in Williamsburg, VA from October 28-31, 2010.

Mike Barber and Bernard Means are Program Chairs and Mike Madden is the Arrangements Chair. For more information, go to: ESAF

Click here for the Call For Papers announcement.

ASV Board Nominations

ASV nominee list ASV members who attended October's annual meeting in Fredericksburg elected Carl Fischer to fill the post of Treasurer left vacant by the recent death of Bill Thompson. Martha Williams was elected to the post of Vice President after Carl's move. Charlie Manson was elected to fill the Board position left vacant by Chris French's resignation. Cindy Dauses, Elizabeth Moore and Richard Guercin were elected to the Board of Directors for 2010-2012 term.

Together with the officers of the ASV, the Board sets policies that guide the activities of the Society and determines financial outlays to support its activities. The Board meets quarterly (generally in January, April, July, and October) in a variety of venues around the state. Board members also serve on committees that deal with specific ASV functions, such as survey and excavation, finance and audit, public relations, and publications. The only requirements for becoming a member of the Board are membership in the state Society and the desire to promote the goals of archeology and the objectives of the Society across the state. Board members should plan on attending all meetings.

The Loss of Bill Thompson

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of our former president, current treasurer and board member Bill Thompson who departed this life on July 12, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. Bill inherited from Dale Kerby the mantle of providing level headed commentary at times when it was needed most during our typically spirited Board meetings. Bill was a Parliamentarian of great breadth and depth of knowledge that benefitted all who were recipients. He brought clarity, transparency of operation and a continuation of fiscal responsibility as Treasurer of the ASV. The question: "Do we have the money" was directed at Bill and was always answered, one way or the other and that in itself was a masterful accomplishment, not so much in the actual numbers but in the context that he always provided so that the Board would understand the consequences of actions taken. Bill was one of the pillars of the ASV in so many ways, not least of which was that that no matter where meetings were held, he brought himself to them, no excuses, he just did it.

Bill's obituary is in the Daily Press at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=william-a-thompson&pid=129714801

The funeral service was conducted Thursday, July 16, 2009 at Great Bridge Baptist Church, 640 Battlefield Blvd., South, Chesapeake with a burial service at James River Baptist Church Cemetery, Williamsburg, Va.

Memorial contributions may be made to ComfortCare Hospice, 667 Kingsborough Sq. # 201, Chesapeake, VA 23322; the William A. Thompson Jr. Memorial Fund, to benefit the Pipsico Boy Scout Camp Maintenance Fund C/O any Monarch Bank Branch or to the Kittewan Plantation, Archeological Society of Virginia.

The Loss of Russell Darden

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the sudden and unexpected death of our former president, treasurer and current membership secretary and board member Russell Darden who departed this life on May 5, 2009. Russell was a great many things, but above all a gentleman through and through. Russell was passionately interested in archaeology, was an equally passionate Civil War re-enactor with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, gave hundreds of talks about archaeology across the state, endlessly proselytized archaeology and also participated in Native American ceremonies. Russell fit the definition of an archaeological Renaissance Man.

In lieu of flowers the family has requested remembering Russell by donating to VARC/Kittiewan, and the newspaper will also mention several other donation options since he was a member of many different organizations.

Death of Howard MacCord

We have received the sad news that Howard MacCord passed away on November 3, 2008.

The first dig I went on was on the island in the James River where I grew up. The ASV had a dig there on an 18th century site. The Old School ASV was there, that affiliation of pirates who did other things in real life but on weekends banded together to do some archaeology. There were two who made a living doing archaeology. Ned Heite did the historic archaeology, generally and Howard MacCord did the prehistoric, generally.

Howard MacCord can be called the father of Virginia Archaeology. He wasn't the first, he didn't belong to the "old boys" network of the Smithsonian or teach at a university. He popularized archaeology in the state like no one had ever done before. He was apparently born with a trowel in his hand. He was a military man who was one of the first non-Japanese to dig in Japan where he was after World War II. He put himself through university so that he could learn archaeology. He talked his way into a position at the strangest of practically all places to do archaeology, that being the Virginia State Library. He was the first State Archaeologist. The Virginia Association of Museums was his brainchild, as well as the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Through sheer force of personality, he transformed the Virginia Arrowhead Collectors Club into the Archeological Society of Virginia, put the Code of Ethics into place and organized chapters around the state. His efforts transformed ASV into a functioning entity. He also introduced the alpha-numeric archaeological site recording system into Virginia. His life was indeed archaeology.

His great strength was his ability to organize and to relate to people. The days when the ASV was largely Howard doing digs across the state, sending out flyers to the faithful who camped for days on this or that site in the back of beyond, and who built up the membership to nearly 2000, those are the Howard days.

Howard was certainly a very devout and firm believer in a great many things. He believed in archaeology and its ability to provide answers to innumerable questions that could be answered no other way, he proselytized archaeology, and he had a plan to achieve his goals.

For all of his military ways, he was remarkably democratic, but you had to stand up and make it happen because he was also a formidable force of nature. He respected that. He would also not change his practices one iota, but he would not stop anyone else from approaching a problem from what they felt was the correct direction either.

He held fast to his beliefs and argued them from a vast storehouse of data that he had collected in his years of voracious reading. His personal library was on a par with any Virginia university's holdings, and up to date. His frugality was legendary, but he did not stint on the printed word.

Howard worked within a system where there were no Federal laws with teeth, no Section 106 and no money from the state, apart from his salary, to do archaeology. Within the confines of that penurious system, he fell back on his Army skills and his commitment to archaeology as he saw it and made archaeology happen. He did what he could as he saw the need within the very structured bureaucracy he operated within. He went out and talked people into delaying projects just long enough for a dig to be done to recover data that would otherwise have been lost. It was not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination, and he was only too aware of that.

One of Howard's legacies is that he has produced a whole brood of unruly archaeological children. That is a just legacy to ask questions, probe for inconsistencies, put the pieces of the puzzle together, tear it down and add to it, knowing full well that it will never be the only answer or even the right one, but is non-the-less what the evidence says it may be. One of the things that stood him apart within our odd profession was that he held no grudges. It was all in a good days sport to have a knock-down argument about some aspect of archaeology and the next day it was a fresh start.

He spent a lifetime looking for answers to the past's questions. I would like to think he's getting his wish now.

New ASV Publication
Pots Pipes and Trashpits has arrived from the printers. This compendium of ASV articles for the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 is now available. This is the first volume in the Jamestown 2007 trilogy. See our ASV Press page for ordering information.

ASV SEEKS SPONSORS FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS.

The Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV) has announced a list of twenty-two (22) research projects statewide that it considers important and urgent. The society is willing to sponsor and help in the work, but it needs fiscal support. The projects are major tasks which will take months or years to carry out, and costs are appreciable. ASV is a 501.c.3 nonprofit organization which can serve as a broker for projects by administering funds, providing volunteers to work under a professional archeologist, and publishing reports on the work done and its results. For details on projects, including estimated costs and durations, please contact Patrick O'Neill. There are many precedents for such financial backing for archeology, and details on these are available. Thanks for your interest in Virginia archeology.

ARK--The Archaeological Resource Kit.

The ARK contains books, drawings, videos, replicas, and a computer game that will give students a variety of ways to explore archaeology and the Native Americans of Virginia. The kit circulates on temporary loan at no cost.

Museums, teachers, and educational organizations may make a reservation to borrow the kit by contacting Dee DeRoche
telephone (804) 367-2323 ext. 134
Fax: (804) 367-2391
email: Dee DeRoche
or contact the nearest Department of Historic Resources (DHR) regional office.

VA-Arch mailing list

A new mailing list has been created to serve the Virginia Archaeology community. This mailing list was set up to provide an open forum for the discussion of Archaeology in Virginia. Topics are expected to include current research and projects in prehistoric and historic archaeology, information about conferences, events, and field school opportunities, and discussions related to any aspect of Virginia Archaeology. This list was created to facilitate the dissemination of information by members of the Archaeological Society of Virginia, the Council of Virginia Archaeologists, and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The list is open to everyone with an interest in archaeology or the history and prehistory of Virginia.

If you wish to learn more about the mailing list or you want to subscribe, please see our VA-Arch mailing list page or go to Yahoo.com/group/VA-Arch webpage.

If you have corrections, suggestions, problems, or comments about this site, or if you have any photos of ASV activities, excavations, etc., that could be used on the site, please contact Lyle Browning. Photos will be scanned and returned to you as soon as possible

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