Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter May 2019

MAY-2019 PRESERVATION EDUCATION RESEARCH INSPIRE Dear Member: This month we elect our Board Members for the 2019-2020 season. But first we must say goodbye to three members who are leaving us. Rob Bopp (Raffle Director) is retiring after over 20 active years as both a member and Board Member. He wants to spend more time on his boat and sailing around the Gulf. Sharon McConnell has travel plans, currently on a cruise to Portugal! Glenn Cooper (Video Director) has accepted a new writing assignment that will take him to Europe for most of next year. We want to thank them all for their work, ideas and service. On page three is the Slate of Directors put together by the Nominating Committee for the 2019 –2020 Season. We will vote on them at our May Meeting. After our May Meeting we will be taking a break over the summer to enjoy Florida and do some traveling. The newsletter will continue each month to keep you up to date with what is going on in our area. We start up again on September 18th. We are always open for compliments and suggestions. Thank you for being a member of Time Sifters. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President [email protected] May 15, 6:00 PM Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota Florida’s Submerged Prehistory: Investigating and Protecting Manasota Key Offshore Dr. Ryan Duggins, Underwater Archaeology Supervisor, Bureau of Archaeological Research In June 2016, Florida Bureau of location in the Gulf of Mexico under 21 Archaeological Research (FBAR) staff feet of seawater. MKO represents the were notified of prehistoric human first example in the Americas of a remains located in the Gulf of Mexico prehistoric burial site surviving offshore of Manasota Key, Sarasota Holocene sea level rise. Insight into the County. Archaeological investigation circumstances that allowed this identified the presence of a newly delicate site to be preserved can help identified Archaic period mortuary us understand the effects of sea level pond dating to 7214 +/- 30 Cal BP. A rise on submerged archaeological sites. sensitive and unique site, Manasota Dr. Ryan M. Duggins leads the Key Offshore (MKO) is a fascinating Underwater Archaeology Program at example of the south Florida Archaic the Florida Bureau of Archaeological period cultural practice of interring Research. He earned his Ph.D. from the bodies of deceased individuals Florida State University; his research within a pond. MKO, however, is focused on modeling submerged distinguished from other peat burial landscape sand site distribution on the sites within Florida because of its Continental Shelf.

Notes from a Time Sifter By Evelyn Mangie, Time Sifters Board Member Spy in the Sky Archaeology! Unayyad mosque, Aleppo (Guardian) During the Cold War of the 1950s Sumerian literature. Houses were because and 60s, American U2 spy planes built using only returnees were photographed key Soviet military long reeds exposed to targets. They also captured pictures harvested modern life. of many ancient sites from Europe from the They now zip and Asia. The films were not marsh and through the declassified until 1997 and were tied together canals in not studied or indexed until recently. without nails, (ibid) Archaeologists Emily Hammer wood, or glass from the University of Pennsylvania (ibid). Many of these villages were and Jason Ur of Harvard knew destroyed by recent hydroelectric that these pictures might reveal dams built by Turkey, Syria, and some archaeological features Iraq in the upper reaches of the motor boats because large patterns on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. (National landscape can be seen only from That reduced the flow of both Geographic above. So, Hammer and Ur got rivers by 80% and increased the 4/24/13) Mosel Ziggurat (BBC) permission to look at the thousands of frames now available. They already salinity making it difficult to live and the young have little interest in had photos taken by the CORONA there. The marsh was totally reviving their heritage. The U2 photos spy satellite program from the late drained by Saddam Hussein who preserved the record of these 1960s and early70s that showed believed the villages were sheltering ancient villages. lost cities and ancient trade Shi’ite rebels during the Iran- Other U2 photos recorded ancient paths, but the U2 pictures are of Iraq war (1980-88) (ibid). Some monuments that have since been higher resolution and so are much of the villages were rebuilt after destroyed by the recent wars such clearer than the photos taken by the the war but few villagers returned as the great Umayyad mosque in CORONA program. It was a and much of the culture is lost Aleppo built between the 8th and rewarding surprise that the U2 the 13th centuries photos also showed many new (The Guardian, ancient sites especially in the Desert Kites (Advances in Archaeological Practice) 4/24/13), and the Near East. For example, the U2 photos revealed an Assyrian canal 3000-year-old ziggurat system built in the first millennium at Mosel (ancient B.C.E. (IFLSCIENCE!), and desert Nimrud) that was leveled by ISIL Assyrian Canal (IFLSCIENCE!) (BBC, 9/15/16) . (Livius, 6/14/17). kites, stone structures used to Aerial photography trap wild gazelles, in 5000 B.C.E. from balloons or (Advances in Archaeological kites has long been Practice). One of the most fasci- an archaeological nating areas photographed is the tool. China is using Marsh Arab villages at the drone photos to confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates identify ancient Rivers in southern Iraq. (ibid) irrigation systems along the Marsh Arabs had a unique culture Silk Road (Newsweek), and that is believed to have changed the U.K. is collecting its aerial little for the last 6000 years. It imagery to build a photographic was of value to anthropologists archive of archaeological sites because it resembled the in Egypt and the Arabian Gulf descriptions of life found in ancient area (EAMENA, 2/27/19). But the U2 pictures were a surprise by-product of military practice. A new source Marsh Arab Villages (ibid) that is good news for archaeology.

News & Events Did You Know? Declaration of Independence. The news of the declaration forces in New York, read the The statue was subsequently stared a riot. A copy of the document aloud in front of City melted down and shaped into Declaration of Independence Hall, it started a riot. A raucous more than 42,000 musket balls reached New York City on July 9, crowd cheered the inspiring for the fledgling American army. 1776. When George Washington, words, and later that day tore History.com commander of the Continental down a nearby statue of George III. Nominees for Directors: Karen Jensen Time Sifters Marion Almy Evelyn Mangie Board - May 2019 Dorothy Cascio Donald Nelson Steven Derfler Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith Laura Harrison Sherry Svekis Copyright © 2019 TimeSiftersArchaeology Society,Inc. All rights reserved. Officers: Board of Directors Copyright © 2019 Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Time SiftersArchaeologySociety,Inc., Sherry Svekis, Vice President Directors: Steven Derfler All rights reserved. Secretary Robert Bopp Evelyn Mangie We send newsletters to people Laura Harrison, Treasurer Dorothy Cascio Sharon McConnell who have attended or expressed Karen Jensen, Membership Glenn Cooper interestin our lecturesand given us their email address.

Membership Speakers & Events Calendar Lifetime: $350 Unless noted, all will be held at 6:00 PM Individual: $25 Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236 Family: $35 Student: $10 May 15 Manasota Key Offshore Site Pay online at: Dr. Ryan M. Duggins WWW.TimeSifters.org Or mail checks to: September 18 Time Sifters, Inc. The New Season Starts PO Box 5283 To Be Announced Sarasota, FL. 34277 October 16 The Cow Cavalry - Florida Food for the Confederacy Lindsey Morrison November 20 Preserving a Lost WWII Battlefield off of North Carolina Dave Alberg Time Sifters Archaeology Society P. O. Box 5283, Sarasota, FL 34277