Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter July 2018

JULY-2018 Summer EditionDear Member:Your Board members are out and about exploring, as I’m sure some of you are doing aswell. As I write this, I am in Utah where it is about 90 in our little camper, but 7% humidityand a spot in the shade is keeping it bearable. Today I got up extra early to hike right afterdaybreak, when it was in the 50s, to visit a site of ancient rock art in Canyonlands NationalPark. The site is situated under a sheltering cliff edge where there is also a natural spring.I am returning to Sarasota in mid-July for the Back to Angola Festival. The Festivalcelebrates the blended history of Red Bays, Bahamas and the early 1800’s maroon communityof Angola, located near the Manatee Mineral Spring in today’s East Bradenton. Somedescendants of Angola still reside in Red Bays on Andros Island where the Angolans fled in1821. The festival will feature authentic Bahamian food, crafts, games, and cultural dancedemonstrations, as well as sharing the story of Angola and the archaeology that led to itsrediscovery. Its getting press locally, in the Bahamas, and also from the National Under-ground Railroad Network of Freedom!I hope to see you at this great celebration. I’ll be part of a panel on Saturday afternoon.Cheers, [email protected] Svekis, PresidentA Time Sifters Update CSS Georgia: The Ladies Gunboat By: Michael Jordan President of Cosmos Mariner Productions On February 17, As a reminder: the Georgia was her to prevent her capture and 2016, Michael Jordan, built locally in Savannah, GA in joined the overall Confederate presented “CSS just a few months in 1862, with evacuation from the city. The money raised by Georgia’s women. Its Georgia’s wreck was discovered byGeorgia: The Ladies Gunboat”. accident when a dredge struck itTime Sifters asked him to give us slope-sided top, or casemate, was in 1968, and a few pieces werean update on what is happening sheathed with railroad iron. The raised over the next 50 years. Inwith the CSS Georgia and what he ship struggled to stem the tide in 2015, the Corps of Engineershas been up to. To watch his the Savannah River, but was contracted with archaeologists andpresentation in total and all of the used as an impregnable floating US Navy divers to began the process oflast two years presentations, please artillery battery, successfully completely recovering the wreckage togo to the website … anchoring the city’s defenses make way for a $700-million against Union attack from the harbor deepening project in thewww.TimeSifters.org. sea. When Union General William Port of Savannah. The team T. Sherman’s well-known “March raised thousands of artifacts,Much has transpired with the CSS to the Sea” ended on Savannah’s including many personal itemsGeorgia since I addressed Time doorstep on December 20-21, used by the crew, which were sentSifters about the Civil War ironclad 1864, the Georgia’s crew sunkshipwreck in February of 2016. to the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University to be conserved and prepared for museum exhibit. Update continued on page 3 ...

News & Events Countless Aspects of Beauty Athens, Greece … Through July 10 The Mycenaean Costumes recreated by Time Sifter’s Secretary, Dr. Bernice Jones will be on display at the National Archaeological Museum. Back to Angola FestivalJuly 13-15 … Curry Houses Historic District and Manatee Mineral Spring Park,North of Manatee Avenue/SR 64 off 14th Street East, East Bradenton Bahamian food, crafts, games, and cultural dance demonstrations.Friday, July 13th4:00 Welcome by Daphney Towns and Trudy Williams5:00 Sarasota County Commissioner Willie ShawSaturday, July 14th, 12 noon-8pm.12:15-12:30 Welcome by Daphney Towns and Trudy Williams1:00 Manatee County Commissioner Charles Smith1:00-2:00 “Around the Bend Nature Tours” presents - Simulated Archaeological Dig for school-age children2:00 “Angola History and Rediscovery” - Panel discussion.4:30 “Slave Movements and Marine Traders” - Bob Pitt and Eneos Godfrey, Bahamian Descendants Tidally United Summit August 9 - Sainer Pavilion at New College August 10 - Payne Park Auditorium August 11 - Historic Spanish Point For the latest on the schedule and to register, go to https://fpan.us/projects/tidally.phpChartres Cathedral, France World Heritage Site #81The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1194 and1220, is in the Gothic and Romanesque styles. The majority ofthe original stained glass windows survived intact. The building'sexterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowedthe architects to increase the window size significantly.

Update continued from Page 1...CSS Georgia: The Ladies GunboatClock wise: 1. West Casemate Recovery, drone shot by Anne Weathersby. owns the2. Casemate rail armor cross section. 3. Michael filming 2017, by Anne Weathersby. artifacts.4. West Casemate, drone pic by Anne Weathersby. 5. Engine parts recovered, Steve My exhaustiveJames photo 6. Recovered artifacts. hour-long docu- mentary on theI wrote my masters thesis on steam engines which had first CSS Georgia wasthe Georgia in 2006, produced a been spotted in 2003, but myste- premiered indocumentary in 2008, and was riously vanished in ensuing years. Savannah inhired by the Corps to create the It’s assumed that a passing vessel February. It high-official documentary about the somehow became entangled with lighted the ship’srecovery of the ship. This was the large metal artifacts and drug construction, deployment, and sinkingthe topic of the talk in 2016. them to a different spot. The engines as well as five decades of 20th centuryWhen archaeologists wrapped will help archaeologists ascertain archaeological exploration andup their field work in fall why the Georgia was so under- recovery. Last fall, I uncovered2015, two large pieces of the powered. hundreds of pages of new primaryGeorgia’s railroad iron-sheathed The archaeological recovery of the source material related to the postarmored top—the 68 x 24-foot, 120- CSS Georgia is now complete, and -Civil War salvage of the Georgiaton West Casemate and the 27 x 27- the artifact conservation process and other Confederate obstructions infoot, 40-ton East Casemate – is expected to end by this fall. At the Savannah River. Theseremained on the bottom, too heavy this point, no single museum has discoveries are helping to unravelfor the team’s cranes to safely lift, stepped forward to request all of a mystery about who first visitedbut too strongly-built for them to the artifacts, though several, including the wreck site, and I have beenseparate on the bottom and raise in the Civil War Naval Museum in hired to help the archaeologistspieces. Archaeologists returned to Columbus, GA and the Coastal write the historical backgroundthe wreck site in summer 2017 with Heritage Society in Savannah, portions of the official archaeologicala larger crane, and raised the have expressed interest in exhibit- report, which will be completed byEast Casemate on June 21st and ing a few items. The museums the end of this year.the West Casemate on July 2nd. must agree to adhere to strictBoth sections were photographed standards for humidity control, setthousands of times to produce a by the U.S. Navy, which officiallyphotogrammetric model(essentially a 3D computer collage)and reburied in a secluded spot in theBack River until someone comes upwith the hundreds of thousands ofdollars it would cost to conserve andexhibit them.In subsequent searches of the riverbottom, archaeologists discoveredthe two pieces of the Georgia’sOfficers: Board of Directors Copyright © 2018Sherry Svekis, President Time SiftersArchaeologySociety,Inc.,Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, Vice Pres. Directors: Steven Derfler All rights reserved.Bernice Jones, Secretary Robert Bopp Evelyn Mangie We send newsletters to peopleLaura Harrison - Treasurer Dorothy Cascio Sharon McConnell who have attended or expressedKaren Jensen, Membership Glenn Cooper interestin our lecturesand given us their email address.

Membership Speakers & Events CalendarLifetime: $250 All to be held at 6:00 PMIndividual: $25 Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236Family: $35Sustaining: $50 September 19Student: $10 Virtualizing World Heritage Sites in Sicily Dr. Davide TanasiPay online at:WWW.TimeSifters.org October 17Or mail checks to: The Bronze Age Archaeology of Seyitömer MoundTime Sifters, Inc. in TurkeyPO Box 5283 Dr. Laura HarrisonSarasota, FL. 34277 November 14 The Rosewood Massacre Edward González-Tennant, PhD Time Sifters Archaeology Society A Chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society http://timesifters.org/Time Sifters Archaeology SocietyP. O. Box 5283, Sarasota, FL 34277