Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter May 2017

M A Y -2017 May Program May 17 - at 6:00 PM - Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236 Gradiometers, Cooper Plates & Mounds: A History of the Etowah Site (9Brt) Dr. Adam King Research Associate Professor, SC Institute of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of South CarolinaDear Member:May is our last meeting before our summer break. It is also our Annual Meeting where we ask members toconfirm our board for the next year (Please see List on page 4). We have a very enthusiastic board andthey have all volunteered to stay on for another round. (Phew!) They are a great group and without them wewouldn't have the great line-up of speakers, the newsletter, website, raffle, welcoming table, etc. This timenext year, though, we may want a couple of you to step up and join us. It's not a lot of work, and it is fun. Ifyou might be interested, you are welcome to attend any of our meetings next year to get a feel for the task.Your membership renewal date is indicated on the mailing label If that date is May 2017 or earlier, pleaserenew now. You can renew by credit card online at www.Timesifters.org or with cash or check at the Maymeeting.Thanks for being a Time Sifters member!Sherry Svekis, President [email protected] May 17 - monuments, and elaborate works of art, just like other Selby civilizations of the world. Etowah's history was complex and Library included multi-ethnic beginnings, an unexplained aban- donment, the arrival of foreigners, attacks by invaders, and The Etowah site is a large even a visit by early Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. In town built by Native this presentation, Dr. King will discuss what traditionalAmericans before the coming of the Europeans in the archaeology, remote sensing, and iconographic studies havenorthern part of the modern state of Georgia. It is a big and revealed about the site and the people who built it.impressive place, and it was an important place in the early Dr. Adam King, Research Associate Professor in the Southhistory of the Deep South. Etowah was a major center in Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at thethe Mississippian civilization that flourished from as early University of South Carolina, focuses his research on theas 1000 CE to as late as 1600 CE. This forgotten Native early history of Native Americans, particularly during theAmerican civilization is responsible for large cities, great Mississippian Period (AD1000-1600).

Notes from a Time SifterWas There a Real Garden of Eden?The Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) is a journal built in the 5th and 4th millennium B.C.E. andthat reports on the latest archaeological discoveries archaeologists have uncovered many ruins like thosein the Near East. It has brought current nonde- of the ancient city of Ur. The ancient authors claimnominational scholarly insights on the Bible to that this city was the origin of the Hebrews and theboth professional and lay audiences since 1975. supposed birthplace of biblical Abraham (Gen. 11,The March/April, 2016 issue (pp. 16-18) has a 28). There is no archaeological evidence for Abrahamfascinating article that tries to match what we see but the Bible calls this city “Ur of the Chaldeans”on the ground to what the ancient authors of the which dates the story to the first millennium B.C.E.Bible wrote, to discover where they thought the when it was the homeland of the Chaldeans, andGarden of Eden may have been. places it in the southern Mesopotamian marshes.The authors of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testa- Archaeology confirms the historical accounts of thement) traced the genealogy of the Hebrews from the Chaldeans who established the Neo-Babylonian Em-creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden to about pire in 626 B.C.E., successfully fought the Assyrians200 B.C.E. The stories must have been transferred between 609 and 607 B.C.E. and, under their Kingorally for many generations until they were written Nebuchadnezzar, attacked Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.down, probably beginning as early as the 10th cen- The Chaldean Empire, including the marshes, wastury B.C.E. Stories were gathered together into eventually lost to the Persians (540 B.C.E.), then to“books” and the final version of this collection was Alexander (330 B.C.E.), the Romans (116 B.C.E.) andaccepted as authentic (canonized) by about 100 many others including the Ottomans (1259 C.E.). TheC.E (Biblical Archaeology, R. Ngo). This canonized marshes became part of the British mandate calledcollection has been translated into many languages Iraq in 1920, and in 1932, gained their independence.so there are differences in some of the stories, but In 1993, Saddam Hussein ordered the marshesthe idea of a “Garden of Eden” is clear in most editions. drained because his opponents were hiding there.Studies of language and writing styles indicate that The new Iraqi government restored the wetlands inthe biblical authors lived in the Levant (Goran tek- 2007 because of their value as an important ecosystem..wikimedia.org) but the Bible connects the earlyHebrew people with towns east of the Levant, so Archaeologists confirm that life in the marshes hasscholars tend to concentrate on Mesopotamia not changed much in thousands of years and many of(modern Iraq, western Iran, Syria and Kuwait) when the residents trace their ancestry back to the Sumerians.looking for the area where the ancient authors believed a (Drake, (National Geographic, 7/9/15).“Garden of Eden” would have been located. Genesis 2,8-14 describes it as a fertile river valley in the “east” Dams built upstream have diminished the flow of theand mentions the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that are in rivers and the water’s salinity has risen 300% so thewhat is now southern Iraq. The area where the population has dropped. But the restored area is nowrivers converge is a marshy area called the Mesopo- under international conservation management and istamian Marshlands, and although it is no longer a available for study and imagination. It may not befertile paradise, some modern Iraqis call it “the “Eden” but the new studies give us a better idea ofGarden of Eden”. what the ancient authors believed about this place in the time that they wrote the Bible. Thanks to theThis place has a very long and colorful history. It Biblical Archaeological Review, that information isis the area where the first Sumerian cities were available to all of us.

World Heritage SitesA World Heritage Site is a landmark or area which has been officially recognized bythe United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (UNESCO). Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural,historical, scientific or some other form of significance, and they are legally protectedby international treaties. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to thecollective interests of humanity. (Wikipedia) Angkor, Cambodia, World Heritage Site #668 © UNESCO © Jan Fritz © Jan Fritz © Jan Fritz Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, France, World Heritage Site #165© Editions Gelbart © Editions Gelbart © Natasha Lazic © Natasha Lazic © Natasha Lazic © Natasha Lazic © Natasha Lazic San Antonio Missions, USA, World Heritage Site #1466All photographs © National Park ServiceThe Slate Officers: Directors:of Officers Sherry Svekis, President Valerie Jackson Bell Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, Vice Pres. Robert Bopp Bernice Jones, Secretary Glenn Cooper Caroline Reed, Treasurer Evelyn Mangie Karen Jensen, Membership Sharon McConnell Saretta Sparer

Membership Speakers & Events CalendarLifetime: $200 All to be held at 6:00 PMIndividual: $25 Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236Family: $35Sustaining: $50 May 17Student: $10 Etowah Indian Mounds, Carterville, GA Dr. Adam King, Research Associate Professor, University of SCPay online at:WWW.TimeSifters.org Copyright © 2017 Time SiftersArchaeology Society,Inc., All rights reserved.Or mail checks to: We send newsletters to people who have attended or expressed interestin our lecturesTime Sifters, Inc. and givenus their email address.PO Box 5283Sarasota, FL. 34277 Time Sifters Archaeology Society A Chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society http://timesifters.org/Time Sifters Archaeology SocietyP. O. Box 5283, Sarasota, FL 34277