This year the state-wide annual meeting of the Arkansas Archeological Society will be held for the first time in Conway—centrally located off I-40 about 30 miles northwest of Little Rock.
Conway, home to three colleges, is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state with over 50,000 residents. A local attraction is Cadron Settlement Park, where Cherokees on the Trail of Tears stopped along the way. A recreated blockhouse and exhibit panels are on display at this Corps of Engineers property, which you may wish to visit before or after the meeting.
The meeting will sport all the usual fun—interesting papers (including papers by both Drs. Brandon and Drexler of the AAS-SAU Research Station), a banquet, a keynote presentation (from our new director, Dr. George Sabo), the ARF auction, business meeting and awards—all of which are further described on the Arkansas Archeological Society meeting website.
Dr. Brandon will be giving a paper on an artifact recovered from his work at Historic Washington State Park entitled “Bear Grease Pomade in the Bear State: Class, Consumerism, and Colonialism at the Royston House in Historic Washington State Park, Arkansas,” while Dr. Drexler will be giving a paper entitled “Archeology of the King of Battle: Approaches to the Study of Battlefield Ammunition in the Field of Archeology.” Dr. Duncan McKinnon (now with UCA) will be giving a talk related to his work in southwestern Arkansas entitled “Distribution of Design: The Rayed Circle Motif as a Case Study in an Ongoing Analysis of Caddo Iconography in Arkansas” and Dr. Jodi Barnes (AAS-UAM) will be giving a talk on the recent work at Camp Monticello with which the AAS-SAU Research Station has been assisting.
