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November 25, 2009 by andergraph
Born Today 11-25-1832 - Mary Edwards Walker
physician, women’s right leader: 1st female surgeon in U.S. Army; first woman to receive U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor; died Feb 21, 1919. This is an unknown story in American History and I invite you to do some research, learn and explore this multi-Deminsonal Woman of our past. Draw you own views and conclusions on who she was. A great subject to explore.
November 23, 2009 by andergraph
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
BANKS, GEORGE L.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 15th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Allen County, Ind. Birth: ------. Date of issue: 28 September 1897. Citation: As color bearer, led his regiment in the assault, and, though wounded, carried the nag forward to the enemy's works, where he was again wounded. In a brigade of 8 regiments this flag was the first planted on the parapet.
BELL, JAMES B.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company H, 11th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Troy, Ohio. Birth: ------. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Though severely wounded, was first of his regiment on the summit of the ridge, planted his colors inside the enemy's works, and did not leave the field until after he had been wounded 5 times.
BOYNTON, HENRY V.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, 35th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Ohio. Born: 22 July 1835, West Stockbridge, Mass. Date of issue: 15 November 1893. Citation: Led his regiment in the face of a severe fire of the enemy; was severely wounded.
BROUSE, CHARLES W.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company K, 100th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Indianapolis, Ind. Birth:------. Date of issue: 16 May 1899. Citation: To encourage his men whom he had ordered to lie down while under severe fire, and who were partially protected by slight earthworks, himself refused to lie down, but walked along the top of the works until he fell severely wounded.
BROWN, ROBERT B.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 15th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Zanesville. Born: 2 October 1844, New Concord, Ohio. Date of issue: 27 March 1890. Citation: Upon reaching the ridge through concentrated fire, he approached the color bearer of the 9th Mississippi Infantry (C.S.A.), demanded his surrender with threatening gesture and took him prisoner with his regimental flag.
CART, JACOB
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Place and date: At Fredericksburg, Va., 13 December, 1862. Entered service at:------. Birth: Carlisle, Pa. Date of issue: 25 November 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 19th Georgia Infantry (C.S.A.), wresting it from the hands of the color bearer.
DAVIS, FREEMAN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 80th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at:------. Birth: Newcomerstown, Ohio. Date of issue: 30 March 1898. Citation: This soldier, while his regiment was falling back, seeing the 2 color bearers shot down, under a severe fire and at imminent peril recovered both the flags and saved them from capture.
GRAHAM, THOMAS N.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company G, 15th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Westville, LaPorte County, Ind. Birth: ------. Date of issue: 15 February 1897. Citation: Seized the colors from the color bearer, who had been wounded, and, exposed to a terrible fire, carried them forward, planting them on the enemy's breastworks.
GREEN, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 11th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at:------. Born: 1840, England. Date of issue: 12 January 1892. Citation: Scaled the enemy's works and in a hand-to-hand fight helped capture the flag of the 18th Alabama Infantry (C.S.A.).
HOWARD, HIRAM R.
Rank and organization:. Private, Company H, 11th Ohio Infantry Place and date. At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Ohio. Born. 17 February 1843, Urbana, Ohio. Date of issue: 29 July 1892. Citation: Scaled the enemy's works and in a hand-to-hand fight helped capture the flag of the 18th Alabama Infantry (C.S.A.).
JOHNS, HENRY T.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 49th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Port Hudson, La., 27 May 1863. Entered service at: Hinsdale, Mass. Birth: ------. Date of issue. 25 November 1893. Citation: Volunteered in response to a call and took part in the movement that was made upon the enemy's works under a heavy fire therefrom ?of a mile in advance of the general assault.
JOHNSON, RUEL M.
Rank and organization: Major, 100th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Chattanooga, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Goshen Ind. Birth: ------. Date of issue: 24 August 1896. Citation: While in command of the regiment bravely exposed himself to the fire of the enemy, encouraging and cheering his men.
JOSSELYN, SIMEON T.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company C, 13th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Amboy, Ill. Born: 14 January 1842, Buffalo, N.Y. Date of issue: 4 April 1898. Citation: While commanding his company, deployed as skirmishers, came upon a large body of the enemy, taking a number of them prisoner. Lt. Josselyn himself shot their color bearer, seized the colors and brought them back to his regiment.
KELLEY, LEVERETT M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 36th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Rutland, Ill. Birth: Schenectady, N.Y. Date of issue: 4 April 1900. Citation: Sprang over the works just captured from the enemy, and calling upon his comrades to follow, rushed forward in the face of a deadly fire and was among the first over the works on the summit, where he compelled the surrender of a Confederate officer and received his sword.
KOUNTZ, JOHN S.
Rank and organization: Musician, Company G, 37th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Maumee, Ohio. Birth: Maumee, Ohio. Date of issue: 13 August 1895. Citation: Seized a musket and joined in the charge in which he was severely wounded.
MacARTHUR, ARTHUR, JR.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, and Adjutant, 24th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Milwaukee, Wis. Birth: Springfield, Mass. Date of issue: 30 June 1890. Citation: Seized the colors of his regiment at a critical moment and planted them on the captured works on the crest of Missionary Ridge.
REED, AXEL H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 2d Minnesota Infantry. Place and date: At Chickamauga, Ga., 19 September 1863; At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Glencoe, Minn. Birth: Maine. Date of issue: 2 April 1898. Citation: While in arrest at Chickamauga, Ga., left his place in the rear and voluntarily went to the line of battle, secured a rifle, and fought gallantly during the 2_day battle; was released from arrest in recognition of his bravery. At Missionary Ridge commanded his company and gallantly led it, being among the first to enter the enemy's works; was severely wounded, losing an arm, but declined a discharge and remained in active service to the end of the war.
SCHMIDT, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 37th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Maumee, Ohio. Birth: Tiffin, Ohio. Date of issue: 9 November 1895. Citation. Rescued a wounded comrade under terrific fire.
SHALER, ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: Colonel, 65th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Marye's Heights, Va., 3 May 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Born: 19 March 1827, Haddam, Conn. Date of issue 25 November 1893. Citation: At a most critical moment, the head of the charging column being about to be crushed by the severe fire of the enemy's artillery and infantry, he pushed forward with a supporting column, pierced the enemy's works, and turned their flank.
WALKER, JAMES C.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 31st Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Springfield, Ohio. Birth: Clark County, Ohio. Date of issue: 25 November 1895. Citation: After 2 color bearers had fallen, seized the flag and carried it forward, assisting in the capture of a battery. Shortly thereafter he captured the flag of the 41st Alabama and the color bearer.
FORSYTH, THOMAS H.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company M, 4th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Powder River, Wyo., 25 November 1876. Entered service at:------. Birth: Hartford, Conn. Date of issue: 14 July 1891. Citation: Though dangerously wounded, he maintained his ground with a small party against a largely superior force after his commanding officer had been shot down during a sudden attack and rescued that officer and a comrade from the enemy.
November 23, 2009 by andergraph
1864 - A Confederate plot to burn NYC failed. The leader of the "fire brigade" was a Confederate by the name of Robert Kennedy -- any relation? At any rate, Kennedy and the rest of his group met at the St. Dennis Hotel like planned. At that time final coordinates were made. Over the next few days his men were to each register for a weeks stay in several assigned hotels each -- using assumed names and towns of course. This was to gain them access to rooms in the hotels. Arrangements had been previously made with a chemist residing in New York, but a Southern Sympathizer, to pick up a load of "Greek fire." This was a special chemical combination that looked like water but, when exposed to air, after a delay, would ignite in flames. When Kennedy picked up the valise, he found it contained dozens of small bottles of the liquid and each bottle was sealed with plaster of Paris. Instructions were to use the bed in each room, pile it with clothing, rugs, drapes, newspapers, and anything else that would burn, Next, they were to empty two bottles of the "Greek fire" on top of the pile. In about five minutes, flames would ignite the pile. This delay gave them plenty of time to escape unnoticed before the fire started. After starting one fire, the man would then proceed to the next location and do the same. Each man would thus be capable of setting off several fires blocks from each other. Still making final arrangements on November 2 to finish the deed, a disturbing telegram was sent by Secretary of State William Seward to the Mayor of New York. It read: This Department has received information from British Provinces to the effect that there is a conspiracy on foot to set fire to the principle cities in the Northern States on the day of - the Presidential election. It is my duty to communicate this information to you." Later that afternoon the telegram was made public. (The same telegram was also sent to the mayors of other major Northern cities like Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.) At this time most of the Order members decided to abandon the plan and get out of the city in an attempt to save their own lives -- all that is except for Kennedy and five of the seven members of his band. After several meetings, it was decided by Kennedy and the rest of his gang to go ahead with the plan and set New York City on fire. They wouldn't be in a position to capture New York after all but at least they could retaliate for Sherman's March to the Sea. On the evening of November 25, 1864 the fires began. Before the night was over almost every hotel in New York City had been set ablaze. These hotels included the St. Nicholas, St. James, Fifth Avenue, La Farge, Metropolitan, Tammany, Hudson River Park, Astor House, Howard, United States, Lovejoy's, New England, and the Belmont. There were also fires on the Hudson River docks and a lumber yard. As a last minute thought, Kennedy decided to go into Barnum's museum and up to the fifth floor where he could obtain a good view of Broadway and several of the fires. After watching for several minutes, Kennedy started going down the stairs. The remaining bottle of "Greek fire" dropped from his coat pocket and broke in the stairwell. Wasting no time, Kennedy ran from the museum, out the front door and on down Broadway. Meeting his band of men the next morning at the Exchange Hotel, one of the few that they hadn't set fire to, Kennedy and his men read the morning papers. While there were some reports of the fires, the news didn't fill the front page like they hoped it would. Both the Times and the Herald however headed the news of the fires as a "Rebel Plot." Kennedy and his men managed to get out of New York City on November 28. Soon a $25,000 reward was offered. This, combined with Kennedy's boasting of his role in setting the fires, led to his capture three months later. After a short trial, Kennedy was found guilty on all counts. At this time, Kennedy signed a confession but refused to name anyone else involved in the plot. On March 25,
November 23, 2009 by andergraph
Crews search for Civil War history
By Nick Cenegy Contributor
Published November 19, 2009
TEXAS CITY — For years, the scoured remains of a Civil War naval tragedy slowly rusted beneath the spinning propellers of gargantuan tankers and sky-scraping container ships.
The scuttled USS Westfield, a Union gunship, and the last vestiges of its 14 doomed crew lay obscured in seafloor sediment near the confluence of the Texas City and Houston ship channels.
On Wednesday, however, divers and salvage crews visited the all-but-forgotten site to begin recovering what is left of the ship in preparation for a planned 5-foot deepening of the Texas City Channel.
Since the dredging will damage or destroy the archeological site, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District and Navy salvage experts stepped in to remove artifacts from the site, as required by federal law, Sharon Tirpak, Corps project manager for the Texas City Channel, said.
The Westfield sank in an ill-fated attempt by Union sailors to destroy the ship so Confederate sailors wouldn’t capture it, she said.
It was New Year’s Day, 1863, and Union soldiers occupied Galveston. As Confederate steamers launched an attack to regain the island, the USS Westfield, the Union’s flagship of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, ran aground on a sandbar north of Pelican Island.
The Westfield had been built two years prior as a ferry but was converted by the Navy into a gunboat. Before serving in Texas, the ship was part of the capture of New Orleans and the bombardment of Vicksburg.
During the battle, the Westfield remained grounded until the Union fleet began a hasty retreat. The ship’s captain, William Renshaw, ordered the heavily armed ship destroyed.
He poured turpentine over the deck and laid a fuse trail of powder from the magazine. But when Renshaw lit the fuse, the boat exploded prematurely. The explosion, which was said to have separated the stern from the ship, killed Renshaw and 13 of his crew.
Confederate soldiers salvaged many of the machine elements, six cannons, ordnance and thousands of pounds of iron and brass.
At the time, the area north of Pelican Island was only about 7 feet deep, but, after the construction of the Texas City Dike many years later, the depth grew to about 47 feet, said Bob Neyland, head of the underwater archaeology branch of the Naval History and Heritage Command, based at Washington Naval Yard in the District of Columbia.
Divers now have to be used to retrieve the remains of the 146-year-old ship.
Eight or nine large artifacts, including a 9-inch Dahlgren cannon, are expected to be removed in the first two weeks of the 10-month project, Tirpak said.
The rest of the artifacts will be scooped up in a clam-dredger in a grid-like manner so archeologists can track where pieces came from, she said. The dredged material will be taken to Freeport to be sifted out on shore, then transported to Texas A&M in College Station for conservation, Tirpak said.
Though there were 14 casualties from the explosion on the Westfield, Neyland said it is unlikely any human remains would have held up to time and tide.
What is more likely, is the recovery of unexploded cannon balls and grapeshot, Tirpak said.
For that contingency, explosives experts from the Navy and Marine Corps are on hand to disarm the once explosive devices.
Workers arrived earlier this week, rafting together three barges and a crew boat near the center of the Westfield’s half-acre debris field. On the barges, cranes nodded with the channel’s swells.
Crewmen wearing orange safety vests peered over the sides, watching a long umbilical line that fed air to a diver on the seafloor.
The crew, which varies from about 30 to 50 members, benefitted from calm water and ideal weather Wednesday, unlike days before, when high wind and swells delayed the project’s start date by two days, Tirpak said.
Meanwhile, ships the size of stadiums passed close enough to smell their diesel fuel exhaust.
Tirpak said divers working underwater can feel the draw of the passing ships as they displace tons of water.
The Coast Guard is helping to slow traffic by limiting passage into the Texas City Channel, she said.
After crews complete their work and the artifacts have been sent through the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M, the Navy will determine how to circulate the artifacts to reputable museums, Neyland said.
November 23, 2009 by andergraph
So that's what the Romans gave us – more historic camps than anywhere
Published Date: 20 November 2009
By Tim Cornwell
SCOTLAND already has more identified Roman camps than any other European country – reflecting Rome's repeated attempts to stamp its rule on the troublesome north.
Now the number is set to increase. The first comprehensive survey of Roman remains for 30 years will boost the total of officially recognised sites and give them greater legal protection, officials said yesterday.
Traces of at least 225 Roman military camps dot the Scottish countryside from the Borders to Aberdeenshire.
Archeologists have been mapping Roman sites in Scotland since the 18th century, and aerial surveys began in the 1920s. Now remote sensing technology featured in TV programmes such as Time Team can detect ancient features below the ground.
They can be spotted today mostly from the air, where the distinctive bank and ditch defences thrown up by the legionaries still mark the land
Archeological experts at Historic Scotland are now setting out to identify important archeological sites that do not have "scheduled" status to protect them from development or unauthorised digging.
"We anticipate an increase in the number of Roman camps scheduled, " said Dr Sally Foster, head of Historic Scotland's scheduling team.
Interest in the Roman effort to subjugate Scotland is set to grow with two forthcoming films. Centurion, about lost legionaries on the run from Pictish warriors, partly filmed in the Cairngorms, is due out in March. Also due in 2010 is Eagle of the Ninth, directed by Scottish film-maker Kevin Macdonald and based on the classic historical adventure by Rosemary Sutcliffe. It was inspired by the story of the lost Ninth Legion. Filming is taking place at Loch Lomond.
About 8,000 historic sites are scheduled in Scotland. About 55 include Roman camps, several with more than one, with others covering more permanent forts.
The Romans waged at least three large military campaigns in Scotland from the late 1st to early 3rd centuries AD.
The Antonine Wall, the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire, was named a World Heritage site last year. But legions ranged further in their efforts to crush Caledonian tribes.
It helps explain why Scotland has more than 200 military camps against an estimated 150 in England, and only about 30 in another frontier region, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Legionaries would camp in one spot for several months, under leather tents, building ramparts and a ditch.
Sites vary in size from a half-acre fort at Duntocher, on the Antonine Wall, to a camp near Lauder covering 170 acres.
Some sites, ploughed over for centuries, leave outlines that can only be seen with certain crops or weather conditions. But at Kintore, in Aberdeenshire, the largest excavation of any Roman camp in Britain has found evidence of more than 100 bread ovens, latrines and rubbish pits.
"It opened our eyes to how much survived in the camps despite how little you see in aerial photographs," Dr Foster said.
November 22, 2009 by andergraph
David you still haven't got one yet? Check out http://detectorcommunity.ning.com/forum/categories/detecting-buddy-search/listForCategory. I'm sure someone there has an extra if you just want to give it ago. Let me know and I'll ask there if you want or you can join. Very freindly bunch.
November 22, 2009 by andergraph
What great finds Tim, I love the buttons but that Acorn Bullet is too cool.
November 14, 2009 by andergraph
Thanks Tim, it looks like it was all worthwhile for sure. The directions for the screen will be used and hopefully this year.
November 14, 2009 by andergraph
Look like you had a great time. Maybe next year I'll put in for it.
November 14, 2009 by andergraph
Now that is a nice haul and with more still to come I would say that it is a honey hole for sure.
-C
November 12, 2009 by andergraph
Great info Mark. I really enjoyed the article - Craig
November 12, 2009 by andergraph
I agree Cam, It is one of my favorites.
November 11, 2009 by andergraph
I have plenty of shows to put up, however I wanted this week’s focus to on our board meeting held on Monday, November 9th, 2009. I invite you to listen, give input and offer guidance as we go into this next year. We have accomplished so much in the short time we have been here and where we go from here either has a finite stopping point or will be an unbelievable adventure.
Cassie and I personally are going to step back this week to reflect on the past seven months and get a game plan together for the next physical year which is coming on fast. We have hit a home run on the entertainment side with our shows. That we can see from our numbers and even on 1000mikes.com in just being there 4 short weeks we now hold #3 in the top shows on that site. That says a lot. We have a lot of listeners, made some great friends and for that we are successful.
The other side is the financial part and the funds that will take us to that next level and further our vision and enhance our mission. On that we have had almost no support at all. A few great people have came forward and for that I am grateful, your funds, time resources and gifts have gone to a great cause and every penny was pinched to make it go that much further. Thank you.
Is this project going away? No. There will be some changes coming with a focus on what and how we can remain funded to further our mission and vision. For that I am excited because what it says is that we have put together a winning product and idea. It is like now is the time to get started.
Again, I invite you to listen, give feedback and support. Everyone has heard the JFK speech “Ask not what your country can do for you …”, but few remember the 6th paragraph in that same speech “..United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do - for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds or split asunder.”
We are at a crossroads and we want to refocus and put forth our best. Anything less would be an insult to us and to you. It is our contention to focus our time, energy, talents and funds where we can do the most good as it relates to our non-profit venture.
We want your input, that’s why we did this as a non-profit in the first place. The history is ours - The memory is ours - and The future is ours.
OHP Staff
http://ourhistoryproject.podbean.com/mf/web/g49jq/OHPBoardMeeting.mp3
November 6, 2009 by andergraph
Oldest American artefact unearthed
Oregon caves yield evidence of continent's first inhabitants.
Rex Dalton
An Oregon cave has yielded the oldest artefact ever found in the Americas.Tom Stafford
Archaeologists claim to have found the oldest known artefact in the Americas, a scraper-like tool in an Oregon cave that dates back 14,230 years.
The tool shows that people were living in North America well before the widespread Clovis culture of 12,900 to 12,400 years ago, says archaeologist Dennis Jenkins of the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Studies of sediment and radiocarbon dating showed the bone's age. Jenkins presented the finding late last month in a lecture at the University of Oregon.
His team found the tool in a rock shelter overlooking a lake in south-central Oregon, one of a series of caves near the town of Paisley.
Kevin Smith, the team member who uncovered the artefact, remembers the discovery. "We had bumped into a lot of extinct horse, bison and camel bone – then I heard and felt the familiar ring and feel when trowel hits bone," says Smith, now a master's student at California State University, Los Angeles. "I switched to a brush. Soon this huge bone emerged, then I saw the serrated edge. I stepped back and said: 'Hey everybody — we got something here.'"
Coprolite controversy
Whether the cave dwellers were Clovis people or belonged to an earlier culture is uncertain. None of the Clovis people's distinct fluted spear and arrow points have been found in the cave.
"They can't yet rule out the Paisley Cave people weren't Clovis," says Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon who wasn't involved in the research.
The only other American archaeological site older than Clovis is at Monte Verde in Chile, which is about 13,900 years old.
Last year, Jenkins and colleagues reported that Paisley Cave coprolites, or fossilized human excrement, dated to 14,000 to 14,270 years ago1. That report established the Paisley Caves as a key site for American archaeology.
Analysis of ancient DNA marked the coprolites as human. But in July, another group argued that the coprolites might be younger than the sediments that contained them2.
This team, led by Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, also questioned the 2008 report because no artefacts had been found in the crucial sediments. The Oregon team strongly disputed the criticisms3.
Laid to rest?
The dating of the bone tool, and the finding that the sediments encasing it range from 11,930 to 14,480 years old, might put these questions to rest. "You couldn't ask for better dated stratigraphy," Jenkins told the Oregon meeting.
"They have definitely made their argument even stronger," says Todd Surovell, an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie who was not involved in the research.
November 6, 2009 by andergraph
Here is another write up on the same story but from :
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105084838.htm
Archaeologists Track Infamous Conquistador Through Southeast
ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2009) — Archaeologists at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History have discovered unprecedented evidence that helps map Hernando de Soto's journey through the Southeast in 1540. No evidence of De Soto's path between Tallahassee and North Carolina has been found until now, and few sites have been located anywhere.
Fernbank's Curator of Native American Archaeology, Dennis Blanton, has amassed an impressive collection of objects that reveal a probable stop in today's Telfair County, Ga., a location important not only for its critical mass of de Soto-era artifacts but also for its position off the previously predicted route. He'll present a scholarly paper before colleagues at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference on November 5 in Mobile, Ala.
"When we first started this excavation, I was surprised to learn there is no concrete evidence in Georgia of De Soto's path from Tallahassee to North Carolina. A single bead has been found here, a bead has been found there, but nothing of this nature," he said. "What we have now is the best-documented collection of Spanish artifacts in Georgia. Many are unique and they are the only examples of certain artifacts ever found outside Florida."
The most significant findings -- rare glass beads, metal artifacts and other objects -- add up to a heap of evidence that De Soto came calling near McRae, Ga. over 450 years ago. Because Native Americans did not have glass or metal before the arrival of Europeans, archaeologists look for these materials when documenting early explorers. Fernbank's site has both. Until now, many scholars expected De Soto's path to veer farther west, toward Macon.
"Archaeologists have a pretty good handle now on what a De Soto site would look like. I think it's a good working hypothesis that this was a De Soto contact site. It's close enough to the [estimated] route. It's got the right kind of materials," said Dr. Charles Ewen, an archaeologist at East Carolina University who co-directed the excavation of De Soto's 1539 winter encampment in Tallahassee, Fla. "Sometimes a hypothesis is as good as it gets in archaeology. Right now this looks like De Soto went through there. Without going back in time, this evidence may be as close as you are going to get [to identifying De Soto's path]. No matter what, it's a great site."
Among Fernbank's rare finds are two types of glass beads never found outside Florida and several chevron beads that date to the Spanish exploration -- the types of artifacts often seen as "calling cards" of De Soto due to their distinctive patterns and limited production.
Blanton has meticulously recorded the context of the artifacts, something missing from most other Georgia finds as a result of treasure hunters and looters.
"The fact that it [Fernbank's research] is being carried out in a controlled, scientific fashion is absolutely essential for correctly interpreting the site and its contents," said Dr. Jeffrey M. Mitchem, an archaeologist and De Soto scholar at the Parkin Archaeological State Park in Arkansas, which many scholars believe to be the Native American village of Casqui visited by De Soto's expedition in the summer of 1541. "So many of the archaeological sites that have yielded bits and pieces of evidence for early Spanish contact were destroyed by uncontrolled digging and looting. In those cases we end up with a bunch of pretty objects but little else."
The rarest artifacts were recovered within the context of a large structure that Blanton believes was a "council house," typically established in major communities for ceremonies and other business within the territory.
"Applying the logic that De Soto targeted prominent Native communities raises the odds that he visited our site," Blanton said. "This research is a bit controversial because we found evidence of De Soto where we weren't supposed to…all this evidence might just be saying 'Hernando de Soto slept here.'"
Blanton sees "a certain amount of serendipity" in his monumental findings because he didn't set out to search for De Soto when he began the archaeology program in 2006. Blanton's initial hope was to find the lost Spanish Mission settlement of Santa Isabel de Utinahica, a site that would have dated to the early-1600s. As the excavation began producing only objects that pre-dated the mission system, Blanton devoted himself to the process of accounting for the unanticipated findings.
The research isn't over, though. Blanton intends to continue excavations -- in Telfair County and beyond -- in an effort to establish concrete stops along De Soto's journey. Tracking the infamous conquistador's journey through Native communities reveals how he affected Native populations. The research helps provide a bridge between the historic and prehistoric periods.
Dr. Ewen said he hopes to see more evidence of what the link to De Soto could offer about what life was like for Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans.
"I don't think the public understands how complex the societies were that De Soto came into contact with. We tend to have a simplistic view of what the Indians were before the Spanish," he said. "We're now starting to get a handle on what the Indians were thinking as the Europeans arrived."
Blanton agrees that a big part of establishing De Soto's path is the window it opens into the indigenous landscape of the area.
"Until we know De Soto's path, we won't fully understand Native populations or the changes that took place after European contact. This is where the Spanish story and the Native story become one," Blanton said.
November 6, 2009 by andergraph
Evidence found in Ga. of Spanish explorer's trail
(AP)
ATLANTA — An archaeologist says excavations in southern Georgia have turned up beads, metal tools and other artifacts that may pinpoint part of the elusive trail of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto.
Dennis Blanton of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta was scheduled to present his findings Thursday to the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Mobile, Ala.
Excavations since 2006 in rural Telfair County uncovered remains of an Indian settlement along with nine pea-sized glass beads and six metal objects, including three iron tools and a silver pendant. Blanton says the artifacts are consistent with items Spanish explorers traded with Indians.
In a research paper prepared for the conference, Blanton wrote that the site "not only holds evidence of Hernando de Soto's initial passage through Georgia in the spring of 1540, but that it is a probable point of direct contact" with American Indians.
Blanton, who revealed his initial findings in 2007, said he knows linking the site to de Soto is controversial. That's because the artifacts were found 90 miles southeast of where many experts believe de Soto crossed the Ocmulgee River near Macon.
Historians have worked for years to pin down and mark the path of De Soto's explorations in the southeastern U.S. from May 1539 until 1543, which included the first European sighting of the Mississippi River.
De Soto, who along with half of his 600 men died on the four-year quest for gold and other riches, is credited as the first European to explore the interior of present-day Georgia. He and his men arrived nearly two centuries before the English founded the last of the original 13 colonies here in 1733.
source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iYgzhdulhTxARLmK4yyJnnnSMAdwD9BPFFG84
November 4, 2009 by andergraph
I like it Mark
November 4, 2009 by andergraph
I love that Button
October 29, 2009 by andergraph
Drawn half a millennium ago and then swiftly forgotten, one map made us see the world as we know it today... and helped name America. But, as Toby Lester has discovered, the most powerful nation on earth also owes its name to a pun.
Almost exactly 500 years ago, in 1507, Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure Germanic scholars based in the mountains of eastern France, made one of the boldest leaps in the history of geographical thought - and indeed in the larger history of ideas.
Near the end of an otherwise plodding treatise titled Introduction to Cosmography, they announced to their readers the astonishing news that the world did not just consist of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the three parts of the world known since antiquity. A previously unknown fourth part of the world had recently been discovered, they declared, by the Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci, and in his honour they had decided to give it a name: America.
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 What is coming into focus is a document that is far richer, far stranger, and much more historically valuable than had previously been imagined 
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But that was just the beginning. Waldseemuller and Ringman in fact had written the Introduction to Cosmography merely as a companion volume to their magnum opus: a giant and revolutionary new map of the world. It's known today as the Waldseemuller map of 1507.
The Waldseemuller map was - and still is - an astonishing sight to behold. Drawn 15 years after Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic, and measuring a remarkable 8ft wide by 4½ft high, it introduced Europeans to a fundamentally new understanding of the make-up of the earth.
The map represented a remarkable number of historical firsts. In addition to giving America its name, it was also the first map to portray the New World as a separate continent - even though Columbus, Vespucci, and other early explorers would all insist until their dying day that they had reached the far-eastern limits of Asia.
The map was the first to suggest the existence of what explorer Ferdinand Magellan would later call the Pacific Ocean, a mysterious decision, in that Europeans, according to the standard history of New World discovery, aren't supposed to have learned about the Pacific until several years later.
World of four parts
The map was one of the first documents to reveal the full extent of Africa's coastline, which had only very recently been circumnavigated by the Portuguese. Perhaps most significant, it was also one of the first maps to lay out a vision of the world using a full 360 degrees of longitude. In short, it was the the mother of all modern maps: the first document to depict the world roughly as we know it today.
America, named after Amerigo Vespucci... and a pun |
In the years after 1507, copies of the Waldseemuller map began turning up at universities all over central Europe. There, displayed in classrooms and discussed by geographers and travellers alike, its vision of a four-part world insinuated itself into the popular imagination.
Waldseemuller himself would later record that 1,000 copies of the map had been printed, a very substantial number for the day. But the rapid pace of geographical discovery meant that copies of the map were soon discarded in favour of newer, more up-to-date pictures of the world, and by 1570 it had all but vanished from memory.
When the map maker Abraham Ortelius that year published a comprehensive list of his cartographical predecessors and their maps, he mentioned Waldseemuller but made no reference to the great 1507 map.
Last surviving copy
Fortunately, one copy did survive. Sometime between 1515 and 1517, the Nuremburg mathematician Johannes Schoner acquired a reprint of the map, bound it into an oversized folio, and made it part of his reference library.
The $10m map at the Library of Congress in Washington |
In the years immediately afterward, Schoner studied the map carefully, but as the decades wore on, as newer maps became available, and as his own interests shifted from geography to astronomy, he consulted the folio less and less. By the time he died, in 1545, he probably hadn't opened it in years. The last remaining copy of the Waldseemuller map, beautifully preserved in Schoner's folio, had begun a long slumber - and wouldn't be roused again for some 350 years.
As is so often the case with historical treasures, the map was rediscovered by accident.
In the summer of 1901, while doing research in the library of Wolfegg Castle, in southern Germany, a Jesuit geography teacher named Joseph Fischer stumbled across the Schoner folio and quickly realized what he had found.
Within months his discovery was international news. "LONG SOUGHT MAP DISCOVERED," a New York Times headline announced in March of 1902. "EARLIEST KNOWN RECORD OF THE WORD AMERICA FINALLY BROUGHT TO LIGHT."
The map remained in the Wolfegg collection for the next hundred years - until 2003, when the US Library of Congress announced, with great fanfare, that it had acquired the map from the castle's owner for the staggering sum of $10m.
It was the highest price the library had ever paid for anything in its vast collection. Proudly, in its press release the library referred to the map as America's "birth certificate".
Value for money?
Was it worth the price? Some observers grumbled that it was not. But now that the map is on public display at the library, scholars and generalists alike have been looking at it with fresh eyes—and what is coming into focus is a document that is far richer, far stranger, and much more historically valuable than had previously been imagined.
Copernicus' view of space seems to have been influenced by the map |
The map turns out to be an enormously revealing patchwork of several different kinds of maps: the world as depicted by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as diagrammed by Europe's Christian theologians, and as charted by the sailors who plied the waters of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
There's more. The name America, for example, very probably represents not just a tip of the hat to Amerigo Vespucci but also a multilingual pun that can mean both "born new" and "no-place-land" - a playful coinage that seems to have inspired Sir Thomas More to invent his new world across the ocean, one meaning of which was also "no-place": Utopia.
The map itself seems also to have made a powerful impression on none other than Nicholas Copernicus, who began his landmark On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by describing America as he saw it depicted on the map, and who then went on to argue that the existence of a fourth part of the world meant that the traditional model not only of the earth but also the cosmos would have to be rethought.
For the only surviving copy of the map that not only gave America its name and introduced the New World to Europe but also helped Copernicus rethink the cosmos, $10m seems a very reasonable price to pay.
Toby Lester is the author of The Fourth Part of the World, which tells the story of the Waldseemuller map, published by Profile Books.
source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8328878.stm
October 26, 2009 by andergraph
OK not American History but one of the greats! Click on images to open full shots.
October 26, 2009 by andergraph
Everyone, this is a great effort and thanks to Mark for putting all this together. He's wanting to create something to the effect of a National Registery for the hobby.
October 26, 2009 by andergraph
That is so cool! I have a 1700'a house site I got pegged for this exact thing. Can you provide plans or instructions to building the screens?
October 21, 2009 by andergraph
Dig uncovers significant historical site in Narragansett
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 18, 2009
By Randal EdgarJournal Staff Writer
A grove of young trees in the area of an archaeological find of an Indian village in Narragansett.
The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy
Source: http://www.projo.com/news/content/NATIVE_AMERICAN_VILLAGE_10-18-09_TKG1T0A_v161.353dad7.html
October 21, 2009 by andergraph
What I want to know is - they say they reproduced it but did not give the slightest detail on anything they did To reproduce it. A story, A proclomation and a conclusion with nothing to back it up so far at least released. You would think that every part of the media would have been all over this.
