Archaeology Research Collections at SMU

A big thanks to all the North Texas Archeological Society members who showed up for today's Open Lab Day! We managed to count, weigh, and inventory more than 20 lbs of lithic debitage AND Charlene's Bison Bone Washeteria made short work of the our last two boxes of bison bones!

Thank you all for your work to preserve Texas archaeology, and we hope to see you again next month!

Who's got two thumbs and a disturbingly intense appreciation for a well-organized map cabinet?

👉THIS GUY👈

Today we were happy to give the kids from Fit and Faithful Living's Dallas Summer Camp a 2-hour short course on archaeology at the ARC. They got to see and hold a half-million-year-old handaxe from North Africa, Native American pottery from North Texas, and artifacts from the enslaved African households excavated by SMU in downtown Dallas. They even helped clean some of the bison bones we're working on! Always great to see some future scientists and introduce them to archaeology.

It was also a pleasure to see Reggie and LaChanda again. The last time we saw them was before COVID!

Archaeology pro-tip 24625: Enlist qualified and well-equiped personnel to protect archaeological sites before, during, and after study. Looting and pot-hunting not only damage archaeological sites, they destroy irreplaceable knowledge about our shared human past.

This advice brought to you by SMU's 1966 excavations at the Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Texas and Louisiana border.

recently digitized the "Negro City Directory of Dallas" from 1941-1942 and 1947-1948.

These directories contain information such as names, addresses and other details about every Black individual of high school age or older residing in the City of Dallas.
Additionally, the directories include lists of local and state officials, Black churches, educational institutions, organizations, schools and teachers.
There is also a classified index of Black businesses, photographs of Black Dallas residents and advertisements targeted to the Black community.

The directories were digitized as part of a TexTreasures grant sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (Grant Number LS-253655-OLS-23).

We've spent the week cleaning a bison skeleton a friend of the ARC donated. He found it eroding out of a river bank here in Dallas. It will be a great research aid for identifying bison bones from archaeological sites and for teaching students how to do so!

SMU student documenting hidden history of Oak Cliff Freedmen’s Town The Oak Cliff Freedmen's Town has both local and national historic designation, and an SMU researcher using geographic information systems (GIS) mapping to document the Freedmen’s Town's hidden history.

In 1970, someone broke in to a display cabinet in Heroy Hall at SMU and stole this ceramic vessel (on the right) and other artifacts from the Sam Kaufman site, an ancestral Caddo site in North Texas.

Have you seen it in someone's collection? If so, please let us know.

1974 Brantley Reservoir survey in New Mexico...that's a motley looking crew!

Archaeological Monitor in Multiple Locations | SWCA Environmental Consultants SWCA, Incorporated is hiring a Archaeological Monitor in Multiple Locations. Review all of the job details and apply today!

jobs.hr.txstate.edu

Pursuing the ‘what ifs’.

Arlo Kadane '24, wasn’t sure about his future when he enrolled at SMU. Feeling lost, he decided to explore the university’s offerings — The possibilities were endless.

Over time, he chose to major in international studies and picked up minors in global development, Italian, and environmental anthropology.

“I made it my mission to do everything that interests me, rather than just the classes that would get me my degree,” Kadane said.

See what Arlo and other SMU graduates from the class of 2024 have planned: bit.ly/3JGeUru

Senior Archaeologist TITLE: Senior Archaeologist FLSA: Exempt, Salary STATUS: Full-Time, Regular COMPENSATION: $80,000 - $100,000 per year, based on relevant experience LOCATION: Rapid City, South Dakota **This ideal candidate for this position is located in or close to Rapid City, SD. There could be an opportunity for....

The Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS) is seeking to hire a Scientific Specialist, Archaeology to assist with GIS-based spatial analysis, creating maps and other project deliverables, as well as conducting archaeological fieldwork. The position is based in Champaign, Illinois.

https://buff.ly/3QSBJw0

Texas State University's Center for Archaeological Studies is searching for a Project Archaeologist. We have some cool projects on-going and on the horizon. We are hoping early to mid-career archaeologists will apply.

Reach out if you have any questions.

Only applications submitted through the Texas State system will be reviewed.

Link to the posting and how to submit an application: https://jobs.hr.txstate.edu/postings/46792

New South Associates, Inc., is seeking full-time/permanent Project Archaeologists for their Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia offices!

More Information: https://buff.ly/44BseHe

SMU's Archaeology Research Program was one of the first CRM companies in the world to employ computers to analyze archaeological data using the SYMAP program produced by the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. The output of this program produced a map showing the frequencies of various artifact types encountered at a site, allowing spatial analysis and detection of activity areas. The program ran on a mainframe computer at the old SMU Computer Center (6100 Ownby Drive -- now beneath the Binkley Parking Garage), and the results were usually printed on tractor-feed paper. Today, these kinds of analyses are commonplace in archaeological projects.

Here's an example of this output, showing the distribution of Native American pottery sherds recovered from a site inundated by the Lake Fork Reservoir.

In 1972 SMU received a gift from Mobil Field Research Laboratory in Dallas that allowed it to open a radiocarbon laboratory. The lab was first directed by C. Vance Haynes, and then by Herbert Haas. It operated at SMU until 1993 when it was sold to the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Today, we maintain the records and archives of this laboratory--a database of 2000+ radiocarbon dates--allowing current generations of archaeologists to make use of these data in answering new research questions.

Mustang Springs, 1989
Back row L-R: Jack Hoffman, Michael Collins, George Frison
Front row L-R: Daniel Amick, David Meltzer