In October of 2015, the Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures Graduate Student Association, along with the faculty and staff of AMEC and the Cobb Institute, hosted a community-wide fundraiser to support Syrian child refugees through the nonprofit organiza-tion Save the Children. The event included lectures by department head Dr. Michael Ga-laty and AMEC assistant professor Dr. Kate McClellan. McClellan, who spent time as a child in Syria and did her dissertation research there, described in very personal terms the history and nature of the refugee crisis. Galaty ex-plained why terrorist groups in Syria, like ISIS, were targeting archaeological sites for looting and destruction. A silent auction drew donations from local community members and businesses. The event collected more than $2,600.00 for Save the Children and raised awareness about the Syrian civil war and refugees fleeing their country. A special thanks to Sylvia Deskaj Galaty, who helped organize the event, the Starkville Kiwanis Club, who helped set up and run it, and all the AMEC and Cobb Institute faculty, staff, and students for their help in making the fundraiser a huge success.

Greetings from Starkville! The fall 2015 semester was a very busy one as AMEC welcomed a new class of graduate students into the Applied Anthropology Masters program. We also bid farewell to Dr. Nicholas Herrmann, who left MSU for Texas State University. Dr. Herrmann is a great professor and scholar, and he will be missed. We wish him well as we search for his replacement.

I continue to be amazed on an almost daily basis by the excel-lent work being done by our pro-fessors. Whether just up the road in Mississippi and South Carolina or half way around the globe in Israel, Jordan, St. Croix, and Cos-ta Rica, AMEC faculty are having an outsized impact on their cho-sen field of anthropology. Enjoy the newsletter and best wishes for a happy and productive 2016!

Conflict in Syria Fundraiser I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Conflict in Syria

Fundraiser

Note from the

Head

1

Faculty News 2-5

Photo Contest 5

Internships 6

Conference

Summary

7

Kudos

Brown Bag Series

8

Interview with an

Alumna

9

Mock Excavations

Joe Seger Hon-

ored

10

Symposium and

Workshop

11

Note from the Department Head— Michael Galaty

Newsletter of the Department of Anthropology and

Middle Eastern Cultures, Mississippi State University

W I N T E R 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6

Dr. Nicholas Herrmann with

students in Cyprus

Dr. Kate McClellan describes her

personal experiences with Syrian refugees

Professors Emeritus Joe Seger and Paul Jacobs

bid on silent auction items, with Nancy Jacobs

P A G E 2

Faculty News— David Hoffman tions of higher learning. He met with current collaborators at the University of Costa Rica, as well as with the dean of the School of Anthropology, who was quite interested AMEC’s MA pro-gram. In addition, he met with administrators and investigators at the Centro Agronómico Tropi-cal de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), Costa Rica’s equiva-lent to a land-grant institution. He also began work on an appli-cation for a Fulbright Fellowship that would enable him to teach and conduct research at CATIE in the spring of 2017. His Ful-bright application was submitted this past fall, and he will know the results in March or April. Hoffman’s “local” research agenda also grew over the sum-mer. Last July, he learned that the NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant program funded a two-year, $250,000 project for which he is a co-PI with three other MSU faculty and one former

Dr. David Hoffman’s summer and fall were quite productive. In May of 2015, he went to Puerto Rico as part of an Inter-national Working Group. Fund-ed by MSU’s International In-stitute, it was titled “Similar Pressures, Different Places: The Science and Culture of Protect-ed Areas in Mississippi and Puerto Rico.” Hoffman traveled with Dr. Brian Counterman (Biological Sciences) and Dr. Francisco Vilella (Wildlife, Aquaculture, & Fisheries) to investigate new research pro-jects and lay the foundations for a combined study abroad course. The course, AN/BIO 4990: Issues in Tropical Diver-sity, will be offered this sum-mer and is currently open for student registration. In July of 2015, Dr. Hoffman returned to Costa Rica for a brief trip designed to maintain existing and grow new relation-ships with Costa Rican institu-

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MSU faculty member now at Syracuse University. The grant extends the research team’s pre-liminary work on the effective-ness of state, federal and local agency communication strategies with Vietnamese-American fish-ermen in Mississippi and Ala-bama. It also will include exten-sive dockside interviews and ex-pands the team’s geographic range to include communities in Louisiana. Hoffman is charged with developing and conducting focus group interviews in New Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Lastly, this fall the Shackouls Honors College hired Hoffman to be coordinator for student Ful-bright Fellowships, David Boren Fellowships, and the Critical Language Fellowship. He is charged with increasing student applications and participation in these prestigious scholarship pro-grams. As a former student Ful-brighter himself, Hoffman is ex-cited about helping others obtain these awards.

Dr. David Hoffman at Cabo Rojo,

the Southwestern-most point of Puerto Rico

The beach at

Humacao Nature Reserve, Puerto Rico

Faculty News— Jimmy Hardin Wisconsin) on manuscripts and vis-ited a number of Iron Age and pre-

historic sites in the immediate Hesi area. MSU students Dylan Karges, Lydia Buckner, Ryan King, and Bil-

ly Wilemon also participated, as did faculty and students from the Israel

Antiquities Authority, University of Arizona, Oberlin College, and East

Carolina University. Members of Kibbutz Ruhamma and the staff of

the Orchan Guest House were gra-cious as always to accommodate and welcome them.

While the Hesi Regional Project did not conduct excavations at

Khirbet Summeily in the summer of 2015, a smaller group of senior

staff and students spent two weeks with Dr. Jimmy Hardin at Kibbutz

Ruhamma. They re-surveyed and photographed several area sites, while working on a manuscript for

the publication of the Hesi Region-al Survey, and processing archaeo-

logical materials from Khirbet Summeily. Dr. Hardin also worked

with Dr. Jeff Blakely (University of

Faculty News— Toni Copeland

P A G E 3

During the 2015 fall semester, Dr. Toni Copeland’s Research Methods class worked with local Kindergartners on a school gardening project. AMEC students developed lessons to teach children about gardening, including plant biology, grow-ing fruits and vegetables, and nutrition. Children also learned about sustainability, community involvement, and how to col-laborate with others to solve problems. AMEC students designed measurements to assess the effectiveness of both the class project and the gardening program.

Faculty News— Shane Miller Dr. Shane Miller has co-edited a special issue of Tennessee Archaeol-ogy with Jesse Tune (Fort Lewis College) focusing on the early pre-historic colonization of the Mid-South. The book was written in hon-or of John Broster, who recently retired from the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. Miller was also an invited speaker at the First Floridi-ans Conference in Monticello, Flori-da in October 2015, and presented two papers at the Southeastern Ar-chaeological Conference in Nash-ville, Tennessee in November 2015. This past summer, Miller and his

students surveyed the Allendale chert quarries along the Savannah River in South Carolina. This region has produced a large number of sites, stretching from the Ice Age settlement of North America to more recent historic period occupations. He is also currently preparing his first AMEC Excavation Field School, which will take place in the spring of 2016. Miller and his stu-dents will excavate at locations that display evidence for stone tool tech-nology consistent with the earliest colonizers of North America.

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The 2015 AMEC

Survey Field School at Topper, South Carolina

Dr. Toni Copeland and AMEC students in a Starkville elementary school classroom

Students Ryan King and Billy Wilemon, Dr.

Jimmy Hardin, and students Dylan Karges and

Lydia Buckner, during Maroon and White day

at the kibbutz

P A G E 4

Faculty News— Molly Zuckerman Dr. Molly Zuckerman has started a col-laborative project with Dr. Christina War-inner (University of Oklahoma) and her postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Courtney Hofman, ex-amining the use of human dental calcu-lus, or calci-fied, preserved dental plaque, as a reservoir for ancient pathogen DNA. One of the most important recent advanc-es in bioar-chaeology and paleopatholo-gy is the recognition that dental calculus preserves a high-quality reser-voir of biomolecules representing human tissues, food particles, and microbes pre-

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sent within the oral cavity. While this information is profoundly useful for reconstructing ancient oral microbiomes, it also has implications for paleopathological

diagnostics. Spe-cifically, Zuck-erman’s project focuses on re-covering bio-molecules repre-senting patho-gens, or infec-tious diseases, from dental cal-culus. Results will have impli-cations for im-proving differ-ential diagnosis of ancient dis-ease conditions in human skele-tal remains, en-hancing recogni-

tion of ancient pathogens in the archaeologi-cal record, and expanding scientific compre-hension of the natural history of infectious disease.

Faculty News— Evan Peacock This summer, a new book entitled Ex-

ploring Southeastern Archaeology was published by the University Press of Mississippi. Co-edited by Dr. Evan Pea-

cock, the volume is a tribute to the career of Samuel O. Brookes, a long-time ar-

chaeologist in Mississippi. The book contains chapters on a variety of topics

ranging from Archaic-period stone bead production to prehistoric mounds to

Chickasaw Indian sites, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the history of the Delta.

Besides chapters by Peacock, the book also includes contributions by AMEC

emerita professor Dr. Janet Rafferty and program graduates Cliff Jenkins, Mary

Evelyn Starr (both B.A.), Keith Baca (B.A. and M.A.), and Andrew Triplett (M.A.).

Student Defenses

Four AMEC graduate students successfully defended their Masters theses during the fall 2015 semester. Congratulations to all of them!

Bradley Carlock: “Investigations at Kinlock (22SU526), a Shell Ring in the Delta Region of Mississippi” Kate Manning: “Investigating ‘Lithic Scatter’ Variability: Space, Time and Form” Monica Warner: “A Biogeochemistry Approach to Geographic Origin and Mor-tuary Arrangement at the Tal-gua Cave Ossuaries, Olancho, Honduras”

Kelly Kamnikar: “Investigating the Utility of Age-Dependent Cranial Vault Thickness as an Aging Method for Juvenile Skeletal Remains on Dry Bone, Radiographic, and Computed Tomography Scans”

Ancient dental calculus, which can be used to

identify past diseases

Dr. Evan Peacock and Exploring

Southeastern Archaeology, written in

honor of Samuel Brookes

P A G E 5

In the summer 2015, Dr. Kate McClellan traveled to Lon-don to conduct short-term archival research for her project on human-animal relationships in Jordan. One of the main animal welfare organizations working in Jordan, SPANA, or the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, is a British-based NGO, founded in 1923 and active in Jordan since 1986. While in Jordan in 2014, McClellan conducted ethnographic fieldwork with SPANA and other animal wel-fare and wildlife conservation groups. Her trip to SPANA’s headquarters in London was designed to provide a broader historical context to the work of SPANA and to understand shifts in their messages, goals, and methods over the past century.

Congratulations to graduate students Stephanie Fuehr, Zhaneta Gjyshja, and Sarah Gilleland for winning the 3rd Annual AMEC Fieldwork Photo Contest! Stephanie’s winning photo shows her measuring dental remains in the apotheke at the archaeological site of Eleon in Greece. Zhaneta’s second-place photo shows her digging at the site of Bishti Palles in Alba-nia. Sarah’s third-place photo is of Dr. Shane Miller and AMEC graduate student Kelsey Meer during survey at the Topper Paleoindian site in South Carolina.

3rd Annual AMEC Photo Contest

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On a cold day in October 2015, Ms. Jean Marcus and anthro-pology undergraduate student William Harris set out to Cy-press Cemetery in LaFayette County, Mississippi. The ceme-tery has approximately 100 graves of which about half are African- American and about half are White. Marcus and Harris surveyed the cemetery, making notes and photo-graphing each grave. The goal was to apply a system of clas-sification, developed by Marcus for black cemeteries in Ok-tibbeha County, to see if it would work to delineate Black and White graves at Cypress Cemetery. The Black and White sections of the cemetery were loosely delineated by a slight ridge. Great similarities were found in some of the tombstone designs, fonts, and epitaphs in the two sections. Marcus and Harris wondered if perhaps the two groups of people were comingled rather than truly separated. This would be very unusual for a Mississippi cemetery. Historical and genealogical research still needs to be done to verify the origins of the graves.

Faculty News— Jean Marcus Faculty News— Kate McClellan

SPANA educational pamphlet, early 20th c.

Cypress

Cemetery

grave marker

P A G E 6

Graduate Student Summer Internships Jonathan Belanich did his internship in the Department of Biological Sciences at MSU, looking at ancient human bi-omes. Michelle Davenport spent her summer at the National Muse-um of Health and Medicine in Washington D.C. Sallie Dehler interned at Re-solve, an environmental conflict resolution organization in D.C. Curtis Kennett interned with the non-profit Green Umbrella, a monthly support group, which provides support, education, and fellowship for those suffering through mental distress or with mental health issues in Starkville, Mississippi. Tori Lee did her internship with the MSU Maroon Volun-teer Center. Kelsey Meer interned with the National Forest Service in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina. Kate McKinney received the Elizabeth Bartman Museum Internship Grant from the Ar-chaeological Institute of Ameri-

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the Theatre as well pottery. Katie Phillips worked at Pov-erty Point, a World Heritage site in Louisiana. Katie took part in the many duties of a station ar-chaeologist. She did a lot of maintenance—helping to clear out tree falls, rebagging artifacts, sort-ing and washing artifacts, and helping to monitor a construction project. She also helped with some public functions, like setting up a display at a local museum and working with visiting groups. Christina Ramazani interned at the National Center for Preserva-tion Technology and Training in Louisiana. Her project focused on reviewing surveillance technolo-gies used to monitor archaeologi-cal sites, which can aid in the ap-prehension and prosecution of those who vandalize and loot ar-chaeological resources. The larger project aims to provide resources for land managers and law en-forcement officers who want to use surveillance technology to protect archaeological sites. Will Turner worked with the University of Alabama at Mound-ville and with the Office of Ar-

chaeological Research.

ca. She spent the summer in the Department of Invertebrate Zo-ology at the Smithsonian Insti-tute’s National Museum of Nat-ural History. Under the direction of Dr. Robert Hershler, McKin-ney spent the summer learning how to curate collections. She mainly worked on inventorying, cataloging, and identifying sev-eral large mollusk shell collec-tions that had been donated to the museum. In the process, she learned how to curate for a large museum and expanded her taxo-nomic knowledge of mussel shells from around the world. This will be especially helpful for her thesis project, under the guidance of her major professor Dr. Evan Peacock, which will involve the identification of mussel shells from archaeologi-cal excavations along the Tombigbee River. Latif Oksuz interned at the Parion Ancient City archaeolog-ical site in Turkey. He worked in several areas and was supervisor of the Theatre excavation. The Theatre is one of the most im-portant structures in Turkey from the Roman Period (4-5 A.D.). Latif focused on the Or-chestra, revealing architectural artifacts of the upper structure of

Alumni!

We would like to hear from you! Tell us where you are and what you have been up to. Send a photo! Send your news to: sf668@msstate.edu

Smithsonian snails! An early morning view from Albert

Mountain fire tower, Nantahala Na-

tional Forest

Check out the AMEC internship and research blog at: https://msuamec.wordpress.com/

AMEC Conference Presentations

P A G E 7

AMEC was well represented at several anthropological conferences during the 2015 fall semester. Below is the list of faculty and students who presented post-ers or papers. Biennial Meeting of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Dr. Kate McClellan: ‘Communities Like Us’: Islam and the Development of Multi-species Morals in Jordan. First Floridians Dr. Shane Miller, Ashley M. Small-wood, Derek T. Anderson, and Albert C. Goodyear: A Spatial Analysis of Clovis Biface Production at the Topper Site, South Carolina. South Eastern Archaeological Confer-ence Derek T. Anderson, David G. Ander -son, Andrea N. Wu, David Echeverry, Alexander Craib, Martin P. Walker, Ste-phen Yerka, and Albert C. Goodyear: Preliminary results from the 2015 excava-tions at the Topper Site, South Carolina. Craib, Alex, Martin Walker, Amelia Jan-sen, Amy Pham, Derek T. Anderson, Ste-phen Yerka, David Echeverry, and David G. Anderson: Uncovering Features: Highlighting Late Woodland to Historic Activity at the Topper Site (38AL23). Sarah Gilleland: MNI Versus NISP in Two-Element Organisms.

Kelsey J. Meer, Shane Miller, Alber t C. Goodyear III, and J. Ryan Young: Prelimi-nary Results of the Allendale Chert Quarry Survey in Allendale County, South Caroli-na. Dr. Shane Miller and Jesse Tune: When the Levee Breaks: How an Ant Hill and a Deer on a Mound Made Us Re-think the Effect of the Younger Dryas. Dr. Evan Peacock, Sarah Kate McKin-ney, and Geosciences doctoral student Joseph Mitchell: Making Mussel Measures Matter: A Survey of Literature on Archae-ological Freshwater Mussel Remains. American Anthropological Association Dr. Toni Copeland: HIV/AIDS as a “Chronic” Illness? Disparities in ART Treatment Accessibility among Poverty Stricken Women in Kenya. Dr. Toni Copeland organized a session called “Anthropology and HIV/AIDS: Has the Strange become too Familiar?” Sylvia Deskaj: Entangled (Pre) Histo-ries: Albanian Ethnic Identities, Past and Present. Dr. David Hoffman: Is Conservation and Development a Threat? Analyzing (MICRO)Contexts and Human Migration Around Three Costa Rican National Parks. Dr. David Hoffman also organized and chaired a session called “New Frontiers of

the Same Old Stories? Contemporary An-thropological Engagements with the Envi-ronment/Development Nexus.” Dr. Kate McClellan: ‘If We Were Ani-mals…’: Multispecies Ethics of Welfare and Compassion in Jordan. Dr. Kate McClellan co-organized a ses-sion with Amanda Concha-Holmes: “Multispecies Morals and More-Than-Human Ethical Entanglements.” Dr. Molly Zuckerman: Embodiment, Stigma, Disease, and Identity Formation: Historical, Biochemical, and Bioarchaeo-logical Evidence for “Marginalized Peo-ple.” Dr. Molly Zuckerman was a discussant for a session titled “Strange Bodies, Famil-iar Divides: Embodiments of Otherness, Part I,” organized by John Crandall (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Pamela Stone (Hampshire College). ASOR Dr. Jimmy Hardin: A Consideration of the Iron Age I and Iron Age II Occupations from Khirbet Summeily and Tell el-Hesi. Dr. Jimmy Hardin presided over a ses-sion titled, “Hesi Regional Project: Survey of Results.” Christofer Howell and Geoffrey E. Ludvik: Technology, Style, and Meaning: A Contextual Approach to a Faience Amu-let from Khirbet Summeily.

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Dr. Molly Zuckerman

at AAAs acting as dis-

cussant for the session

“Strange Bodies, Famil-

iar Divides”

P A G E 8

Kudos & Publications Dr. Evan Peacock and Irvy R. Quitmyer co-authored an article entitled “Pre-Columbian For-aging in Stable, Inland Environments: An Ar-chaeological Example from the Tombigbee Riv-er Drainage, Mississippi and Alabama” that will appear in the Journal of Ethnobiology. Dr. Kate McClellan co-organized a session at the AAAs with Amanda Concha-Holmes: “Multispecies Morals and More-Than-Human Ethical Entanglements.” Congratulations to Jonathan Belanich for being one of eight finalists in the MSU Graduate School’s 3-Minute Thesis competition! Dr. Molly Zuckerman began a three-year term (2015 – 2018) as a committee member (undesignated seat) on the AAA’s Committee on Ethics. Dr. Michael Galaty was awarded an interdis-ciplinary cross-college research grant by MSU’s Office of Research and Economic Development for upcoming work in Albania. Dr. Kate McClellan won a 2016 College of Arts & Sciences Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) fellowship for archival re-search to be conducted in London.

If you donate to the MSU Foundation, please consider di-recting your gift to AMEC! Donate to MSU and AMEC: http://www.cas.msstate.edu/giving/

Donations

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Congratulations to Jonathan Belanich for being the MSU graduate student Rhodes Scholar nominee! Dylan Karges received the New Member Award from the Kiwanis Club of Starkville this fall during their annual banquet. Dr. David Hoffman was elected as Senior Member at Large to the board of the Anthro-pology & Environment Society (AAA). Dr. Kate McClellan published an ar ticle titled “Envisioning Multispecies Encounters: Photographing Fish in Illinois and Birds in Qatar” in Visual Anthropology Review. Dr. Kate McClellan’s “Damascenes: Imagi-nation, Memory, and Digitized Stu-dio Aesthetics in Contemporary Syria” is in the Middle East Journal of Culture and Com-munication. Dr. Evan Peacock co-authored an article with Rinat Gabitov, Jonathan R. Frisch, Carla S. Hadden, Bradley Carlock, and Kate L. Hender-son titled “LA-ICP-MS Chemical Analysis of Archaeological Otoliths as a Tool for Season-ality and Site Catchment Studies” for the Jour-nal of Archaeological Science.

Fall 2015 Brown Bag Series Dr. Michael Galaty (AMEC) – The Diros Pro-ject: Results of the 2014 Excavations at Ksa-gounaki, Mani, Greece Dr. Marie Danforth (University of Southern Mississippi) – La Fin du Voyage: The Bioar-chaeology of the Moran Site Brandon Thompson (Office of Archaeological Research, Alabama) – Bioarchaeology in the Middle Tennessee River Valley: WPA Exca-vations Revisited Dr. Kate McClellan (AMEC) – ‘If We Were Animals’: Developing Multispecies Morals in Jordan

Dr. Ryan Parish (University of Memphis) – Prehistoric Human Behavior as Viewed Through Tool-Stone Resources Dr. Hilary Becker (University of Mississippi) – Contextualizing Roman Pigments: Ancient Trade and Modern Science Dr. Stephen Carmody (University of the South) – The Archaeology of Native Cultigens: Look-ing to the Past for a More Sustainable Future? Dr. Raymond Barranco (MSU Sociology) – Suicide, Religion, and Latinos: A Macro-Level Study of U.S. Latino Suicide Rates

Interview with an AMEC Alumna— Anna Follett

P A G E 9

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself? My name is Anna Follett. I am a native of Starkville

and a fourth generation Bulldog. I actually started out

as a foreign language major, but that ended up being

more of a hobby for me. I switched to anthropology

during my junior year and have loved every minute of

it!

What made you want to major in anthropology? Near the end of my sophomore year, I was getting real-

ly burned out and I was thinking of taking a semester

off. My older brother, Forrest (also an MSU AMEC

graduate), encouraged me to take a fun semester in-

stead. I had loved learning the skeletal system in high

school, so I took biological anthropology and absolute-

ly loved it. I had finally found something I enjoyed

studying!

Can you provide a brief overview of what you have been doing since graduation? How has your anthro-pology degree helped? I started out as a volunteer at the Mississippi State

Medical Examiner’s Office in Jackson. The plan was to

stay for the summer or as long as they wanted help. I

ended up getting hired as an anthropology technician,

and will be here until next summer when I plan on going

to get my master’s degree in biological anthropology.

Will you briefly describe your experience at AMEC/MSU? I absolutely loved the AMEC department! It's a shame

that I changed my major so late because it shortened the

amount of time I got to spend getting to know the profes-

sors and the other students. The atmosphere was always

so calm and welcoming, and the Brown Bag series was

my favorite. It's such a great way to be exposed to differ-

ent areas of study!

What are your future plans within the field? I plan on pursuing both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in

forensic anthropology.

If you could work alongside/with any historical an-thropologist who would it be and why? I would definitely study under Broca. He had such an

impact on how we study the human skeleton. I heard

about him first in a linguistics class and later in Anthro-

pology. I may not agree with all of his ideas about hu-

mans, but he did some amazing things for this field.

Anna Follett at work in the

Mississippi State Medical

Examiner’s Office in Jackson

P A G E 1 0

Mock Excavation

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Follow AMEC

field research

online!

Faculty and students blog about their summer re-search and internships. Our blog can be found at https://msuamec.wordpress.com/ Don’t forget to keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter as well!

The year 2015 marked the fifth annual mock excavation, hosted by the Cobb Institute of Archaeology and AMEC. Held in October dur-ing Mississippi Archaeology Month, the mock excavation bolstered the visibility of the Cobb Institute and AMEC by engaging the communi-ty directly, raising awareness and appreciation for archaeology in general. It was designed as a hands-on learning activity for children, provid-ing an introduction to archaeological tools, methods, and perhaps most importantly the excitement of discovery. The Lois Dowdle Cobb Archaeological Museum was also open for the event, introducing children and their parents to the role archaeology plays in our understanding of world history. A coalition of AMEC graduate and under-graduate students, faculty, and staff ran the mock excavation. The young participant exca-vators had the opportunity to dig and unearth all types of artifacts and discuss their finds with

professional and student archaeologists. The mock site was designed and “seeded” with genuine and re-created artifacts that simulate aspects of certain archaeological sites. With architectural features, installations, floors, and stratigraphic layers of typological artifacts, the mock excavation stimulated discussions about archaeology, the history of Starkville, and the fun of digging in the dirt. This year also marked the second year of providing another excavation opportunity for the Science Club at Henderson-Ward-Stewart Elementary School in Starkville. Each year the Science Club covers their archaeology and paleontology lessons in November and calls on staff and students from the Cobb and AMEC to help. Both excavation opportunities help give the community’s children, their parents, and teachers a better sense of what archaeology is and why it is important.

Dr. Joe Seger’s distinguished career as a

Middle Eastern archaeologist and past presi-dent of both the Albright Institute of Archae-

ological Research and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) was celebrated

at the Annual Meeting of ASOR on the occa-sion of his 80th birthday. A dinner reception sponsored by ASOR and the Cobb Institute,

and hosted by Dr. Jeff Blakely (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Andy Vaughn (ASOR), and

Dr. Jimmy Hardin (MSU), was attended by

approximately 100 of Joe’s friends and col-leagues. Toasts were made, letters were read,

and Joe was well-roasted. The occasion was also used to announce the success of a

matching campaign that raised more than $50,000 to establish the Joe D. Seger Grant to be awarded annually to an ASOR-

affiliated project to help with excavation costs accrued in the field.

Dr. Joe Seger Honored at ASOR

2015 Mock Excavations Dr. Joe Seger at ASOR

The Cobb Institute of Archaeology and the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, with generous sup-port from the Criss Foundation and various private donors, will sponsor a conference February 19 and 20, 2016. The con-ference will highlight recent discoveries from MSU’s excavations at Khirbet Summeily, Israel and their significance for understanding the formation of Iron Age kingdoms in the southern Levant - one of the most debated periods in Near Eastern archaeology over the last several decades. After the great Late Bronze Age collapse (ca. 1200 BCE), indicated throughout the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean by the destruction of cities, states, and empires (e.g., the Mycenaean States, New Kingdom Egypt, and the Hittite Empire), as well as by the migration of peoples, small Iron Age kingdoms like Israel, Judah, Philistia, and Phoenicia emerged by the 9 th century BCE. The process of this emergence will be the topic of the symposium with a focus on Khirbet Summeily and oth-er recent archaeological remains reviewed from the perspective of archaeologists, biblical scholars, historians, and epigra-phers. The Conference will consist of a Symposium and Workshop. A reception and plenary session will kick things off Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. when Dr. Zvi Lederman (Director, Tell Beth Shemesh Excavations) gives a presentation on a large, recently-discovered Late Bronze Age palace. The conference will resume Saturday morning and continue through the day.

Presentations will be made in the morning followed by a more focused workshop in the afternoon. Both are open to the public. Please join us if you can! For more information, contact Dr. Jimmy Hardin: jwh1@ra.msstate.edu.

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Dr. Molly Zuckerman – Bioarchaeology mkz12@msstate.edu Instructor Ms. Jean Marcus Business Manager Ms. Debbie Vickers Administrative Assistant Ms. Kathleen Elliott Newsletter Editor Ms. Stephanie Fuehr sf668@msstate.edu

Professors Dr. Toni Copeland – Cultural Anthropology tc657@msstate.edu Dr. Michael Galaty – Mediterranean Archaeology Department Head & Interim Director Cobb Institute of Archaeology mgalaty@anthro.msstate.edu Dr. Jimmy Hardin – Near Eastern Archaeology Undergraduate Coordinator jimmy.hardin@msstate.edu Dr. David Hoffman – Cultural Anthropology Graduate Coordinator dhoffman@anthro.msstate.edu Dr. Paul Jacobs, Emeritus - Near Eastern Archaeology pfj1@msstate.edu Dr. Kate McClellan – Cultural Anthropology lkm195@msstate.edu Dr. Shane Miller – Archaeology dsm333@msstate.edu Dr. Evan Peacock – Archaeology peacock@anthro.msstate.edu Dr. Janet Rafferty, Emerita – Archaeology rafferty@anthro.msstate.edu Dr. Joe Seger, Emeritus – Near Eastern Archaeology docjoeds@gmail.com

AMEC Staff

N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E D E P A R T M E N T O F A N T H R O P O L O G Y A N D

M I D D L E E A S T E R N C U L T U R E S , M I S S I S S I P P I S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Send an AMEC student into the field to conduct archaeological research! Support a star major! Donate to the Janet Rafferty Student Fund for Archaeological Survey and to the Richard Marshall Memorial Annual Scholarship. Contact mgalaty@anthro.msstate.edu.

Symposium and Workshop

Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures Cobb Institute of Archaeology Post Office Box AR Mississippi State, MS 39762

http://www.amec.msstate.edu/