“Empire Inca: L’Histoire Révélée”
In the summer of 2022, Dr. Bethany Turner was invited to contribute to a French documentary on the history of the Inca Empire, “Empire Inca: L’Histoire Révélée” for the French television network ARTE.tv.Dr. Turner filmed on location in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and the archaeological site of Machu Picchu, where she described her bioarcheological research on archaeological human remains, utilizing isotope biogeochemistry to reconstruct where the people who lived and worked at Machu Picchu were likely born and how their lives changed after they were brought to the Inca’s imperial heartland in the Peruvian Andes. She was thrilled at the opportunity to disseminate her work and talk about its significance to a broader, international audience. Directed by Thibaud Marchand, the documentary was released in Europe in May 2023 and has already garnered more than 1.5 million views online. Interested viewers in the United States can access the documentary (in French) here: https://vimeo.com/829741551/2053911d82.
Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project – Georgia State Anthropology’s work with a collection of artifacts excavated during the building of Atlanta’s MARTA system – was very active this past fall semester in the Archaeology Lab. Students and volunteers have been spending Tuesday afternoons together helping rebag artifacts from the MARTA archaeological collection. Drs. Sharratt and Glover have also been teaching a related EPIC project on Tuesdays. This work is now taking shape on various digital platforms thanks to the hard work of HIP (Humanities Inclusivity Program) student Emmet Cantkier, who has helped give the Omeka site a face-lift and has been managing the Instagram account. For more information see:https://martaphoenixproject.gsuanthropology.com/
Traveling Bulls of Pucara Exhibition
In November, Kat Duplessis and Caroline Covak, M.A. students and museum anthropology concentrators, installed an exhibit titled "Traveling Bulls of Pucara: Ambassador of the Peruvian Altiplano" in the Georgia State Library. The exhibit, installed under the supervision of Dr. Sharratt, was created on behalf of the Peruvian Consulate in Atlanta, as part of a collaboration between the Consulate, Georgia State University Office of International Initiatives, and the Georgia State University Library. Our students did a fantastic job making curatorial choices during installation and were wonderful representatives of the Anthropology Department to the Atlanta diplomatic corps during the opening reception on November 13th.
Green Hive Leadership Program
Dr. Black is continuing to develop his engaged research on language and planetary health with a new student-involved initiative based in Atlanta. In collaboration with the Fruitful Communities Foundation (https://www.fruitfulcommunity.org) and funded by a Georgia State University Campus Sustainability Grant, Dr. Black will be organizing a paid internship program for GSU undergraduates called the GreenHive Leadership Program (https://www.fruitfulcommunity.org/greenhive). Through a final legacy project and weekly training sessions with guest speakers from the realms of government, non-profits, and business, this program provides a structured format for college-aged leaders to become directly engaged in the ecological work being done in their community.
Student Research at Historic Penfield Cemetery
Recent Georgia State Anthropology M.A. graduate Robert Theberge has been conducting geophysical research to help document the historic Penfield cemetery in Greene County, Georgia. Located about an hour and a half east of Atlanta, the Penfield cemetery has been in use since the mid-1800s. While the cemetery was segregated along racial lines from its inception, the divide between the white and black portions of the cemetery was made manifest with the construction of a wall in 1948. The construction of this wall, combined with the movements of black residents out of Greene County during the Great Migration, led to the black portion of the cemetery falling out of use and out of local memory until its rediscovery in 2020.
Theberge’s research at the cemetery takes a praxis-based approach to community-engaged archaeology. He has partnered with Emory University’s Pitts Theology Library, Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies, the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia non-profit, the Greene County African American Museum, and Bigman Geophysical to investigate the cemetery. His ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the heavily wooded cemetery has revealed more than 1000 graves, of which only about 250 were visible through pedestrian survey. While this broader Penfield project is still in its early stages, Theberge’s engaged research makes an important first step in assisting this community in reconnecting with its ancestors and the important lessons that can be learned from their lives.
Fieldwork at Tanner Park
Georgia State Anthropology students partook in a weekend of fieldwork in partnership with the Jackson Co. Parks and Recreation Department, professional archaeologist Jannie Loubser, and funded by the Watson Brown Foundation. This was the 2nd year of this collaborative effort focused on an archaeological investigation of a Native American settlement in what is now Tanner Park. Based on diagnostic ceramic materials recovered, the settlement dates to the Late Woodland / Early Mississippian period (c. AD 800 - 1000). This year Georgia State students conducted a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and magnetometer survey at the site with Georgia State alum Bobby Theberge of Bigman Geophysical. The geophysical work identified potential sub-surface anomalies where we targeted our test excavations. While these anomalies did not end up being cultural features, it was still a great learning opportunity for our students, and we did recover a variety of materials that will help the County better interpret this Native American settlement.
