The Archaeological Conservancy

KING WILLIAM ISLAND, NUNAVUT—Researchers have identified the remains of four more sailors from the doomed 1845 Franklin Expedition through DNA matches with living descendants. The men were members of the crews of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which set out to find the Northwest Passage and ended with the deaths of all 129 expedition members.

The new identifications bring the total number of Franklin sailors positively identified through DNA to six and help resolve a long-standing mystery involving Harry Peglar, whose papers were found with human remains more than 160 years ago.

Read more: uwaterloo.ca/news/media/dna-matches-identify-four-more-sailors-franklin-expedition

DNA matches identify four more sailors from Franklin expedition | Waterloo News Researchers have identified four more members of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition, one of whom was the subject of great debate lasting for more than a century. Anthropologists from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo led the work that analyzed DNA samples extracted from skeletal rem...

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI— Archaeologists working at the former Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum cemetery on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus have now excavated more than 1,000 graves.

The asylum operated from 1855 to 1935, and earlier archaeological studies estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 people may have been buried in the cemetery. The ongoing Asylum Hill Project is documenting remains and personal items, supporting research into the lives of people who died at the institution, and planning for respectful reburial and memorialization.

Read more: https://www.wapt.com/article/archaeologists-uncover-graves-and-artifacts-at-former-mississippi-asylum/71385174
Project background: https://asylumhillproject.org/

News - Burials Excavated at Former Mississippi Asylum - Archaeology Magazine JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI—According to a WAPT report, more than 1,000 graves have been found at the […]

Workers Dredging the Savannah River Stumbled Upon 19 Cannons That Had Been Underwater Since the Revolutionary War The centuries-old artifacts emerged from the riverbed between 2021 and 2022. Experts spent several years carefully restoring 17 of them, which will make their public debut in a new exhibition

CONSERVANCY SITE SPOTLIGHT: The Cavanaugh Mound in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was acquired in 2005 and is the tallest mound in the Conservancy’s Southeast region. This truncated platform mound is almost 30 feet tall and 200 feet across.

Although there are no official dates for the mound, it is believed to be a Caddoan/late Mississippian (ca. A.D. 1000) mound. While still mostly intact, this mound has suffered some damage from looting, tunnels dug in the sides, and the removal of one side to be used as fill dirt.

This damage led to a massive erosion problem that was addressed in 2017. The Conservancy cleared the trees and brush from the exposed side, covered it with sterile fill, and then ground cover was placed to help stop further erosion.

SOUTHWEST, LATE JUNE EVENTS—The Museum of Northern Arizona’s Heritage Festival of Arts and Culture returns June 26–28 in Flagstaff. https://musnaz.org/all-upcoming-events/heritagefestival

(Pictured, Candie Borduin) June 27, Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project’s Candie Borduin is scheduled to present “The Best of the Best” at Los Luceros Historic Site in Alcalde, New Mexico. See all Mesa talks at https://www.mesaprietapetroglyphs.org/mesa-talks.html

June 28, archaeologist Sean Dolan will present “Obsidian Tools, Indio Amigos and the Coronado Expedition” in Bernalillo, exploring what obsidian artifacts can reveal about exchange, movement, and Coronado’s Indigenous allies. https://www.coronadojemezfriends.org/lectures