Feb. 19, 2016
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. - Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville will host a Black History Month lecture to celebrate African American heritage at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 27. The talk is free and open to the public.
Rodney Parker, archaeologist and tribal liaison with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District, will present the talk Archeology and the Black Experience: African American Involvement in Preserving OUR Heritage. Parker will discuss the pivotal role played by African Americans in the development of American archaeology, including the Smithsonian’s earliest excursions to identify Mound Builder sites and the excavations that played a key role in the study of prehistoric cultures of the southeastern United States. He will relate an African American cowboy’s discovery of what was then the oldest site linking human activity with extinct animals, and the first reference to blues music in 1901, when an archaeologist in the Mississippi Delta described songs of African American excavators.
Before coming to Huntington, Parker worked for the Corps’ Little Rock and Vicksburg Districts, and at several cultural resource firms in the Northeast Mid-Atlantic region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Salisbury University and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Mississippi. He has presented programs to numerous universities, elementary schools and Boy Scout troops working on merit badges. Parker’s primary areas of interest are African diaspora archaeology and historic preservation law.
For more information about activities and programs at Grave Creek Mound, contact Andrea Keller, cultural program coordinator, at (304) 843-4128 or andrea.k.keller@wv.gov or visit www.facebook.com/gravecreekmound and www.twitter.com/gravecreekmound.
Operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex features one of the largest conical burial mounds built by the Adena people between 250 - 150 B.C. and ranks as one of the largest earthen mortuary mounds anywhere in the world. Exhibits and displays in the Delf Norona Museum interpret what is known about the lives of these prehistoric people and the construction of the mound. The complex also houses the West Virginia Archaeological Research and Collections Management Facility.
Operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex features one of the largest conical burial mounds built by the Adena people between 250 - 150 B.C. and ranks as one of the largest earthen mortuary mounds anywhere in the world. Exhibits and displays in the Delf Norona Museum interpret what is known about the lives of these prehistoric people and the construction of the mound. The complex also houses the West Virginia Archaeological Research and Collections Management Facility.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, Cabinet Secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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