Dec. 7, 2016
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. – Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville will offer craft projects and the finale of the 2016 film and lecture series during December. All activities are free and open to the public.
Family-oriented crafts will be available at the museum’s Discovery Table. Throughout the holiday season, visitors can make a seed ornament, using seeds from the museum’s Interpretive Garden. During the school break from Dec. 23 - Jan. 3, more craft projects will be on hand every day for kids to create and take home.
The museum’s 2016 Lecture and Film Series will conclude on Thursday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. with the screening of the film “Jamestown’s Dark Winter.” Part of the Public Broadcasting Service’s Secrets of the Dead series, the 60-minute film documents the discovery of the remains of a teenage woman who was buried in a layer of trash in the cellar of one of the houses in the Jamestown Colony. The woman’s remains dated to 1609, which was known in the colony as the “starving times.” Forensic scientists tell the story of the extraordinary events that led to this discovery.
Visitors are invited to tour the newest exhibits at the museum. Prehistoric West Virginia, features casts of some of the large Ice Age animals that once roamed in West Virginia, including skulls of the saber-tooth cat and dire wolf. There are casts of the short-faced bear, giant ground sloth and an eight-foot tall fossilized mammoth leg. The exhibit also showcases a Dimetrodon, a mammal-like reptile that predated the first dinosaurs by several million years.
The Buried Past: Artifacts from West Virginia’s Wild, Wonderful History showcases West Virginia archaeological sites and represents a wide range of people, places and time. Prehistoric Native Americans are represented in the Saint Albans, Fairchance, Saddle, Mount Carbon and Buffalo exhibit cases. Early settlers are represented by frontier fort sites Warwick’s Fort and Arbuckle’s Fort, and a frontier cabin excavated at the Hevener Site. Excavations on Blennerhassett Island focus on the time when the Blennerhassett family lived there in their mansion. The Civil War is represented by Camp Allegheny, and a look at the Victorian Era is provided through excavations at the United States Federal Building and Courthouse in Wheeling. Additional artifacts will be installed in the exhibit during December.
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.
Admission to Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex is free. The Delf Norona Museum, located at 801 Jefferson Avenue, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday. Outdoor access closes at 4:30 p.m., and may be closed all day during inclement weather.
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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