The Busy Week

This has been (another) busy week. With so much on the way, I feel that if I don't give an update now that I will run the risk of rambling (more than usual) if I wait and try and say it all at once (especially when the festival season really kicks in) . . . (aren't parenthesis neat?)

Last week, Meghan Daly finished up the much anticipated Stratigraphy Quilt - a fabric-crafted, quilt style representation of the profiles of the units that we had excavated at DeBary Hall this past summer. They were even used last week in the Pedro Menendez High School class in an activity where students learned and practiced mappping and recording stratigraphy - right in the classroom! Amazing job, Meghan!
Last Friday we visited De Leon Springs State Park, north of Deland, to tour the sugar mill ruins there. This ended up being the most delicious outreach excursion to date -- the The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant is also located on the premises (The mill ruins actually only date to the Territorial Period - but we were willing to let this slide) where you sit at a table with a griddle in the middle and you get to cook your own pancakes. Go there - your stomach will be forever in your debt.
FPANcakes

Tuesday night the Archaeology Club went before the Flagler College SGA, gave a presentation, and successfully obtained official club status. Adam Cripps gave a great presentation, in spite of technical difficulties and the inability to access our powerpoint presentation, and everyone involved did an outstanding job. More to come on this...
Yesterday, Sarah and I drove up to Jacksonville to attend a meeting of the Abandoned and Neglected Cemeteries Commission, hosted by Jerry Spinks. Sarah presented as a resource speaker to the group, informing how a public outreach group like FPAN can assist in the restoration and preservations efforts of the Commission. Margo Stringfield also presented a case study of St. Michael's Cemetery in Pensacola - managed by the University of West Florida Archaeology Institute, this site is a true success story in historic cemetery preservation.
Hannah and I will be finishing up work on constructing atlatl spears this week, and hopefully we will be able to bring those to the Pedro Menendez class next week.
Thats the Dirt for today!
[(Much) more to come!]

-Matt Armstrong