This presentation will discuss the ways archaeologists learn about the past and use it to help us understand the present and plan for the future. Examples will be drawn from Ireland where the speaker has researched for 40 years, and focus on such modern day issues such as climate change over the past 10,000 years … Read more
This presentation lays out the rich and complex archaeology of Ireland, perhaps the most recently inhabited part of the planet. Discussion will begin with when the first colonizers arrived, where they came from and where they landed. The presentation will include slides, music, video and requires no previous knowledge about archaeology. And yes, it will … Read more
This presentation tells a story of international trade, natural history, and science from the days of exploration & colonization. This was a time of transfer, the movement of people, animals and plants; it is the Age of the Natural Historians who looked around the world and tried to understand what they saw. Carolina has an … Read more
What are the implications of Videophilia and Nature Deficit Disorder for the future of our world? Studies of children and South Carolina college students reveal the relationships between knowing nature, knowing the names of plants, human health, and conservation of biodiversity.
You might be surprised to learn that corn, beans, and squash were not always important and that eastern North American Indians once depended on the now-extinct crops of marshelder, goosefoot, and maygrass. Learn about Indian gardens through time, find out how plants were domesticated, and discover the role of women in the domestication process.
This slide show focuses on the uses of plants by Indians for food, drink, medicine, fiber, smoking, construction, and even poison and is based on both archaeological evidence and historic accounts. The show can also be combined with a 1-2 hour outside walk and talk to examine local plants, or we can do a walk … Read more
What happens to people’s diets when two worlds collide? Find out how life changed for the Indians in South Carolina following European exploration and settlement 1520-1730. Why were some crops adopted, and how did the encounter change the Europeans?
What is a chiefdom, the type of society encountered by de Soto when he visited South Carolina in 1540? Find out what recent digs have revealed about the late prehistoric Indians who lived in central South Carolina, in the vicinity of Camden.
Wait a minute – don’t we all know what is a vegetable? Or do we? Discover what we’ve learned from over 600 interviews. Do we agree on a definition of vegetable, and do we agree on which foods are vegetables? The answers will surprise you.
