Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting 2015
Overview of the Weekend's Activities
We are just a couple of months away from the 86th Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting. Hosted by the Houston Archeological Society, the Fort Bend Archeological Society and the Brazosport Archeological Society, this year’s meeting will be held at the Omni Resort and Hotel on Houston’s Westside October 23 – 25, 2015. I know we will have a lot of newcomers to TAS at the meeting this year so I want to give you an overview of what you can expect. Check it out at http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/houston-westside .
First of all, the meeting will follow a familiar order from previous years. The Registration Team, led by HAS member Bob Sewell, will start registering folks early on Friday and will continue throughout the day. The Friday schedule calls for the Council of Texas Archeologists (CTA) to meet in the morning, the Texas Historical Commission (THC) stewards network to meet in the early afternoon, followed by a TAS Board meeting. On Friday afternoon there will be a full schedule of concurrent sessions, papers and workshops. The Public Forum featuring a presentation by Marilyn Johnson, author of the national bestselling book Lives in Ruins: Archeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble will be held Friday night at 7:00 p.m. and will be followed by artifact identification. The CTA Careers in Archeology Social follows the Public Forum, wrapping up a full day. However, if you are not tired yet, the hotel’s casual Black and Gold Bar will remain open until 2 a.m. for your drinking and visiting pleasure!
While all this is happening on Friday, Sue Gross and her Silent Auction team including members of the Brazosport Archeological Society will be will be logging in items that have been donated prior to the meeting and that have been brought to the meeting. See an article by Sue on the TAS website about some of the exciting items that have already been donated to the Silent Auction and what you can do to support this event by donating your treasures.
Friday will also kick off the Second Annual TAS Book Festival, sponsored by the Journal of Texas Archeology and History. Organizer Steve Davis has some outstanding authors lined up. Authors who will appear on Friday afternoon and during the day on Saturday to discuss and sign books include Marilyn Johnson, author of Lives in Ruins: Archeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble (Marilyn is also our Public Forum Speaker). Dr. Mike Waters, The Hogeye Clovis Cache; Andrew Hall, Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Gulf Coast; Wes and Jace Tunnell, Pioneering Archeology in the Texas Coastal Bend: The Pape-Tunnell Collection; Myriam Archangeli, Sherds of History: Domestic Life in Colonial Guadeloupe; and Harry Shafer, Painters in Prehistory: Archeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. There are just a couple more slots open for the book festival so please contact Steve for more information at sdavis@ADVANCEDLOGICTECH.COM
On Saturday we will go into full meeting mode. Morning and afternoon concurrent sessions and poster sessions will keep people moving between the meeting rooms. Members of the Fort Bend Archeological Society will be on hand as room monitors to keep all the sessions on schedule. An International Symposium, also sponsored by the Journal of Texas Archeology and History, is in the works and much more information about this exciting event will be forthcoming. The Silent Auction and Exhibit Room Vendors will be working throughout the day to offer items of interest to everyone.
The two-hour lunch and Annual Business meeting is scheduled for Saturday when incoming officers will be elected and other society business will be conducted. Food is always an important factor at all our TAS Annual meetings and this one is no exception. You will be happy to know that several of us from the Local Arrangements Committee have done our due diligence and had a meal at the Omni to ensure that the food is good – it’s not – it’s GREAT! The menu options for the box lunch (covered in your registration fee) are Italian Poor Boy (salami, mortadello, smoked turkey and provolone cheese with olive relish on Italian loaf), Croissant Club (honey roasted ham and turkey, roast beef, American cheese, lettuce and tomato served on a freshly baked croissant) and a Vegetarian wrap with Monterrey Jack cheese, avocado, shredded lettuce, cucumber slivers, diced tomato with basil mayonnaise, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. All options come with Potato chips, whole fruit, cookie and a soft drink.
Saturday afternoon will include more concurrent sessions and workshops, papers, and posters. The Silent Auction will shut down around 4:15 p.m. on Saturday afternoon so that winning bidders may be determined and a cashier area set up to receive payment. Announcements will be made at the Banquet on Saturday night about any items that remain unclaimed or unpurchased.
The entrée options for the banquet And that brings us to the grande finale of the weekend – the Saturday night banquet and our fantastic banquet speaker, Dr. Jean Clottes, internationally renowned rock art expert and former General Inspector for Archeology at the Ministry of Culture in France. Dr. Clottes has spoken to TAS in the past on the cave art in France but his presentation this year will highlight entirely new research that he has been conducting on Rock Art and Tribal Art in India, where he has researched several painted sites, most dating from 10,000 years ago, in the deep jungles of India Clottes and his associate, Meenakshi Dubey-Pathak have published a book in French on their research entitled “Des Images Pour les Dieux. Art rupestre et Art Tribal dans le Centre de L’Inde,” 2013, Arles, France. (Translated: Images for the Gods: Rock Art and Tribal Art in Central India). This promises to be a very interesting talk, and I hope everyone will attend. on Saturday evening will include Herb Roasted Chicken topped with grilled onions and button mushrooms with a cabernet sauce or Roasted New York strip served with a sherry mushroom sauce. Both of these options will include vegetables and a starch. The vegetarian option is a Mediterranean vegetable purse, Phyllo Dough Stuffed with Cous Cous and Vegetables. The meal will begin with a Harvest salad of mixed greens, sliced Roma tomatoes, candied pecans and dried fruit, gorgonzola crumbles and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing and end with a scrumptious dessert of Texas Pecan Chocolate Rum cake.
Annual TAS Awards will be announced at the Banquet: Our Awards Committee chair Alan Skinner is seeking nominations for award categories including Lifetime Achievement Award, Fellow, The Golden Pen Award, the Distinguished Service Award, the Texas Biface Award, the Francis Stickney Field School Award, and the C. K. Chandler Award. There is also the President’s Award that originates with the TAS President and is sometimes suggested by members and decided upon with the advice and consent of the TAS Executive Committee. Please refer to the TAS website at http://www.txarch.org/AboutTAS/awards/index.html for additional information on all these awards. The final event at the Banquet will be the passing of the gavel from the outgoing to the incoming president.
So y’all come join us in Houston, Texas! We’ll leave the light on for you!
If you have questions, please contact the hotel or TAS 2015 Annual Meeting co-chairs Kathleen Hughes at hughes.kathleen@yahoo.com or Linda Gorski at president@txhas.org We look forward to seeing you in Houston!
To learn more about the history behind our archeological society contact Publicity/Outreach: publicoutreach@txhas.org.