Dickson Mounds Museum Archaeologist Alan Harn will present an illustrated lecture titled “Igniting the Torch: Amateurs, Adventures, and the Advancement of American Archaeology,” at 2 p.m. on 23 Sept at the museum. The event is being conducted to celebrate Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month.
Dr. Don Dickson's 1927 excavation of a portion of Dickson Mounds and its in-place display to the public was quickly followed by his uncle Marion and Ernest Dickson's excavation and display of archaeological remains found in log tombs at the nearby Ogden Mounds. These and other excavations created an archaeological firestorm thrusting this formerly secluded location into the international spotlight.
As an expanding group of lay people began to delve into Illinois' past, Dickson Mounds-like excavations were undertaken near Peoria and Washburn, and similar large-scale amateur excavations of Native American burial sites were opened in Florida, Kentucky, and Kansas.
Drawn by the early excavations, the University of Chicago established near Dickson Mounds the first school in archaeological field technique undertaken in the eastern United States. Many important archaeological procedures that still guide scientific investigations today would be developed there in the early 1930s, and a number of the early University of Chicago field school students would go on to become eminent in American and world archaeology.
For more see the Canton Daily Ledger and visit the museum's web site at ">this link.
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