The next director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey envisions expanding itsofferings for amateur archaeologists and public schools, as well as its online courses for university students.
“Our research contributes to ourunderstanding of Arkansas history across an entire sweep of time,” said George Sabo III, 62, of Fayetteville, who will soon take the survey’s helm.
That sweep of time begins with 11,500 B.C., continues through the moment in 1541 when Hernando DeSoto crossed the Mississippi River into what is now Arkansas, on through the state’s territorial and statehood periods, and up through present day.
Sabo, an archaeologist with the survey for more than 30 years, will replace Thomas J. Green, the University of Arkansas System announced Friday. Green was director for more than two decades.
A division of the UA System, the Fayetteville-based survey is a statewide research, public service and educational institution.
It has 11 research stations in Arkansas, five of which are at the system’s Fayetteville, Pine Bluff, Monticello and Fort Smith campuses, and its Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, Sabo said Friday.
Outside the UA System, other stations are located at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Henderson State University in Arkadelphiaand Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
The remainder are at three state parks: Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park in Scott, Parkin Archeological State Park in Parkin and the former Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville.
Sabo will earn $105,000, which will be paid from public funds, said UA System spokesman Ben Beaumont.
In 1967, Sabo said, the Arkansas Legislature established the survey’s mission: to study and protect thestate’s 13,000-year archaeological heritage. This covers preserving, managing and curating its artifacts, collections and information at its archaeological sites and communicating what it learns to Arkansans.
The survey’s activities range from letting amateur archaeological enthusiasts get their hands dirty on excavation sites and other projects around the state, to working with American Indian nations and tribes in Arkansas and Oklahoma - suchas the Caddo, Osage, Quapaw and Cherokee, as well as the Tunica-Biloxi Nation.
The groups collaborate with the survey on digs, repatriation of sacred artifacts and curating exhibits.
“We work with the Indians today, so that the Indians’ voice comes through on the exhibits,” Sabo said. An example of this in recent years was an exhibit the survey produced in collaboration with Little Rock’s Historic Arkansas Museum called We Walk in Two Worlds.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 06/01/2013