Archeological Survey chief Sabo to retire

George Sabo III, the director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey since 2013, is retiring effective June 30, the University of Arkansas System announced Friday.

Sabo, 70, joined the Arkansas Archeological Survey and Anthropology Department in 1979 after he completed a dissertation at Michigan State University on Baffinland Inuit adaptations to the ecological impacts of long-term climate changes, according to his University of Arkansas System biography.

At the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Department of Anthropology, Sabo’s research has centered on human/environment relationships, expressive culture (art and ritual) among Southeastern Indians from pre-contact to modern times, American Indian interactions with European explorers and colonists in the Southeast, and the anthropology of history in modern Caddo, Osage and Quapaw communities in Oklahoma, according to the UA System website.

Sabo’s current projects include a study of 15th-18th century art, ritual and social interaction in the central Arkansas River Valley.

The job of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, part of the University of Arkansas System, is to study and protect archaeological sites in the state; preserve and manage information and collections from those sites; and communicate what its staff learns.

It has 10 research stations — seven at state university campuses, two at state parks and one at the UA System’s Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. The stations are at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro; Henderson State University, Arkadelphia; Parkin Archeological State Park in Cross County; Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park in Lonoke County; UA-Fayetteville; the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith; the University of Arkansas at Monticello; the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; and Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia. The director’s position carries a salary of about $115,913 a year.

UA System President Donald R. Bobbitt has formed an advisory committee to assist in the search for the next director. The committee met for the first time Wednesday. Its members will find candidates through a national search. Bobbitt, who serves as chairman of the committee, will recommend a finalist to the University of Arkansas board of trustees.

Other committee members:

• Emily Beahm, station archaeologist.

• Trey Berry, president, SAU.

• Jami Lockhart, director, computer services program, Arkansas Archeological Survey.

• Shavawn Smith, assistant director of fiscal affairs, Arkansas Archeological Survey.

• Wesley Stoner, faculty.

• Mary Beth Trubitt, state archaeologist.

• Melissa Zabecki, state archaeologist.