Garland County Library to host artifact lecture
The Garland County Library will welcome Mary Beth Trubitt, an archaeologist at the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University, for “How Do We Know It’s an Artifact?” at 2 p.m. March 10 in the library’s auditorium.
Trubitt will discuss how archaeologists use artifacts to learn about people and their behavior in ancient societies. Her talk will include information on how archaeologists know that an object was made by people rather than by natural processes. Human behavior is patterned, and making tools is typically guided by cultural “rules” learned and shared within communities. In this talk, Trubitt will examine Native American artifacts from archaeological sites in the Ouachita Mountains to show the characteristics of tool production and use. She will also bring artifacts found in the Ouachita Mountains.
Trubitt earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Northwestern University in 1996. Since 2000, she has run the survey’s Henderson State University Research Station in Arkadelphia, where she teaches, conducts research, and works with members of the public interested in historic preservation. Trubitt’s research interests in stone tool production and exchange and her visits to novaculite quarries in the Ouachita Mountains led to the development of the Arkansas Novaculite: A Virtual Comparative Collection website, http://www. archaeology.uark.edu/novaculite/, supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Her interest in Caddo Indian history and excavations at archaeological sites along the Ouachita River have resulted in several articles and books. Trubitt co-authored “Caddo Connections: Cultural Interactions Within and beyond the Caddo World” in 2014, and edited the “Research, Preservation, Communication: Honoring Thomas J. Green on his Retirement from the Arkansas Archeological” Survey in 2016.
Admission is free; registration is required. Call the library at 501-623-4161 or 501-922-4483 or register online at http://www.gclibrary.com.