First Meeting of 2023! Sunday, Feb. 26, 2:00pm at Oaklands Mansion

We cordially invite you to the Rutherford County Archaeological Society’s first meeting of 2023 on February 26, 2:00pm at Oaklands Mansion, 901 N. Maney Avenue, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Our featured speaker is Southeastern historical and mortuary archaeologist and Rutherford County Archaeological Society President, Clélie Cottle Peacock! Clélie is a Nashville native, an MTSU alum, and a candidate for a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi. Their academic and professional career has found them doing fieldwork both in the U.S. and abroad. While completing their graduate thesis, Clélie is working for MTSU and local archaeological firms as an independent GIS and archaeological research consultant. Clélie’s presentation, “Our Playground Was the Fort” will cover the most recent excavations, research, and analysis of the ongoing archaeological project of the Post-Emancipation Bass Street Community at Fort Negley.

In Clélie’s own words:
I will discuss the concept and materiality of community in the archaeological record through analysis of the Bass Street site at Fort Negley (40DV189) in Edgehill. Established by those who built the fort, the Bass Street Community was one of Nashville’s first Post-Emancipation Black neighborhoods. Though the neighborhood was demolished in the 1960s, the Bass Street site and Fort Negley are among Nashville’s most important- and most endangered- historical and archaeological resources. As a special inclusion, I will also present some of the work I am doing for my in-progress master’s thesis highlighting the Bass Street Baptist Church component of the site, its artifact assemblage, and the significance of the church to the Bass Street community members and their descendants. This portion of the presentation is being shared as an exclusive first look just for RCAS meeting attendees!

Note:
The Rutherford County Archaeological Society (RCAS) is an all-volunteer nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and community service organization. We are composed of people of various ages, occupations, and interests, as well as avocational and professional archaeologists and historians. We have a good mix of those who enjoy sharing history and archaeology and have a concern for preservation and protection of our cultural resources. Please come and check us out!
We are funded only by memberships and donations. Please consider joining RCAS or making a donation so we can expand our conservation, restoration, and interpretation project at Murfreesboro’s Old City Cemetery on Vine St., other volunteer archaeological work, and special events. You may join or donate at our meeting or on our website. Memberships: Students,$5.00; Individuals,10; Family, $25.00
Thank You! Website: rutherfordarchaeology.org