Archaeologists from the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture have recently explored two local Civil War sites.
Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the museum, will discuss the exploration and their findings Friday at the final UT Science Forum of the semester.
The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation.
The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.
The museum received a Civil War Heritage Area grant from the East Tennessee Civil War Alliance and the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable that allowed Markel and others to dig at the site of Fort Higley in South Knoxville.
She said the area had been “picked over” before the archaeologists arrived, so they didn’t find many Civil War artifacts. However, they were able to survey the area and determine that an 1864 map of the fort was accurate.
They also explored the site of a cabin near the fort.
She will discuss the museum’s archaeological finds at Morgan Hill, site of the new Sorority Village, as well. That site yielded many more Civil War artifacts, she said. She has curated a museum exhibit about their findings there.
The Science Forum is sponsored by the Office of Research. For more information about the Science Forum, visit the Office of research website.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)
Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)