Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.— Mississippi State’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures and its Cobb Institute of Archaeology are hosting the Mississippi Archaeological Association’s annual meeting Friday-Sunday [Feb. 17-19] in Starkville.

On Friday, lab and museum tours will take place as part of a 5:30-7 p.m. reception at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology located on the corner of Lee Boulevard and Hardy Road.

The main portion of the MAA annual meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at The Mill at MSU Conference Center at 100 Mercantile Lane in Starkville. Parking is free.

Jarrod Burks, an archaeological geophysics expert from Ohio Valley Archaeology Ltd., will serve as keynote speaker. His address is titled “Revealing Ancient Earthworks through Geophysics: New Discoveries at Serpent Mound, Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, and Fort Ancient.”

Also on Saturday, the University Press of Mississippi will have numerous volumes related to Mississippi archaeology, history, culture and nature for sale. There will be a silent auction of art and other objects, with proceeds benefitting the MAA.

Registration is $25 for professionals; $15 for students. Avocational archaeologists also are welcome to attend. Participants may register at the door for no additional cost, but preregistration is encouraged via credit card online at www.msarchaeology.org. Checks should be made payable to the Mississippi Archaeological Association and mailed to Derek Anderson, Cobb Institute of Archaeology, P.O. Box AR, Mississippi State, MS 39762.

Registration for a Saturday evening buffet-style banquet is $20 per person and can be reserved at the above-mentioned website or via check. Checks for the banquet should be made payable to the Mississippi Archaeological Association and mailed to the above-mentioned address.

Weather permitting, there will be Sunday morning tours of the Mississippian-period Lyon’s Bluff site and Middle Woodland-period Herman Mound site, among other locales.

For additional information, contact Evan Peacock, MSU professor of anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures, and MAA annual program chair, at 662-325-1663 or peacock@anthro.msstate.edu.

The Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures is part of MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences. Learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences at www.cas.msstate.edu; its Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at www.amec.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.