Missing Pottery Update

We're still hard at work getting the word out about the theft of a collection of Caddoan pottery from the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Research Station at Southern Arkansas University. To date, we've given interviews to 5 TV stations, two radio networks and I forget how many newspapers--including the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Magnolia News Banner, The Oklahoman, The Bray (the student newspaper of SAU) and The Native Voice.

At any rate, the inventory of missing ceramics I provided immediately following the discovery of the robbery was made in a matter of hours, and I didn't have a lot of time to revisit the inventory in the weeks following. I have just finished a thorough inventory and I have a few updates to make to the inventory. It seems that a total of 27--not 26--pots were stolen from our collections. You can download a printer-friendly PDF of the new inventory here, or you can look at some color and black and white pics of the vessels in HTML form here.

Ghost Signs of Southwestern Arkansas

I've discovered a great set of pictures that my predecessor--Frank Schambach--took while he was the station archeologist here in Magnolia. These pics are slides Frank took of fading signs painted on the sides of buildings in the small towns in southwestern Arkansas.

You can check out some scans of some of these photos in my "signs" set of my Flickr account. This set includes signs of all kinds from my various trips and places I've lived...but if you scroll through, you'll find the scans of 10 or so of the photos that Frank took....they are quite striking and some of these appeared in Cynthia Lea Haas and Jeff Holder's Ghost Signs of Arkansas (1997).

I hope to continue Frank's tradition of taking ghost sign photos....of course, they are getting rare as these towns "clean up" by applying a fresh coat of paint.

What's My Name?

Ahhhhh...For some reason people insist on formalizing my name. I understand that my given name--Jamie--seems like a derivative nickname, but I can't help but feeling that the folks that change my name to "James" have some class issues.

For instance, my first wife's mother thought "Jamie Chad" didn't sound like a name befitting an archaeologist. At parties, family get-togethers, etc. she continually introduced me as "James Chadwick Brandon"....That was the first time that I had encountered the problem--as "Jamie" seems fine for a small town boy or an undergraduate student--but the problem has continually turned up since...esp. since the Ph.D......For example, see the above name tag issued to me this week by SAU.

Get over it, folks....I'm Jamie Chad Brandon & I'm proud of it!

Missing Ceramic Photos

I've posted pictures of the 26 missing Caddoan vessels on my Flickr account...feel free to save them, post them, whatever...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbrandon/sets/72157594229217977/

Press Release

August 7, 2006

For Immediate Release by the Arkansas Archeological Survey:

The Arkansas Archeological Survey and Southern Arkansas University report the theft of 26 prehistoric Caddo Indian pottery vessels from the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Research Station collections at Southern Arkansas University. The pottery vessels are all from the Cedar Grove site located on the Red River in Lafayette County, Arkansas. The vessels belong to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and are federal property. Photographs and complete documentation of each pottery vessel exist so they will be very difficult to sell on the open market.

The vessels are from Indian graves subject to the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law. If the vessels were transported across state lines they will be subject to the federal Archeological Resource Protection Act. Hence, the thieves can be prosecuted under two separate federal laws as well as state law. For these reasons, the SAU Police Department is working with the El Dorado office of the FBI in the investigation.

For a list and photographs of the stolen pottery vessels see: http://www.projectpast.org/sau/SAUCedarGroveMissingList_v3.pdf

For more information call:

Dr. Thomas J. Green
Director
Arkansas Archeological Survey
2475 N. Hatch Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72704
479-575-3556 or 479-442-0261

or

Dr. Jamie C. Brandon
Research Station Archeologist
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Southern Arkansas University
PO Box 9381
Magnolia, AR 71754
870-235-4229

Another Article...

Here's a second article on the SAU Station theft...this one appeared in this Sunday's South Arkansas Sunday News on page 1. It was written by the same reporter who did the extensive story on Frank Schambach's retirement.

Life in Magnolia So Far: A Bit More Excitement Than I Expected

I arrived late Sunday, unpacked on Monday...It was hot & muggy. I attempted to avoid the heat by starting to unpack at 5:00 am on Monday...Alas, it was 85 at 5:00am...87 by dawn. Needless to say, it was a very hot, long day of moving a 17' U-Haul full of books into my new office and getting stuff on shelves.
I also saw Frank Schambach, my predecessor, off on Monday--He and his wife Marilyn have moved back to their homeland in upstate New York...and he's been nice enough to allow me to house sit for him while I look for a permanent address in Magnolia.

I began working as the Southern Arkansas University Research Station's Archaeologist on Tuesday...Unfortunately, on Thurs. David Jeane (a Research Associate at the Station) and myself discovered that 26 Caddoan ceramic vessels had been stolen from the Cedar Grove collection. I'll post more about in a few days, but it is certainly a hard way to begin a new job...these ceramic pots were Federal property (thus the FBI must be involved) and we were, in a sense, keeping them in trust until they could be repatriated to the Caddo Nation... I feel horrible.

I will post more about this in a few days, but for now you can download a large PDF of what was taken (including pictures) here, and you can read the first newspaper article that came out today on the theft here.

Pass these items along to anyone who might be able to help us find these missing sacred vessels and prosecute those who stole them.

More later...