UNCA to Host Lecture on Biltmore Archeology Site

Biltmore Archeology Site

Archeologist Scott Shumate will present a lecture on "Biltmore Mound Archeology: A Village of the Middle Woodland Connestee Culture, 200-500 C.E." at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, in

UNC Asheville's Owen Hall, room 237. A period of discussion will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Shumate will discuss recent investigations conducted at the former site of a Native American mound and village located on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. On the site, excavations have revealed a series of prepared clay floors, mound-building fill, and tens of thousands of artifacts. Recent radiocarbon assays indicate that the Native American occupation of this extensive mound and village complex extended from approximately 200-500 C.E.

Shumate serves as co-principal investigator and assistant director of Appalachian State University Laboratories of Archeological Science where he has conducted historic and prehistoric archeological investigations throughout the Southern Appalachians. In recent years he has participated in investigations at Russia's Caucasus Mountains, Wyoming, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, England and Peru, while the majority of his historical archeological experience derives from nearly six years of field and lab experience at Jefferson's Monticello. Shumate holds a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Tennessee.

The talk is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Archeology and UNCA's Classics Department.

For more information, call Dorothy Dvorsky Rohner, UNCA associate classics professor, at 828/251-6295.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Dorothy Dvorsky Rohner, UNCA Associate Classics Professor, 828/251-6295
• Dr. Lora Holland, UNCA Assistant Classics Professor, 828/232-5043
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526