LITTLE ROCK, AR—Secretary of State Charlie Daniels today announced the opening of the State Capitol’s spring 2010 exhibit, Our Uncovered Past, which provides an overview of conservation, research, and interpretive efforts of the Arkansas Archeological Survey over the preceding decade.
 
Presented in collaboration with the Survey, a division of the University of Arkansas System, the exhibit prominently features the results of the Survey’s partnership with units of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, including Davidsonville Historic State Park.  Located on the Black River in northeast Arkansas, near Pocahontas, Davidsonville was Arkansas’s first county seat and its establishment in 1815 made it one of the earliest European settlements in what would become Arkansas.   The exhibit offers a sampling of Davidsonville artifacts, including buttons, lead balls, animal remains, and fragments of an early Dutch oven, the humble iron pot later designated the state’s official historic cooking vessel.
 
Our Uncovered Past also spotlights the survey’s longest-running partnership: the Arkansas Archeological Society, which observes its 50th anniversary in 2010.  Since 1964, the Society has collaborated with the University of Arkansas Museum and the Arkansas Archeological survey to provide opportunities for members to learn the techniques of professional archeology in classroom and field.  In 2007 and 2008, the Society’s Summer Training Program excavated the Jones Mill site near Malvern.  On view are some of their finds, including stone tools, projectile points, and stone sinkers used to weigh down nets once used to harvest the fish of the nearby Ouachita River.
 
The exhibit may be viewed in the State Capitol's first-floor galleries through May 15.  The Capitol is open to the public from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays.