Archeology club hosts rock'n guest speaker

by Belle Johnson

The Troy chapter of the Alabama Archaeological Society (AAS) has officially relaunched.

 To celebrate, the Anthropology Club held the first of a five-part lecture series with speaker Stephen Meredith. The lecture was the first meeting of both the Anthropology Club and the Troy AAS Chapter.

Meredith is the president of the AAS and the owner of Cedars Consulting. He received his bachelor's degree in geology from Auburn University, then went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Alabama. He has been on several archeological expeditions around the southeast, mainly in Alabama.

“We wanted to have him talk because he was the one who got us back into the chapter,” said Cassandra Gonzalas, a senior anthropology major from South Amboy, New Jersey, who is the President of the Anthropology Club. 

“Hopefully, we can stay in the chapter, and us starting back will lead more people to be able to do more stuff with the club and be able to do more stuff with the chapter.”

Meredith talked about his works locating clovis points, or spearheads, used by the Pleistocene peoples in the Ice Age. He brought samples of the rocks the spearheads would have been made from, such as chert and quarts, and showed many pictures of the ones the AAS had found. 

“I thought it was really cool. I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a kid,” said Bella Edmonson, a freshman biomed major from Glencoe, Alabama. 

Edmonson said her favorite part of the lecture was when Meredith discussed the areas the rock had been found.

“There were a lot of cherts around where I grew up, so it was a cool connection.”

“I thought it was very good, very informative,” said Chase Lesueur, a senior anthropology major from Helena, Alabama. 

When asked about his favorite part of the lecture, Lesueur said, “Probably talking about what specific rocks would be good for what was found and how they moved across Alabama.” 

The Anthropology Club will have more lectures throughout the year, as well as movie nights in the next few months. To learn more about the Anthropology Club, you can follow them on Instagram at @troyuniversityanthropology.