Archaeologist to speak Wednesday at MOC
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on February 12, 2008 1:50 PM
Author and archaeologist Duncan Caldwell of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., will give a presentation Wednesday at Mount Olive College on the Archaeology of North Africa. The lecture is scheduled for noon in the Hennessee Room of the Lois K. Murphy Regional Center.
A leading archaeologist, Caldwell has conducted expeditions in the Sahara Desert to find the source of impactite (a type of yellow glass formed when a meteor hit North Africa) found in the scarab on King Tut's death mask. Caldwell will talk about his discoveries, the hardships of the expedition and the excitement of the field work. While in the Sahara, Caldwell also investigated petroglyphs that showed evidence of people swimming in what are now dry stream beds in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
In addition to Caldwell's work in the Sahara Desert, in 1994, he conducted the first survey of the largest concentration of open-air Upper Paleolithic art in Europe as it was being threatened by a dam project in the Coa River Valley in Portugal.
Caldwell is also credited for designing the museum in Mount Olive College's proposed Center of American Studies project.
Wednesday's lecture is free and open to the public. Visitors may bring their lunch or go through the college cafeteria.
More information can be obtained by calling Dr. Dan Gall at 658-2502.