Submitted information

Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt will present a talk, “The Archaeology of Historic Arkadelphia: Excavations at J.E.M. Barkman House and Magnolia Manor,” at the next meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society.

The talk will be on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m. in the board room at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The ASMSA board room is located in the Administration Building, and parking is available behind it and the new CIC building. As per ASMSA policies, visitors will wear masks to protect everyone from COVID. 

The talk is free and open to the public.

In her presentation, Trubitt will discuss two historic house sites in Arkadelphia – the J. E. M. Barkman House and Magnolia Manor – that have been investigated by archeologists from the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station.

Both houses were built just prior to the Civil War, and have been lived in and used up to the present day. This talk reviews the sites, the families, and the results of the excavations. When used together, archival and archeological research provide a more complete picture of Arkadelphia’s history.

Trubitt is the archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station in Arkadelphia. She conducts research, teaches anthropology courses and works with members of the public interested in historic preservation. Her research ranges from investigating the production and exchange of tools chipped from Arkansas Novaculite from the Ouachita Mountains to pottery making by Caddo communities along the Ouachita River prior to European contact. Her most recent book, “Two Caddo Mound Sites in Arkansas”, was published by the Arkansas Archeological Survey in 2021.