For the past few years, Carl Drexler and his team have been excavating a salt site used by the Caddo people as well as by 19th-century American settlers

Submitted information | For The Arkadelphian

Drexler, of the Arkansas Archeological Survey will present “Unearthing Histories of Food, Trade, Economy, and Environment at the Holman Springs Site” at the September meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society. This talk will be held on Tuesday, September 5, at 7 p.m. in the Board Room at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.

Salt is a precious commodity in several ways. It is crucial to the way people prepare food, but also has its place in textiles, ceramics, and a host of other industries. Making salt is a tradition that different groups around the world have done for centuries.

In this talk, Drexler outlines those Holman Springs Site excavations, explores some of the findings, and shows how the production and use of salt in southern Arkansas had significant political, economic, and environmental consequences for the people of the region.

Drexler is a research associate professor with the University of Arkansas and the station archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s office at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University (1042 Haddock St., Arkadelphia) holds regular Archeology Lab Days on Thursdays. Students and members of the public are invited to come by the research station on Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to learn more about archeology in Arkansas.

For more information, contact Mary Beth Trubitt at 870-230-5510.