IMAGE: The 2026 Arkansas Archeology Month poster.
Holly Hope of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will present “Flora, Fauna and Faces: Reading Cemetery Symbolism” at the March 2026 meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society.
This talk will be held on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in the Rainey Room in the CIC Building at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.
March is Arkansas Archeology Month. This year, the theme is “Decrypting Gravestones: Symbolism in Cemeteries.”
Hope’s talk will highlight popular forms of iconography on grave markers and the various meanings behind them. Hope is Special Projects Historian with Community Outreach at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Her duties include writing National Register nominations, surveying and writing articles on historic properties, and lecturing on various topics. She serves as the chair of the Pulaski County Abandoned Cemetery Board. In 2007 she organized the AHPP’s first hands-on cemetery preservation workshop with Jason Church of the National Center for Preservation and Technology at Hollywood Cemetery in Hot Springs. With the success of this program, she has continued to bring workshops to adults and children in counties around the state.
The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia holds regular Archaeology Lab Days. Students and members of the public are invited to come by the research station in Proctor Hall on Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to learn more about archaeology in Arkansas. For more information, contact Clay Newton at 870-230-5463.