SEMO HOSTS BECKWITH CONFERENCE

Eleven archaeologists visited Southeast Missouri State University for the 1999 Beckwith Conference.

The three-day conference was hosted by university President Dr. Dale Nitzschke, the University Museum, the Harvard Peabody Museum's Lower Mississippi Survey and Southeast's sociology and anthropology department.

From April 30 to May 2, conference participants shared information about the Southeast Missouri archaeological records, which spans over 12,000 years.

The driving force behind the conference was Dr. Stephen Williams, Peabody emeritus professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard.

Williams became interested in the Southeast Missouri region in 1948, writing his senior honors thesis about archaeological materials from Scott County using a collection at Yale University. His advance degree work also focused on Southeast Missouri.

The Beckwith Conference is named after the Beckwith Collection of Indian artifacts, which was endowed to Southeast in 1913. "The Beckwith Collection of Mississippian artifacts is truly one of the finest such collections anywhere in the United States," said Dr. Jenny Strayer, University Museum director.