Two New College Students Win Top Prizes in Regional Archaeology Grants Competition

New College students Matt Andersen and Jodi Johnson won the top prizes in the Cornelia D. Futor Student Archaeology Grant competition sponsored by the Time Sifters Archaeology Society. They will present their work at the Sarasota-based society’s March 13 meeting.
This is the fifth consecutive year that New College students have won the top prizes from Time Sifters.
Andersen’s work examines the Emerson Point Mound site on Snead Island. The site’s architecture exhibits influences of both the Tocobaga and Calusa tribes, and therefore may have been political and religious neutral ground. The presentation grew out of Andersen’s independent study project supervised by New College Professor of Anthropology Uzi Baram. He is a third-year student concentrating in anthropology and religion.
Johnson’s work is on Warm Mineral Springs, which is significant both scientifically and in legend, as a possible site of Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. Her paper explores the intersection of archaeology and imagined heritage and how the two themes can co-exist. The work came from her thesis project and from work in Baram’s Ancient North America class. She is a third-year student  concentrating in heritage and cultural resource management, and a wife and mother who returned to college at age 35.
Baram, who also directs New College’s Public Archaeology Lab, noted that one goal of the contest is to adapt scholarly research for the public. “Anthropological, including archaeological, research can be produced for professors to evaluate and/or for presentation at professional meetings, but I am particularly excited to see students produce innovative insights for public audiences,” he said.
Time Sifters is a Sarasota-based chapter of the Florida Archaeological Society, and the grant competition is open to undergraduate and pre-doctoral graduate students enrolled at a college in the Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa area.
The presentations will be at the society meeting, 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, in the Selby Public Library in Sarasota.
Formed in 1986, Time Sifters is dedicated to preservation, education and research. The society has assisted trained archaeologists in major Calusa Indian digs, participated in creating the “Window to the Past” exhibit at Historic Spanish Point, sponsored and/or participated in outreach programs “Trail of the Lost Tribes” and “Looking for Angola” and provided significant support contributing to the preservation of local archaeological resources. As part of its educational outreach program, Time Sifters sponsors monthly lectures on archaeological topics. For more information, visit timesifters.org.
Cornelia D. Futor was a retired member of the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in India and France, and a founding member of Time Sifters. After retiring to Sarasota, she took an adult education class in archaeology, which began a lasting commitment to the importance of preserving our local heritage and educating the public about its importance.  After her death last year, Time Sifters renamed its student grants program in her memory.