The Mud Creek chapter of the Kansas Anthropological Association (KAA) will host its annual Artifact Identification Workshop on Sept.20, in the city of McPherson. The event will take place in the lobby of the McPherson Museum, 1111 East Kansas. Hours for the event will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Interested persons from the central Kansas area may drop by the museum and speak with Kansas State Historical Society archeologists. Well-experienced avocational archeologists from the KAA will also be available. Collectors can bring Native American artifacts or early historical items throughout the event for assistance in identification and dating. Helpful suggestions will also be made for cataloging and collection maintenance. No appraisals or sales will be made: this is a free pubhc service to improve knowledge of our state’s archeological heritage.
The public is encouraged to visit this event. Admission is free. Visitors may come and go as is convenient for them. Light refreshments will be served.
In previous years the ID Day has been held in Abilene, Kanopolis, Lyons, Newton, Salina, and Lindsborg. This will be the 13th year the chapter has hosted the event. The Kansas Anthropological Association is a non-profit organization which was founded in 1955 to bring together professional and amateur archeologists and collectors for the study of the history and prehistory of Kansas people.
KAA holds a number of events each year with statewide participation, the most popular of which is the annual field school/archeology training program (KATP). ln June 2014 the event was held in the city of Osawatomie at the site of the Adair cabin. The cabin was home of Fiorella Brown Adair, half-sister of abolistionist John Brown. It was Brown’s headquarters and a station on the underground railroad during the “Bleeding Kansas” period.