Moundville grounds offer portal to the stars
Huntsville Times – May 20
… Jeremy Davis, a doctoral archaeology student at the University of Alabama. Last week, Davis followed some University of Alabama archaeology students … pits they are digging on the plaza at the center of the 326-acre Moundville Archaeological Park. In square pits covered by tarps, they are painstakingly sifting soil, reading in those colors and textures the geologic record of building poles and home fires, and recording everything in detailed notebooks. “Archaeologists have always thought that the plaza was just a big, empty area,” Davis said, looking out from the museum’s coffee shop tables over the broad green lawn between the mounds. “But there is something below the plaza. This is a planned and built environment that symbolizes their cosmology.”…”We’re digging to the surfaces that people like that walked on 800 years ago!” Davis said. “Eight hundred years ago, and these were the fires they sat around.” Betsy Irwin, the long-time education outreach coordinator for the park, which is administered by the University of Alabama, worked with anthropologists, archaeologists, folklorists and Native American historians and leaders to make sure that the new exhibit is authentic down to every last detail …
Potential intern’s Tuscaloosa tweet becomes blog
CNN.com – May 20
About a week after tornadoes ripped through the American south a message popped up in the @morn_eXpress twitter feed… it read: “@winnieawright Turned down an internship with HLN and the Morning Express with Robin Meade so I can stay in Alabama and rebuild.” Well, we couldn’t let this end there: My name is Winnie Wright. I am a broadcasting student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa…Not long after I made my decision, I was contacted by The Morning Express with Robin Meade team to see if I wanted to blog
about the recovery. I accepted their invitation and so for the
next four weeks I will be giving you a first-hand account of what is going on in Alabama…When news started pouring in, groups were formed to provide immediate relief…The University of Alabama let students use the recreation center as a donation drop-off point and a refuge. Student volunteers worked at “the rec” in any way that they could. Students and people in the community were donating clothes, diapers, food, and everything you could imagine …
UA Researchers Look at Damage
CBS42 (Birmingham) – May 19
Three weeks and one day after the storm, University of Alabama researchers are studying the damage left behind. The goal is understanding why some structures remain standing, while others crumbled …
University of Alabama Meeting Professor Recounts Tuscaloosa Twister
Corporate Meetings & Incentives – May 16
… Others went home to their parents, but came back to volunteer. “I was very proud of the students,” Hilliard said. “This is a tight-knit community, both on campus and off campus. The students have rallied, and it has only intensified their pride in their school and their commitment to the city and each other,” she said. “The city is damaged, but strong and united,” she added. And it will be business as usual at the university by the fall.