On Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the Atkinson Museum, Hampden-Sydney College, Dr. Charles Pearson will give a talk titled “Archaeology at Hampden-Sydney College: The Past and the Future of the Past.” This talk will dive into the history of the college through Pearson’s long-term archaeological study of Slate Hill Plantation.

Pearson is an adjunct assistant professor at Hampden-Sydney College and senior archaeologist with Coastal Environments, Inc., an environmental consulting firm headquartered in Baton Rouge, La.  A native of Georgia, he now resides in Appomattox.  He received his bachelor’s degree in archaeology from the University of New Mexico and an MA and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Georgia.

Pearson has conducted archaeological research on historic and prehistoric sites in the southeastern United States for over 40 years and has published widely on this work.  One of Pearson’s specialties is maritime history and archaeology, and he has undertaken studies of a number of historic shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico, the Lower Mississippi River Valley and along the Texas coast Pearson currently teaches a summer course in Historical Archaeology at Hampden-Sydney College.

This event is sponsored by the Hampden-Sydney Architectural Society and the Atkinson Museum and  is free and open to the public.