CoVA News

Website Update

This website is currently being updated. We would greatly appreciate feedback from the CoVA membership regarding this process. If you have an interest in this website, contact us with comments, suggestions and concerns. Please let us know what you currently find useful or essential to the site as well as any additional features that you feel would prove valuable to CoVA.

Upcoming Events

These are the events within the next 3 months. A complete calendar for the year can be found here.

April 18-22, 2012 SAA Annual Meeting: Memphis, TN
www.saa.org
Month/Day TBA, 2012 CoVA Spring Meeting: City TBA, VA
www.cova-inc.org

In Memoriam

It is with great sadness that we report two life members of COVA passed away in 2008. Both founders of the organization, Norman Barka and Howard MacCord, made numerous lasting contributions to archaeology within Virginia.

Howard MacCord served for many years as the Virginia State Archaeologist where he was involved in archaeological excavations throughout the state. Upon his retirement, Colonel MacCord continued to promote archaeology and the benefits of archaeological excavations through his active membership in COVA and many other organizations.

A resolution honoring Howard's contributions to Virginia archaeology was cosponsored by COVA and introduced at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) meeting by COVA member Cliff Boyd. The March 2009 ASV Quarterly Bulletin was dedicated to Howard as well as a remembrance on the ASV website. His obituary was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on November 13, 2008.

Norman Barka was a professor of anthropology at the College of William and Mary where he trained numerous students during his forty year career. He was one of the founders of their highly successful graduate program in historical archaeology and relished teaching both undergraduates and graduate students – especially during field schools.

His legacy in Virginia includes the Chickahominy River Survey where he conducted research into prehistoric / protohistoric sites and excavation of several important historic sites including the Poor Potter in Yorktown, the Yorktown Battlefield, and Flowerdew Hundred. Professor Barka began teaching fieldschools in the Caribbean in 1981, conducting extensive excavations on St. Eustatius, Bermuda and many other islands until 2002. Additional details about Norman Barka's life can be found within an autobiographical speech he made to the Society for Historical Archaeology (published in the Spring 2008 newsletter for the Department of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary) and in his obituary published in the Daily Press, May 2, 2008.