Rotary Log: November 7, 2013 (Archeology Matters)

After introducing attending fellow Rotarians (1 from Mongolia) and distinguished guests, an announcement of distributions from the William Cash Fund garnered everyone’s attention.

Of 6 proposals presented to the board by the committee, disbursements exceeding $22,000 were earmarked for school safety, domestic abuse services, food banks, a pilot program for Friends Forever and a repeat mission to extend education opportunities to children in a rural area of Uganda. The Cash Fund will also begin to match up to $1,000 annually of funds raised by marathon participants for local non-profits.  Wm. Cash would certainly be proud of his donation accomplishing so much goodwill and international friendship.

Guest Speaker:  J. Dennis Robinson

The return visit by resident historian, author and Portsmouth advocate received a very warm greeting.  Typically telling stories of olde Portsmouth happenings was sidelined in exchange for an important message Dennis wanted to convey.  His topic, Archeology Matters (A Lot), was a call to arms because sites around Portsmouth have been destroyed throughout the downtown area by developers.  What gets destroyed includes over 6,000 years of artifacts that identifies what life was like in the seacoast.  Archeology is part science and human beings can be short-sighted when a hole gets dug without questioning what was in the hole besides just dirt. 

Archeology matters because there is a lot of misinformation out there that can be cleared up with a little research. An example of misinformation was that no native Americans ever lived on the Isle of Shoals.  Contrary to this belief dating back to 1623, recently found artifacts were identified contradicting this conclusion. Fortunately, since Federal Funds were involved with recent construction site work in Portsmouth, an archeologist confirmed the ancient burial site of African Americans which lead to the historic appointment of the African Burial Ground as part of the Black Heritage Trail that flows through the city.

According to Dennis, the real message is that “nobody is watching out for Portsmouth” like Dorothy Vaughn envisioned saving the South End and Puddledock back in 1957.  Rules and regulations are needed to protect these sites of the city’s heritage. More importantly, Portsmouth needs volunteer advocates to answer the call to protect the history of the port city.