Jeffrey Glover

University of California, Riverside, Ph.D., 2006

Maya Archaeology, Human-Environment Interaction, GIS, Coastal Archaeology, Historical, Urban Archaeology, Built Environment, Community Archaeology, Transformation of Urban spaces, Historical Cemeteries

Dr. Glover was born and raised in Atlanta where he attended The Lovett School. He did his undergraduate work at Vanderbilt University where he majored in Anthropology. He pursued his doctoral degree at the University of California, Riverside, which he completed in 2006 and is happy to be back in Atlanta.

Dr. Glover’s dissertation research focused on interpreting the spatial patterning of ancient Maya communities in northern Quintana Roo, Mexico and the dynamic role the built environment played in lives of past people. Currently, he is co-director of the Proyecto Costa Escondida with Dr. Dominique Rissolo (UC San Diego). On this project Glover and Rissolo have teamed with Dr. Trish Beddows (Northwestern University), Dr. Beverly Goodman (University of Haifa), Derek Smith (University of Washington), and colleagues to investigate the relationship between humans and the environment at the neighboring ancient Maya port sites of Vista Alegre and Conil.

Over the past three millennia, rising sea levels and fluctuating climatic regimes have dramatically transformed the physiographic characteristics of this drowning coastline, while Maya society witnessed the rise and fall of divine kings and the emergence of a market-based economy. By correlating multiple facets of the changing paleoenvironment with broader social and economic changes, the interdisciplinary research team is revealing the challenges faced, and opportunities pursued, by these coastal peoples as they adapted to their changing coastal landscape. This same group received support from NOAA in 2011 for the Maritime Maya Project.

INVOLVEMENT IN LOCAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Since moving back to Georgia, Dr. Glover has gotten involved in local archaeological projects and organizations. He is a board member of the Society for Georgia Archaeology (SGA) and the Ft. Daniel Foundation. He has worked with Dr. Jim D’Angelo on the Ft. Daniel project; Dr. Dennis Blanton on the Points of Contact project, and he has overseen the return of the MARTA archaeological collection back to GSU campus. He has also been working with a number of local communities to help document historic cemeteries (i.e., the Flat Rock Community, New Ford Baptist Church, the city of Newnan, Penfield Cemetery, and others...).

Ft. Daniel

For the past few years, Dr. Glover has been working with the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (a SGA chapter) and the Fort Daniel Foundation. He has had students working on public archaeology days at Fort Daniel, a War of 1812 fort site located in northern Gwinnett County.

Flat Rock

Dr. Glover initiated the Flat Rock Cemetery Mapping Project in 2008 in partnership with the local Flat Rock community to help document, study, and preserve their historic African-American cemetery, which was actively used between the mid-19th century and 1959. This project has been a great lesson in the positive benefits of doing public, community-based archaeology. Flat Rock was born out of three large plantations and has survived due to its strong sense of community. The historic Flat Rock Cemetery materializes this strong connection between community and place. This research has resulted in a number of conference presentations and publications with students and colleagues. The most recent and synthetic overview was published in Early Georgia, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Georgia Archaeology. This collaborative project is slowly making the history of Flat Rock accessible in a way it never was before through the creation of an interactive map, which helps bring the inspirational story of Flat Rock, a community born out of slavery that has endured into the present, to a much larger audience through the use of new geospatial technologies.

Points of Contact

In 2009, 2010, and 2012 Glover ran an archaeological field school in South Georgia with Dr. Dennis Blanton, formally of the Fernbank Museum and now a professor at James Madison University, who directs this project. The Points of Contact project is re-charting Hernando DeSoto’s trek through Georgia in the spring of 1540 and providing a rare glimpse into the events surrounding some of the earliest contact between European peoples and Native Americans in the Southeastern US.

Phoenix Project

During the 1970s, Georgia State University (GSU) archaeologists, led by Dr. Roy Dickens, conducted systematic survey and excavations associated with the construction of the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail lines. This project recovered the material remains of Atlanta’s past, and these materials represent the single most comprehensive archaeological collection of Atlanta’s history. In addition, the excavations themselves were among the pioneering projects of urban archaeology in the then nascent field of CRM (Cultural Resource Management). The entire collection, 469 medium-sized “banker” boxes housing over 100,000 artifacts and all the accompanying documentation and excavation archive, were recently brought back to GSU by Dr. Glover.

The collection’s broader significance stems from the insight it can provide into the development of Atlanta from an agrarian backwater to a ravaged, railway hub at the end of the Civil War into the major metropolis in the Southeast in the 20th century. While this transformation has been documented historically, the written record only tells part of the story. The approximately 100,000+ artifacts that make-up the MARTA archaeological collection have much to add to the story of Atlanta’s rebirth and showcase significant “moments” in the life of the city, including several Civil War sites associated with the Battle of Atlanta. Because these materials are not isolated objects but have accompanying contextual data, they can more easily and more powerfully be connected with other datasets, such as development maps and historical texts, to create a more holistic understanding of the various social, political, and economic processes that impacted individuals and shaped the development of the city. Dr. Glover is particularly excited about how the collection opens immense opportunities for faculty and student research and public education and outreach.

If you would like to learn more about the MARTA collection and the work of Phoenix Project members, please visit our Omeka website.

MEDIA

Georgia’s Hidden Treasures: Fernbank Discoveries (featuring GSU archaeology students)
To learn more about the project, watch the Channel 2 WSB-TV special featuring GSU archaeology students assisting with this project.

Proyecto Costa Escondida (PCE) Project

• The Hidden Coastal Culture of the Ancient Maya
• Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Coastal Maya

Phoenix Project

• Treasures of Terminus
• See also the Winter 2023 - 2024 American Archaeology Magazine