You do not need to be a member of the SAA to vote. Please support this program and Wyoming Archaeology by heading to this link to vote online. Alternatively, navigate to SAA.org, Education & Outreach, Poster Contest to vote. Online voting will remain open until Tuesday, April 29. Voting in person will also occur at the SAA conference in Denver, CO, between April 23 and 26.
"The poster program is the centerpiece of Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month each year. Folks love our posters, and they have been seen displayed around the country, in places like Chicago's Field Museum," says State Archaeology Month Coordinator Gwendolyn Kristy. The posters are distributed statewide, nationally, and internationally to nearly 2,000 people and organizations annually. The posters were developed to generate interest and understanding of archaeology for the public.
The 2024 poster, for which voting is now open, is titled "People & Plants" and highlights paleoethnobotany, the archaeological field that examines human-plant relationships. The poster features predominantly perishable items used for plant processing, plants archaeologists know were used for food and medicine, and tools constructed in part of plant material. According to the brochure author and subject matter expert Dr. Richard Adams, details about the lives of prehistoric plant gatherers are much less well known than those of hunters for a variety of reasons, including preservation bias and gender bias. "Processed plant materials in archaeological sites rarely survive the passage of millennia," Dr. Adams says.
The poster is available free of charge and may be picked up at the State Historic Preservation Office, Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne, or in Laramie in the Anthropology building located at 12th and Lewis, Room 312 on the University of Wyoming's campus. The poster and brochure can also be viewed online on the Wyoming SHPO's website.
For more information about the Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month program, contact Gwendolyn Kristy, chief of SHPO's Planning & Historic Contexts Development Program, at 307-766-5366; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also learn more about the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office at wyoshpo.wyo.gov.