Exhibits

Ancient North Carolinians: A Virtual Museum of North Carolina Archaeology

Opening reception on Friday, November 15 • 3:30 – 5:00 pm

UNC Campus, Campus Y, Queen Anne Room
Research Laboratories of Archaeology permanent online exhibit

Ituskre [pots]: Catawba Pottery of Past and Present

Monday – Friday • 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

UNC Campus, Alumni Building, First floor
Research Laboratories of Archaeology permanent exhibit

Catawba pottery served as the material foundation for life in the Piedmont during the eighteenth century. For Catawbas, making pottery with family members created space for sharing stories and creating new memories of what it meant to be Catawba; selling pottery generated much needed income for Catawba families striving to protect ancestral lands from colonial encroachment. For settlers, Catawba pottery offered widely available, inexpensive, and incredibly desirable cookware that produced unique flavors. Learn more about the Research Laboratories of Archaeology’s (RLA) excavation at the Federal era Catawba settlement known as New Town (c. 1790-1820). Pottery from the site demonstrates how the economic expertise, resourcefulness, and innovation of Catawba women created a new economic niche for producing and selling Catawba pots throughout the region.

Archaeology of the Eagle Hotel

Monday – Friday • 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

UNC Campus, Alumni Building, First floor
Research Laboratories of Archaeology permanent exhibit

Step inside the stone wall that runs along Franklin Street at the east side of McCorkle Place. Look to your left. There, below several feet of soil, lay the remains of the renowned Eagle Hotel. Miss Nancy Hilliard, its most esteemed proprietress, rented rooms to university students and visitors during its heyday in the 1830s–1850s when campus social life centered on the establishment. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) conducted excavations at the Graham Memorial site, where the Eagle Hotel once stood, in preparation for the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) bicentennial celebration. UNC students joined RLA archaeologists in their search for material remains of early student life—physical evidence of the university’s Antebellum years now hidden from view and memory. Stop by the RLA on the first floor of Alumni Hall to learn more about what they found and what that tells us about life at the Eagle Hotel.

Past events include the following:

Exhibit Opening Reception

Friday, September 28, 2018 • 12:00 – 1:30 pm
UNC Campus, Alumni Building, First floor
Research Laboratories of Archaeology permanent exhibit
• View flyer •

The Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) invites you to celebrate the opening of two new exhibits featuring RLA research projects. Learn about life at the 19th century Eagle Hotel on Franklin Street and the re-making of Catawba Indian identity following the American Revolution. Beverages and light hors d’oeuvres will be served.