You may become a vital link in discovering and reporting these sites and play a role in learning about preserving a unique piece of knowledge. Perhaps you are a collector who would like to show your collection and learn more about it. Joining the MAA will provide hands-on learning sessions with professionals and others with whom you share a common interest. Benefits include four issues of the Mississippi Archaeological Association Newsletter and two issues of the journal Mississippi Archaeology per year. If so, there are ample opportunities for members to take part in scientific research under the guidance of professional archaeologists.
Field schools sponsored by our universities also welcome volunteers who are MAA members.
Volunteers may work indoors or out, in physically demanding roles or in sorting and labeling of excavated artifacts. Volunteers learn by doing. From the gigantic piles of shell along the Gulf Coast to the large mound complexes in the ancient river floodplains, prehistoric Indians left their mark upon the face of Mississippi. From De Soto's time to the Trail of Tears, what was written about the native inhabitants of the Southeast gave a one-sided picture of their lives, leaving out the everyday activities of ordinary people. This story is being learned bit by bit from the soil, and it is a story that you can help to write.