The 32nd Annual Armadillo Roast

The 32nd Annual Armadillo Roast was Saturday March 29, 2003 at Austin Cary Forest.

This year's mystery meat was armadillo.

This year's recipients of the Charles H. Fairbanks Award are: Mr. Brinnen Carter, Ms. Birgitta Kimura, and Mr. Jonathan Walz. Each will receive a cash award to be used to complete their dissertations.

Mr. Carter's dissertation focuses on the archaeological assemblage associated with precolumbian people at the time of the Early Holocene transition. His research, which draws on artifacts recovered from underwater excavations in the Aucilla River, Florida, presents a new view of Amerindian cultural adaptations at that time.

Ms. Kimura is working in southern Ethiopia where she is gathering data on the political organization of Konso. Her doctoral research questions previous models which suggest increases in population density lead to intensification of agriculture, control of labor and warfare over land, and increasing stratification.

Mr. Walz, who is in the field in northeastern Tanzania, is collecting multidisciplinary data on the impact of the hinterland region on the development of coastal polities and regional economies and the emergence of Swahili identity during the period AD 750-1888.