UNO Anthropology

Jody Billiot is not your average student. A U.S. Army veteran, he is also a member of the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe Council who is collaborating with fellow Pointe-Au-Chien members in updating the tribe’s oral history. As an Anthropology student, Jody has applied his growing knowledge of experimental archaeology to recreate technologies, housing, and material culture used by his ancestors and has engaged the tribe’s youth in experiential learning activities like the construction of a palmetto house, the Tribe’s historic housing style that relied on local materials and communal labor to build thatched roof and lime plastered mud walled residences for members. On Saturday, March 14, UNO faculty from the Division of Social Inquiry, Max Krochmal (History) and Roberto E. Barrios (Anthropology), drove to Terrebonne Parish to share their knowledge of oral history and ethnographic interviews in support of the Tribe’s efforts to document its history and represent itself to Federal and State Governments and the world at large. The workshop featured a lively conversation and exchange of ideas and experiences between UNO Facuilty and Tribal members Tribal Chairman Charles Verdin, Second Chairman Donald Dardar, Tribal Treasurer Angele Black, Tribal Attorney Dr. Patty Ferguson, Tribal Public Affairs and Communications Specialist Dr. Georgie Ferguson, Mrs. Theresa Dardar, Ms. Esther Verdin, Councilwoman Christine Verdin, Ms. Morgan Conner, and Councilman Jesse Billiot. At the workshop’s conclusion, Professors Krochmal and Barrios were gifted another product of Jody Billiot’s experimental archaeology: Ceramic bowls fashioned with the traditional Pointe-Au-Chein techniques and crafted with local clay: The first to be produced in more than a century.

Come join us to hear about the archaeology of Notre-Dame Cathedral next Tuesday, January 27th. Information and registration link below!

Hello everyone! This is Ryan Gray from UNO Anthropology. We've launched a new "UNO Archaeological Research and Curation" (or UNO ARC) page here, to share news about our projects and our new curation facility in the Earl K. Long Library. I've been working to compile an archive of articles, videos, and photos representing all of our past field schools there. Follow us there for more news about UNO ARC!

New material is going live on our GNO Archaeology website all the time. Check out this exhibit on archaeology at Spanish Fort in New Orleans: https://www.gnoarch.com/exhibits/show/excavations-at-spanish-fort/introduction

Come join us at the Historic New Orleans Collection this Thursday to kick off the 2025 American Anthropological Association meetings in New Orleans: the event is free and open to the public!

CORRECTION: This event will take place THURSDAY, the 20th.

Join us for a powerful, community-rooted conversation on spirit, memory, and resilience in New Orleans, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina. This event is free and open to the public.

🗓️ Taking place during the AAA 2025 Annual Meeting

📍The Historic New Orleans Collection, 410 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. Just a 5-minute walk from the conference hotels!

💺 Free admission | Limited seating | First come, first served

Come early to secure your spot. This is a session you won’t want to miss!

In case you missed it! UNO Anthropology (and the Roman gravestone found in New Orleans) was featured on Louisiana Considered with Bob Pavlovich. Check out the story here:

2,000-year-old headstone found in NOLA backyard; local writer appears on Jeopardy; how the Saints can change their season Today on Louisiana Considered, we learn how a 2,000-year-old headstone went from a museum in Italy to a New Orleans backyard. We also speak with a local writer and editor about his recent appearance on Jeopardy, and dissect the Saints’ disappointing season.

UNO Anthropology student and Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe tribal council member Jody Billiot has had a busy summer! In addition to participating in our field school in archaeology, he worked with support from the UNO Justice Studies program to create a traditional palmetto house in the Pointe-au-Chien community. It is one of many cultural revitalization projects with which he is involved. You can support these efforts and get a great T-shirt too: check out the link below!

Check it out: now has an Instagram page! And not only that, but we've started our summer field school at Duncan Plaza, just across from City Hall! Follow us on IG for info about everything we're doing!

UNO Field School in Urban Archaeology 2025 is now underway! This July, we're excited to begin a series of archaeological excavations at Duncan Plaza, across the street from New Orleans City Hall. A team of students from UNO will be joined by staff and students from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to investigate the rich history of Duncan Plaza and the neighborhood that was once located there. Prior to its redevelopment in the 1950s, the blocks comprising Duncan Plaza were densely developed with homes and businesses, including a portion of the segregated red light district that was the counterpart of the better-known Storyville area. The team was invited by the City to evaluate two areas of Duncan Plaza to better understand what might remain of this culturally and historically significant but little studied part of the city. The dig runs through July 28, 2025. Check back here for regular updates!

UNO Anthropology at the Posters at the Capitol event in Baton Rouge on Monday!

6-9-2025 LaURA @la_undergradresearchassoc morning session Posters at the Capitol is in full swing. @jody_billiot is discussing his work concerning the effigy pipe of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe. D. Ryan Gray, mentor. #unoproud @universityofneworleans

Dillard University will be hosting this important event on May 31st. Look for more information soon about the incredible story of how the remains of these 19 New Orleanians were brought home to be laid to rest.

More than a century later, they return home.

Dillard University will host a memorial and jazz funeral for 19 African Americans whose remains were taken in the late 1800s for racially-biased scientific research in Germany.

Now, we remember them. We honor them. We lay them to rest.

UNO students Jessica Marissa Sanders and Chris Eddy learn Kaqchikel cooking terms and how to prepare handmade tortillas from language professor Ixnal Cuma.

It's Louisiana Archaeology Month! We're heading up to St. John Parish for a Public Archaeology Day with the Whitney Plantation. We'll be doing activities with collections from the previous excavations at the site and demonstrating some of the equipment that archaeologists use in their work. Come join us!