THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF BENNIE CARLTON KEEL TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA ARCHAEOLOGY

Abstract

In October 2008, Bennie Keel retired from the National Park Service after a career in archaeology that spanned five decades. At the beginning of that distinguished career, Bennie worked in North Carolina, where he made lasting contributions to public archaeology and our understanding of the archaeological record, particularly as it relates to Cherokee ancestry and native peoples of the Piedmont region. Moreover, through his fieldwork at sites such as Garden Creek, Coweeta Creek, and Upper Saratown, he helped train dozens of future archaeologists, and the experience he gained from these projects served him well as one of the federal government’s principal advocates for archaeology over the past three decades.