L-R: Kenn Banks, Paul Farnsworth, Sheldon John, Jansie Webster, Melissa Meade and Aileen Smith. Missing are Timothy Hodge and Karim Hodge
The Anguilla Archaeological and Historical Society held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 13 July 2017 at the St Gerard’s Conference Centre at Wallblake. The well-attended meeting included reports on past activities, future plans and the election of a new executive. The feature address was given by Paul Farnsworth, a visiting professor who has been carrying out archaeological work on the island.
Two presentations were made by Aileen Smith and Jansie Webster in the absence of President Timothy Hodge. During her presentation Smith called for a moment of silence in memory of longstanding Board member Violet Berry, who died recently.
The Board also presented, for consideration by the membership, revised objectives that it felt were necessary to articulate the new focus of the organisation. Those present accepted these revisions unanimously. A new theme, vision, and mission were also presented for consideration. The theme “Preserving and promoting Anguilla’s Historical, Archaeological and Cultural Heritage” was adopted; however, the approval of the vision and mission was deferred and the Board given the mandate to work with some of the membership to complete the task.
A new Executive was elected to lead the work of the Society. The President is Jansie Webster, Vice President Kenn Banks, Secretary Melissa Meade, Treasurer Aileen Smith, Immediate Past President Timothy Hodge and members Karim Hodge and Sheldon John.
The first four persons will hold office for two years while the others will serve for one. Outgoing President, Timothy Hodge, will continue on the Board as Immediate-Past-President for one year.
Following the business of the AGM, Dr Paul Farnsworth, Professor of Anthropology from Temple University, made a presentation on the preliminary results of an archaeological investigation he and a team of four students from the University were just completing at the Wallblake Estate. He said that while there was some damage to the site in recent years there are still a lot of undisturbed areas. He explained that the earliest artifacts found at the site were from the late 1700s.
Dr Farnsworth first visited Anguilla in 2015 when he attended the 26th International Congress of Caribbean Archaeology which was hosted in St Maarten. The Conference closed with a tour of Anguilla. On that tour he met Dr John Crook, of the University of Vermont, who has done extensive archaeological work in Anguilla going back over twenty-five years. The two have now agreed to collaborate on various projects on Anguilla’s archaeology.
