The Nelson County Historical Society will hold its annual organizational meeting on Sunday, March 15 from 2-4 p.m. at the Nelson Center in Lovingston, featuring a program on Archaeological Explorations at Cabellsville by Randy Lichtenberger and Jessica Gantzert.

Cabellsville is the historical name of the first Amherst County court house village founded in 1761.  This site, which was the thriving center of county government for nearly 50 years, is now located on a small farm in southern Nelson County, now called Colleen.  There are no extant structures of the court house period, but for many years the owners of the site have encountered large numbers of handmade bricks and artifacts of the village period during gardening and other earthmoving activities.  This talk will discuss the results of a two-year archaeological survey directed by Mr. Lichtenberger and excavations at the jailhouse site directed by Ms. Gantzert for her masters thesis. 

The brief organizational meeting will include a review of the Society’s accomplishments over the past year, plans for new exhibits and programs at Oakland Museum, and election of officers and new board members. That will be followed by the archaeological program.

Randy Lichtenberger:  Virginia Department of Transportation Regional Archaeologist and Hurt & Proffitt Director of Cultural Resources: Mr. Lichtenberger completed a Master’s degree in anthropology from The College of William and Mary with a specialization in historical archaeology. He leads the Archaeological management team at Hurt & Proffitt. He is also a regional archaeologist in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Archaeological program. In that role, he has been responsible for planning and conducting CRM investigations, directing and reviewing the work of CRM consultants, and coordinating state and federal regulatory approval for transportation projects involving complex Archaeological issues. During his 30-year career as a professional archaeologist, he has directed CRM investigations for a wide array of clients throughout the Eastern United States. He has also acquired extensive experience in public archaeology with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Corporation for Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. He currently serves as chairman of the ethics committee of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists and is the past President of the Virginia Archaeology Charitable Trust.

Jessica Gantzert holds a Master’s degree in Applied Anthropology with a focus on cultural resource management. Her thesis focused on locating the jailhouse (or, ‘Goal’) archaeology site at Cabellsville and analyzing the day books of Amherst County to better understand how the jail was utilized in Colonial Virginia. She has 14 years of experience with Hurt & Proffitt and has served as Laboratory Director for six years. In that role she has been responsible for curating multiple high-volume artifact collections to Virginia DHR standards, instructing and overseeing student lab technicians in archaeological protocol, and producing written reports for clients on services provided. She also serves as a conservator working on single-material historic objects, stabilizing and preserving them for storage and future display. Ms. Gantzert is currently a member of the ethics committee of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists, the President of the Virginia Archaeological Charitable Trust, and a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists.