Highlands Biological Station

Zahner Lecture 8
2023-08-03 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Halifax) | Highlands Nature Center, 930 Horse Cove Rd., Highlands, NC, 28741, United States
Lecture 8 – Archaeoastronomy in Southwestern North Carolina

Featured Speakers: Jane M. Eastman, Ph.D.; Associate Professor; Anthropology and Sociology Department; Western Carolina University
& Brett Riggs, Ph.D.; Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies; Western Carolina University
Date: Thursday, August 3rd
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by Suzanne & Don Duggan, Julie Farrow, Florence & Tom Holmes, Ruthie & Franko Oliver, Adele & Nick Scielzo, and Margaret Waters.
In ancient Cherokee perspective, the matters of this world, the Above World and the Beneath World intertwine, and Cherokee peoples constructed ritual landscapes to engage the beings and forces of these realms. Recent investigations in the Little Tennessee River Valley have revealed one such landscape that marks astronomical phenomena and bespeaks sophisticated systems for measuring calendrical time and the cycles central to Cherokee life. These patterns indicate complex observational sciences that guided functions of indigenous societies long before European contact.

Zahner Lecture 9
2023-08-10 18:00 - 19:00
Lecture 9 – South Carolina’s Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area

Featured Speaker: Tim Lee; Interpretive Ranger/Naturalist; Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area
Date: Thursday, August 10th
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by Martha & Michael Dupuis, Monte & Palmer Gaillard, and Melanie & Tom Mauldin.
Located in an area along the Blue Ridge Escarpment, the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area provides a habitat for a diversity of biological communities adapted for life along the Blue Ridge Escarpment. With high average rainfall, diverse topography, and miles of streams and rivers many species found there are rare within the state and some are found in few other places in the world.
