The University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography will kick off its 2023 Evening @ Skidaway speaker series on Tuesday, Jan. 24, with a program on underwater archaeology. The talk will be the first of 12 Evening @ Skidaway programs to be presented on a monthly basis through December.

The talk by UGA archaeologists Ervan Garrison and Kelly Cronin is titled “Underwater Roadcuts: Windows into Prehistory.”

“Underwater roadcuts are formed by daily seafloor currents that erode deep scour pits around structures found there – such as wrecks and artificial reefs,” Garrison said. “We will discuss our work to find these “roadcuts” on the seafloor off Georgia and to examine them for any evidence – paleontological or archaeological – from when the now-drowned seafloor was a vast coastal plain during the last ice age.”

For the first time since March 2020, the program will be presented to an in-person audience as well as on-line. The in-person program will be presented in the McGowan Library on the UGA Skidaway Marine Science Campus. (10 Ocean Science Circle, Savannah, GA 31411) The evening will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the talk at 7 p.m.

To view the program on-line, visit the UGA Skidaway Institute YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/Skidaway (case sensitive).

The program is open to the general public and free of charge. Space is limited for the in-person presentation. To reserve a seat, please call (912) 598-2325 or email mike.sullivan@skio.uga.edu.