Hi All,
It has been an interesting two days. Friday evening we attended the Jacksonville Symphony performance of Cirque de Symphony. Cirque de Soleil cast members performed acrobatics, magic and juggling sychronized to the symphony orchestra. It was wonderful. No photos during the show but here's the orchestra warming up.
This afternoon we attended a lecture at the University of North Florida about the paleo Indians of Florida. We learned about the extensive, multidisciplinary research involving archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists, climatologists and chemists who have to pool their knowledge to gain insight into the lives of people living 10,000 to 16,000 years ago. We didn't understand it all but were fascinated by what we did grasp.
Next stop was the Mandarin Museum where we saw artifacts from the Maple Leaf, a Civil War Union troop ship wrecked in the St Johns River in April 1864. This model shows details of the 181 foot side wheel steamship.
It was sunk by a Confederate mine (then called a torpedo).
Carl talked to one of the divers that helped salvage the wreck. Hours on the bottom in absolute zero visibility, searching through the mud for artifacts by feel. Astonishingly, in spite of the visibility, they created this detailed site map. The three segments right to left were completed in 1982, 1993 and 1994.
This is just a tiny sample of the items recovered.
The item center left is a domino!
Thank you Evalyn for telling us about the archaeology programs. You have really enriched our time here.
Love,
Sandy & Carl
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
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