dustinalex91:

Said no one ever. 

I’ve said it before, sometimes several times in the span of a few minutes.

I feel like I’ve yammered on about this a lot, but couldn’t find a post. Even if this topic is a repeat, it bears repeating. Here’s the rant.

State laws aside, the primary driver for CRM work is the National Historic Preservation Act. In this act, the ultimate responsibility for CRM compliance isn’t with the CRM firm. It isn’t with the permit holder who hires the CRM firm. It’s with the federal agency that issues the permit.

If it’s the agency’s responsibility to consider the effects of the project on historic properties, then it follows that any public archaeology is also the responsibility of that agency. The communication of the data is a key aspect of the CRM process. This is true at the beginning with stakeholder consultation and it needs to be present at the end of the process as well. Focusing solely on getting SHPO concurrence so that the project can proceed fails to do this and violates the spirit of the law, if not the actual letter.

This isn’t to say that the agency has to be the clearinghouse of any archaeological work, or that they have to hire a social media expert to engage the public with the results of their archaeology work. Instead, at the very least, the agency should establish the guidelines of how any archaeological work can (or should) be released. 

This could range from merely releasing grey lit to encouraging public events. The internet is full of tools that would allow for engagement. The agency could provide guidelines and minimum requirements for public engagement. Many, if not most, archaeologists would be pleased to do this informally, for no (or little) extra charge.

Many archaeologists do this. If the Day of Archaeology is any indication, archaeologists love blogging about their job. Part of this is because we understand the importance of getting the word out about what we do. Another part is that archaeology is pretty damn cool and we want to share it with others.

Many CRM archaeologists don’t have direct communication with the driving agency. We often work with the permittees, instead. For those that work with agencies, or better yet—for agencies, try to emphasize the need for the follow-up communication. Encourage them to get the archaeology out there for the public.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Be patient. This won’t happen overnight, and probably shouldn’t.
2. Don’t be a jerk. That’ll get you nowhere.
3. Besides the agency and the permittee, the stakeholders will need to be involved. This means that the process for public interaction might vary from project to project.

One other thought about this. Like everybody else, we like to give our impressions about our jobs/projects on the internet. This is clearly based on informal, personal, opinions and should be respected as that. In some archaeology projects, I’ve seen  cases where many (most or all) of the participants are encouraged (required) to blog. There will often be dissenting opinions when this happens. We need to recognize that there can be informal opinions that don’t necessarily toe the official line. We also need to recognize that there is an official line. We need to develop mechanisms for dealing with the multiple perspectives and reconciling these perspectives against our ability to differentiate evidence and opinion. These are universal problems and not restricted to public archaeology. I have no good advice in how to achieve this.

There it is. That’s my rant.

Peace.

There are two essential questions that help me get through my day as an archaeologist.

1. Why is that like that?

Everything around you is the way it is for a reason. If something doesn’t match the expected natural state, then clearly something has happened to it. This change could be natural or cultural, a single event or multiple, but something has happened. What happened?

Some things are obvious. Some can be explained with some thought. Others can’t be explained. Still others can be easily dismissed, but probably shouldn’t be.

Nothing should be dismissed without a reason. But, I don’t have time to delve into the nuances of every little detail of a site, so the second question gives me a reason to dismiss a detail.

2. Is this relevant to my archaeological interpretation? 

Seriously, we’re working on a budget. Don’t waste time figuring out things that have no relevance to your project. Describe it so that it might be useful to others, and then move on.

This is pretty much how it is when visiting a CRM excavation with a few minor differences.

There are very few professors running the show. Those that are there are more accurately called “lecturers” and are working a CRM job to supplement their meager income. The rest of the Principal Investigators are generally MAs who figured out that they really didn’t want to have to teach anybody anything.

Most of the workers are college students or recent graduates. They speak English, unless it happens to be Klingon day, but what they say will be so focused around in-jokes and pop culture references that you won’t understand them anyway.

Because a lot of visitors can disrupt the work being conducted, many larger excavations will have an open house day when they’ll give tours and have more time to explain what’s going on. I recommend contacting one of the archaeologists in charge before swinging by. They’ll let you know when a good time to visit is or if there happens to be a scheduled open house day.

Also, referring to the layers of soil as “contexts” sort of threw me for a loop. I ended up having a brief discussion about it on Twitter the other day and will write up something about it for this blog, but that’s best saved for another post.

noellejt:

Can’t really explain why I felt compelled to write this tonight, but I did, so there it is…

So, let’s say you’re a history buff.

And that museums are cool, and all, but you’re more of an outdoorsy person. You like to see the splendor and size and the reality of sites and you get shivers thinking about standing on a path where others have stood, thousands of years before you – of touching the same wall, of looking through the same window. You probably like to touch things, if they don’t seem too fragile. (You probably have a thing for buildings and architecture, too, but you always hated math too much to take that path in school.)

And let’s say that it happens to be June or July (or maybe even August – these are, after all, Field Season) and you happen to be somewhere really old and really, really interesting (like, say, a World Heritage Site).

And, away from the crowds, off to a back side, there seem to be a rather lot of people. Who are rather spread out all around the place – or maybe, actually, sort of in the place. And these people seem to be doing some sort of – are they digging? Squatting and staring at the ground? Shaking things? Holding long sticks up against rocks and taking pictures of each other? Maybe counting pebbles?

You’ve found yourself at an active archaeological excavation.

If you behave yourself, express interest, and flatter an expert or two – you might get to see some really cool stuff.

Read the rest at Matador Travel: So you wanna visit a dig: How to drop in on an archaeological excavation…

(It goes on to give just enough information to enable people to gate-crash excavations…)

So, other archaeologists out there - did I nail it or not? What would you add?

Archaeologists are hoarders. We don’t mind conducting destructive analyses on artifacts if they’ll provide useful data, but we generally don’t want to throw away anything that could possibly provide data sometime in the future. Instead we try to preserve them as best as possible. We catalog them, label them, package them up, and enter them into an appropriate facility, where they will sit until archaeology’s greatest need.

Curated collections can be, and are, accessed for research projects. They fulfill their role in providing important data long after the initial analysis. If any of you are looking for a thesis project for school, I recommend using an extant collection somewhere. There is plenty of work that needs to be done.

There are a lot of discussions regarding a curation crisis, namely that it takes a lot of space and resources. If you consider how much material we’ve added to repositories over the past 50 years, it’s easy to realize how much material will be added over the next 100 years. It’s a lot.

Where will our hoarding habits lead? As federal agencies are dissolved or reorganized, how will the collections owned by those agencies be treated? If land passes from public ownership into private, what will happen to the related collections (hint: the government entity usually retains ownership)? What happens with collected charcoal samples when they reach 50,000 years in age? When the sun expands to envelope the Earth in 5 billion years, will we save these collections by launching them in to space? What will aliens make of all of these flakes of rock?

I once read that one of the most important elements in a business plan is an exit strategy (can’t remember where, sorry). When building a business, one needs to be aware of how they’ll be able to extract themselves from that business once it fails or they gets bored with it. Maybe archaeologists need something like this. In the same way that we should be considering the end of life for products we purchase, we should consider the end of life for our collections. As much as I enjoy responding “forever” whenever I’m asked what the period of performance for curation services should be, we cannot continue to build and maintain those collections for any great period of time. 

We’re certainly not at the point when we should start tossing stuff out, but we must consider the time when we will and how we will go about doing it.

This sort of thing would be a nice direction for archaeology to take.

It’s the new year! Many of us have, by now, created a list of goals and resolutions that we hope to keep over the rest of the year. Others of us have already made plans for what we’re going to do and what projects we’re going to be involved with. 

Now is a great time to think ahead of what we’re going to be doing in the warmer digging season. Allow me to make a few recommendations.

For those of you who are planning on attending a field school this summer, try to consider what sort of jobs that you’ll want to do afterwards. That field school in Italy is undoubtedly cool and potentially fun. If you’re planning on working in North America, however, you might find that it hinders the job search. This isn’t to say that the field school in Italy isn’t a good idea, just that you’ll have to work a little more to sell the line of reasoning when you apply for a CRM job. 

For those of who you are planning on getting a job in CRM for the summer, I have two pieces of advice. First, take some time to work on your CV. Specifically, think about the types of projects and locations that interest you. The people doing the hiring understand that your primary goal is that you want a job, but enthusiasm counts for a lot. Applicants who sound like they’re not just settling for any old job are more likely to get hired. We have budget and time constraints. Nobody wants to gamble on someone who sounds like they don’t actually want to work on this particular project.

Second, depending on the project, CRM work can be hard work. Most likely, this will be harder than your field school. It usually takes a person one or two field seasons to work up to the pace of a seasoned field worker, but consider hedging your bets and getting into shape before you start. It can be emotionally stressful for everyone when an individual can’t physically keep up with the rest of the crew.

For those of us who run the projects… well honestly, we’re probably still analyzing the results of previous fieldwork. While we write up those results, it’s a great time to consider the successes and failings of what we’ve done. By taking our past performance into account, we can refine our methods to more accurately reflect the nature of the archaeological assemblages that we study, but also the logistical and contractual constraints that shape our projects.

However your previous year went and whatever you’re planning, I hope that during 2012 each and every one of you have to explain the Maya calendar fewer times than we all expect. Happy New Year!

Over at ArchaeoBlog, Dr. Cagle is about to (re?)visit the survey method debates. This should be required reading for any archaeologist who conducts survey, especially should that archaeologist also plan surveys.

That said, the abstract to the 20-year old Lightfoot article summarizes the situation as it stands today. I hope that this changes in the near future, now that geophysical techniques are becoming more common. I doubt that they’ll ever replace shovel testing as the survey method of choice, at least not in the near future. The types of data identified by shovel tests are different than those generally found through geophysical survey. I suspect that at some point in the near future, it might be unthinkable to use only one type of survey when conducting large-scale survey. Instead, by using the two types, the different types of data would complement each other to provide more accurate identification of sites and site boundaries.

This was office today. I’ve used this as my field bag since 1994.

Yesterday, October 22nd, was considered National Archaeology Day. It was largely an affair run by the Archaeology Institute of America, the membership of which isn’t very prevalent amongst my archaeological cohort. At least, not that I’m aware of. There are other supporting groups listed on the AIA website that I am, if not a member, than at least more familiar with. The odd thing is that I never heard about National Archaeology Day through the support group that I’m a member of (SAA), nor could I find any mention (granted after the fact) of the Day on the websites for the SHA and AAA. The only reason I even heard about it was from some low-level rumblings of the event beforehand, but not during nor after.

Did anybody participate in a non-AIA function? Did anybody participate at all? If so, please repost and respond. I’d like to hear what you did.