Welcome to
Public Archaeology
Notes Issue # 3
We hope you've taken a look at Public Archaeology Notes Issue #1 and Issue #2. These newsletters contain lots of useful information. Please distribute Public Archaeology Notes to your networks, constituencies, and various communities. Send us interesting news and resources so we can share with everyone! Contact info is at the bottom.
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Why Read This?
Public Archaeology Notes showcases useful information and resources to inspire our public archaeology work and help us strengthen our engagement and communication with our networks and communities. Notes also helps non-archaeologists learn about and participate in our work.
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Dear Readers: Let us know what YOU think. We NEED your feed-back!
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Who Are We?
Public Archaeology Notes is a volunteer, collaborative effort by a consortium of individuals representing the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), the SAA's Public Education Committee (PEC), the PEC's Network of State Coordinators, the SAA's Public Archaeology Interest Group (PAIG), the American Institute of Archaeology (AIA), and others.
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Giovanna Peebles, Public Archaeology Notes Editor
Contact: publicarchaeologynotes@gmail.com
Thank you to our contributors to Issue #3:
Courtney Agenten
Robert Connolly
Amy Johnson
Meredith Anderson Langlitz
Elizabeth Reetz
Rachel Sharkey
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"As of July 1 [2016], all education and outreach activities will need to be 100% externally funded, including all staff and travel time...."
Elizabeth Reetz, Tumbler
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Now's a Good Time for Vigilance, Action, Passion, Relationship-building and Politics
As leaders in the crusade to do archaeology for the public and with the public, our responsibilities as torch-bearers for archaeology and history are more critical than ever in the months, and likely years, ahead. Cuts have already been made to state archaeology education programs, for example, in Iowa. On June 17, 2016, Elizabeth Reetz, Iowa Archaeology's former Director of Education and Outreach, now Director of Strategic Initiatives, posted this frank note on Iowa Archaeology's social media pages:
We've been struggling for a way to share this news, but there just isn't an easy way to say it! There have been budget cuts across the University, and the OSA has lost direct state support for its education and outreach program. As of July 1, all education and outreach activities will need to be 100% externally funded, including all staff and travel time. Iowa's Education and Outreach Program has long been a national model, and we hope to continue to develop and deliver high quality community and classroom programming and educational resources. To do so, we have to be stronger advocates for the importance of what we do in archaeology and education. Heritage matters!
We can anticipate more program and budget cuts across state governments. At the national level, these are volatile times. Individuals and organizations are concerned about cuts to heritage and environmental budgets and harmful changes to laws and regulations that protect our history and lands. In his recent blog, " Public Accountability in Cultural Heritage Studies – Now More Than Ever," Robert Connolly succinctly framed our call-to-arms:
Public or Applied Archaeology will play an increasingly important role in presenting and preserving cultural heritage of the United States in the coming period........With a future certainty that discretionary spending will be increasingly cut, cultural heritage programs that best demonstrate their utility to the public, will stand the best chance of surviving.
We have our work cut out for us. More than ever, we must be vigilant, active, passionate, and political. In his 2008 book, Archaeology as Political Action, Randy McGuire argues that his “experiences have made it clear to me that many of my North American colleagues still believe that what archaeologists do is apolitical, or at best they wish to ignore the troublesome fact that it is not. I argue that we ignore the political nature of archaeology at our own peril.” In an important but little known SAA publication, Teaching Archaeology in the Twentieth Century (2000), Judith Bense, at the forefront of public archaeology in Florida for decades, wrote, “Why are politics important to archaeology?..... The short answer is because archaeology is almost totally dependent on politics, whether we like it or not.” This is more true now than seventeen years ago. |
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Maureen Malloy's December 2016 retirement as the Society for American Archaeology's Manager for Education and Outreach for the last 16 years is an immediately "happening thing" and an enormous loss for public archaeology in the United State and beyond.
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Spotlight: Happening Things in the United States and Canada, from Alabama to Yukon
Maureen Malloy's December 2016 retirement as the Society for American Archaeology's Manager for Education and Outreach is an immediately "happening thing" and an enormous loss for public archaeology in the United State and beyond. For the past sixteen years with the SAA, Maureen's extraordinary work ethic, knowledge, leadership, dedication to, and passion for public archaeology and archaeology education and outreach has inspired many of us to do more, work harder, reach out further. Throughout these years, she's also been unfailingly good-natured, funny, fun, and a delightful human being whom many of us have been privileged to call a colleague and friend. We wish Maureen the very best "retirement" but are quite certain she'll be involved in various public archaeology initiatives in the years ahead. If you want to share a message of thanks, a recollection, or a story about Maureen, please email the Public Archaeology Notes Editor at publicarchaeologynotes@gmail.com.
How many of you work with metal detectorists to locate sites, document sites, or monitor sites? If not now, then think about engaging this important community of history enthusiasts (for the most part) as partners in increasing awareness and appreciation of archaeological heritage. Robert Connolly' recent blog, Public Accountability in Cultural Heritage Studies - Now More Than Ever, puts a spotlight on SAA's recent initiatives to reach out to metal detectorists through our mutual passion for the past. We are spotlighting Robert's blog under " Happenings" since it contains some excellent and useful resources relating to metal detectorists. |
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Spotlight: Education, Curricula, and Lesson Plans
The Society for American Archaeology's November special theme issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice may be of interest to many of you: " Designing and Assessing Public Education Programs in Archaeology." (Unfortunately, it is only currently accessible to SAA members by logging into the SAA website.) Articles include:
Systematizing Public Education in Archaeology (Eleanor M. King)
A Cultural History of Archaeological Education (Carol J. Ellick)
Archaeology Education for Children: Assessing Effective Learning (Jeanne M. Moe)
Excavating the "Who" and "Why" of Participation in a Public Archaeology Project (Stefanie Kowalczyk)
Archaeology Fairs and Community-Based Approaches to Heritage Education (Ben Thomas and Meredith Anderson Langlitz)
Community Heritage and Place-Based Learning at the Linn Site, Idaho (Rebecca A. Sgouros and Matthew A. Stirn)
Creating Collaborative Learning Opportunities for Indigenous Youth with Archaeology-Based Environmental Education (Elizabeth Reetz and William Quackenbush)
Reading Objects: Children Interpreting Material Culture (A. Gwynn Henderson and Linda S. Levstik)
Archaeology and the Common Core: Using Objects and Methodology to Teach Twenty-First-Century Skills in Middle School (Geralyn Ducady, Mariani Lefas-Tetenes, Sarah Sharpe, and Miriam A. W. Rothenberg)
Visitor as Researcher: Making Archaeology More Accessible with Broken and Unprovenienced Objects (Jen Thum and Julia Troche)
HOW-TO: Let's Find a Barn and Put On a Show: Ten Lessons Learned from Designing Public Programs (Beverly A. Chiarulli)
DIGITAL REVIEW: The Serialized Past: Archaeology News Online (Adrián Maldonado)
In spring 2016, Project Archaeology launched their newest educators' guide, Investigating the Puzzle House Pueblo. In this investigation students use geography, history, archaeology, and tree ring data to learn about a Pueblo and the Ancestral Puebloan people who lived in it. This publication incorporates authentic archaeological and historical research paired with oral histories to teach students about the use and importance of the Pueblo in the past and present lives of Hopi people. Fourth grade Santa Fe teacher Rachel Gersh enthusiastically says, “I think Investigating Shelter is the best thing we are doing right now. It’s lending itself so well to language functions, the kids are so engaged and just loving it…And, I think it really sets them up to think like scientists." In Investigating the Puzzle House Pueblo, students discover the past through evidence from an archaeological site in the Mesa Verde region; examine historic photographs, artifacts, and maps of the Puzzle House Pueblo shelter; meet Deloria Dallas, a Hopi Tribal member, through reading a biography and oral histories; “uncover” a real archaeological site, classify artifacts, and infer how the geographic area of the southwest shaped the Pueblo; explore the use of traditional Puebloan architecture today; and engage in a debate on a current civic dilemma involving archaeology and preservation. |
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In Public Archaeology Notes #2, we spotlighted a novel idea from Indiana’s Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. In 2015, DHPA welcomed a new friend, Dr. Henry, Professional Archaeologist . You can check out Dr. Henry on DHPA Facebook page and follow Dr. Henry’s adventures to see what kinds of interesting places he gets to visit. We said that we'd ask Rachel Sharkey at DHPA about the public's reaction to this novel archaeology character. (Indiana Jones he is not!) Rachel reports that:
The public is always curious when you have Dr. Henry out and are taking pictures of him up against buildings or posed at archaeological sites. They will ask us what we are doing, so we explain who Henry is, who we are, and the importance of the object or scene that we are photographing with Henry. He is a real icebreaker, that’s for sure! I think the most fun is had by the people who taking the pictures of Dr. Henry’s adventures. Our summer interns love to take him out, and it’s a fun way to have them explore historic resources. They have to take pictures of Dr. Henry at the resources and then come up with Facebook posts about “his” experience. Once Henry comes out at a site, people’s creativity ramps up and they are more likely to explore an area in more detail, looking for the best “shot” with Dr. Henry. When we first launched Dr. Henry, we had requests from all over the state to have him come visit. While these have slowed down, we still make sure to take him with us on any site visits or other office outings.
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Google's Cultural Institute initiative offers outstanding educational resources for all ages and all levels of learning and research. Or just get in there for FUN! Check out this extraordinary array of virtual collections and museum exhibits, in fact, 1100 of them! As one (1!) example of 1,100, the British Museum has 7 virtual exhibits, 2 "museum views," and 4,668 artifacts on-line. Take a tour of this exhibit, Egypt: Faith After the Pharaohs, and think about how your various networks might very much take advantage of this resource.
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New! Spotlight on International Archaeology Day
Held annually in October, the Archaeology Institute of America's (AIA) International Archaeology Day involves ever more participants since its inception in 2011. AIA's Meredith Anderson Langlitz, AIA Senior Programs Coordinator, writes an informative International Archaeology Day Blog to inspire us with ideas for our own International Archaeology Day events. One obvious idea is to celebrate an anniversary, new exhibit, a partner (or two), a community, or a person on International Archaeology Day, thereby achieving multiple objectives on the same day! While International Archaeology Day is held each year on the third Saturday of October, any day in October is a good day to hold the event. For example, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University wove International Archaeology Day 2016 into its 150th anniversary celebration on October 8, 2016. Over 1,500 visitors enjoyed "free admission all day, and an afternoon of hands-on activities, live music and birthday cake.....[and] free admission to the connected Harvard Museum of Natural History." Visitors examined materials that normally reside in storage, "such as the ....the bear claw necklace collected by Lewis & Clark.....Nearly 300 visitors checked out the Zooarchaeology Laboratory to touch and identify animal bones."
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Spotlight: Community Archaeology Programs
Don't forget to thank your partners and advocates! Get some student volunteers to make "thank you" notes, find $50 for stamps from a donor, friends, or family, and send those thank yous out! Or, do what Washington D.C.'s Archaeology in the Community (AITC) organization does: invite your friends, partners, and advocates to PARTY!!.
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Archaeology in the Community (AITC) goes all out with their community appreciation by inviting their friends and allies to cocktails and free food!
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New! Spotlight: Museums and Community Engagement
Positioning Your Museum as a Critical Community Asset: A Practical Guide is a must-read guide for small and medium-sized cultural heritage venues with a limited - - or even no - - full-time staff. Edited by Robert Connolly and Elizabeth Bollwerk, their book is an instruction manual for co-creation between museums and their communities and a “ 'how to guide' for museums to integrate themselves into their communities." The book includes twenty diverse case studies organized by different themes that relate to how a museum engages with the community they serve. The case study authors strive to complete their projects for $1,500 or less. The publication includes a FREE, on-line Resource Guide containing extensive lists of resources with digital links to forms, workbooks, and guides produced in the twenty case studies.
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Spotlight: Free Non-technical On-Line Publications
Even if you are not affiliated with an academic program, academia.edu has a treasure trove of free publications by thousands of professionals. Just register and login. For example, Elizabeth Reetz at Iowa Archaeology posted her October 2015 PowerPoint presentation at the Midwest Archaeological Conference on academia.edu: Effectively Communicating Archaeology to the Public In Three Minutes or Less. Read this if you are still perfecting your "elevator pitch." You may also find some of Robert Connolly's academia.edu articles on co-creation relevant to your work. Find some of your favorite archaeologists, poke around and you'll find lots of great free reading.
The Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology’s (DHPA) most requested archaeology outreach document, Early Peoples of Indiana, has been revised and updated by Indiana State Archaeologist Amy Johnson and retired State Archaeologist Dr. James R. Jones III. The 2016 edition is available as a FREE download on the DHPA website. Visitors to the DHPA may also pick up printed copies of the volume. This publications helps DHPA address its legal mandate to educate the public and at the same time meets several preservation goals. |
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Spotlight: Facebook Pages
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We're pleased to report that the Society for American Archaeology PEC (Public Education Committee) Network of State Coordinators Facebook page currently has 1099 "follows" (individual followers). Organizational cross-posts are very useful in bringing in new followers. Our August 11, 2016, post requesting comments on the SAA's Task Force on Professional Archaeologists, Avocational Archaeologists, and Artifact Collectors' draft Statement went viral - - with 2,788 people reached. (SIDE NOTE on SAA's Task Force on Professional Archaeologists, Avocational Archaeologists, and Artifact Collectors: the Task Force's final report, based on extraordinary feed-back from 249 respondents responding to the Task Force request for comments, was submitted to the SAA Board in September 2016 and will be deliberated on by the Board in April 2017 at the annual meeting in Vancouver.) We'll talk more about the important work of this Task Force in future issues of Public Archaeology Notes.
The Alabama Archaeological Society's Facebook page is noteworthy since it's well maintained, with frequent, often daily postings; it serves up a nice variety of content, from spotlights on people to local archaeology stories, to international news about some interesting archaeological discovery; and each post includes a photo or illustration.
Keep an eye out on the CODA Center for Digital Archaeology Facebook page to learn about on-line training opportunities and ideas that you can translate into your own work.
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Spotlight: Who's Blogging and What Are They Blogging About?
The Ancient Southwest Texas Project-Texas State University shows how a blog can help project members stay connected to an on-going project. The blog showcases both project participants and discoveries. One key ingredient, however, to a successful blog is to keep it current to ensure on-going community engagement.
In his recent blog, Adopting Archaeology, Doug Rocks-Macqueen summarizes a very useful session that "critically examine[s] the sustainability and impact of community-led archaeological stewardship," held during the United Kingdom's Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIFA) 2016 annual conference. CIFA provides an invaluable service by video-taping each session, something to which ALL conference sponsors everywhere should aspire. Doug's blog offers an abstract for each session and, best yet, weaves the session's four informative YouTube videos into his blog. : Archaeology Scotland’s adopt-a-monument scheme – twenty-something years of community led stewardship; Creating an archaeological community – the Greater Manchester legacy; A Friends’ Group: Impact on participants and sustainability; Enriching the list: crowd-sourcing, public engagement and protected heritage; and Stewarding Scotland’s coastal heritage at risk. Check out these videos below at Spotlight: YouTube, VIMEO and Other Videos.
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Spotlight: YouTube, VIMEO, and Other Videos
On November 28, 2016, the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA) hosted an important and relevant webinar, " The CRM Industry in the Age of Trump." Nearly 2,000 people registered for the webinar, nearly taking down their website!! ACRA has, thus, generously posted the 30 minute webinar for FREE viewing on VIMEO. Everyone should take 1/2 hour to watch this. As a public archaeologist colleague recently remarked, " One of the action items emphasized by [presenter] Marion Werkheiser is the need for archaeologists and preservation professionals in every state to build relationships with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle." See what we wrote at the top of Notes regarding this being a good time for vigilance, action, passion, relationship-building, and politics.
The United Kingdom's Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIFA) 2016 annual conference provides an invaluable service by video-taping each session, something to which ALL conference sponsors everywhere should aspire. Doug Rocks-Macqueen's recent " Adopting Archaeology" blog offers an abstract for each session and, best yet, weaves the session's four informative YouTube videos into his blog: Archaeology Scotland’s adopt-a-monument scheme – twenty-something years of community led stewardship; Creating an archaeological community – the Greater Manchester legacy; A Friends’ Group: Impact on participants and sustainability; Enriching the list: crowd-sourcing, public engagement and protected heritage; and Stewarding Scotland’s coastal heritage at risk. Check out these videos for great ideas.
To celebrate 50 years of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), four major historic preservation partners (SAA, SHA, ROPA and ACRA - - look them up!) created the Preservation 50 initiative with a variety of interesting projects to showcase the extraordinary preservation successes of the NHPA. One project was Making Archaeology Public (MAPP) in which states create videos to celebrate one of their archaeology preservation and partnership success stories. Fourteen (14) states have posted videos so far and are available for free downloading on VIMEO (it's not all about YouTube!). They are marvelous education and outreach resources.The MAPP website also includes a whole array of K-12 educational resources.
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NEW! SPOTLIGHT: NEW MEDIA
The Archaeology Podcast Network offers lots of interesting listening for archaeologists, avocational archaeologists, educators, students, and anyone else who wants to learn more about archaeology. The Network serves up digital audio files on a variety of archaeology topics: imbed one into a PowerPoint, use as a creative learning tool, listen to during "career days," and take advantage of this resource. |
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Spotlight: Instagram
Instagram is a powerful social medium owned by Facebook. Did you know that from the Instagram app in your Iphone (or Android) you can (1) choose a photo, (2) write a caption, (3) link it to Facebook, and/or Twitter, and/or Tumblr, and/or Flickr, and then (4) simultaneously post to all four media? But it's also quick and easy enough to copy and paste the same content and upload photos (separately) into your desired social media sites. You may have a different message for different audiences and, in that case, you will want to customize your posts. Play around and look at various archaeology, heritage, museum, and library social media (i.e. Instagram-Facebook-Twitter-Tumblr) pages for inspiration how these media can be strategically linked. Don't forget to use hashtags (#) to tag key words to link a theme or topic, ie. #museums, or #archaeology or make up your own to link topics. |
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Spotlight: Twitter
The Center for American ArchaeologyTwitter feed (@CAAKampsville) shoots out 140 word information bites and links to relevant news, stories, and articles to friends, visitors, educators, students, interns, and many other archaeology enthusiasts. Twitter expands CAA's communication toolkit, that together with their Facebook page, helps them stay in touch with their many publics.
The Illinois State Archaeologist office maintains an up-to-date Twitter feed (@ILStateArch) with lots of cool postings about events, publications, videos, links to interesting and relevant news stories, and lots more to stay in touch with their 1059 "followers."
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Spotlight: Tumblr
We love the brilliant way that the Smithsonian Libraries' Transcription Center worked across social media, with their Tumblr page as a focal point, to recruit volunteers (only between November 28 through December 9, 2016) to transcribe some of William Henry Holmes' unpublished field notes and scrapbooks:
All this week we’ve been celebrating the #ManyHatsofHolmes with Smithsonian Libraries (@smithsonianlibraries), Smithsonian Transcription Center (@smithsoniantranscriptioncenter), Smithsonian Institution Archives, and The Field Book Project. This celebration includes a challenge to help transcribe his “Random Records” to make them more accessible for research. Help us transcribe these journals, and learn more about Holmes on Smithsonian Libraries’ blog!
It's a terrific model for engaging the public across social media! There's no doubt that an initiative like this is a vast amount of work for a number of people. The biggest lesson in this story is the Smithsonian Libraries' Transcription Center's use of social media to engage a lot of people in their work and Center. |
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Spotlight: Websites to Inspire us
Indiana’s Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA) is proud of its new web page that informs us about Indiana's prehistoric mounds and earthworks. A grant of $180,454 from the Preserve America program helped fund the unique “Inventory and Promotion of Indiana’s Prehistoric Mounds and Earthworks” project, proposed by DHPA and several key archaeology partners in 2008 and completed recently. The project produced a comprehensive inventory of Indiana’s prehistoric mounds and earthworks, a narrative report of findings, and the educational web page about these fragile cultural resources. The DHPA thanks its partners who were responsible for the statewide research: University of Notre Dame; Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; Ball State University; and Gray & Pape, Inc. Don Cochran and Beth McCord of Gray & Pape, Inc. are especially recognized as Principal Investigators.
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Public Archaeology Notes Archives
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Contact Us:
As you can see, if you send interesting content, there's a pretty high chance we'll include it in the next issue! All contributions for future issues are welcome.
Please contact Public Archaeology Notes Editor Giovanna Peebles with contributions, comments, and questions:
publicarchaeologynotes@gmail.com
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