As part of a new research program, my colleagues and I have recently completed a
n historical review and analysis of
archaeological approaches to significance evaluation in the United States.  Beca
use of the large amount of literature
on this subject and the necessarily selective nature of our review, it is clear
that we have only scratched the surface.
As a result, we are very interested in locating discussions of significance that
 may be lurking in the grey literature,
<and> that have been published outside of the U.S..  With respect to the latter,
 we are particularly interested in the
methods and criteria used outside North America to evaluate the "importance" or
"value" sites (in the broadest sense
of these terms).  Any help in this effort will be very much appreciated.
 
In turn, we have a limited number of hard copy publications of our most recent w
ork that we can make available (free
of charge) to those interested in receiving a copy.  The volume, by Frederick Br
iuer and Clay Mathers is entitled:
"Trends and Patterns in Cultural Resource Significance: An Historical Perspectiv
e and Annotated Bibliography", and
can be requested at the address below.  The abstract which follows describes bri
efly the content of our report:
 
*This publication offers a broad, analytical review of the literature concerned
with the challenging subject of
evaluating cultural resource significance in the United States.  Our review of s
ignificance includes two main sections:
(a) an Annotated Bibliography (consisting mostly of peer-reviewed literature) an
d (b) an Analysis Section (devoted to
tracing historical trends in archaeological method and theory).  The literature
summarized here is extensive and is
not accessible widely to the archaeological and cultural resource management (CR
M) communities.  After analyzing a
wide range of publications, 21 major themes or concepts were established to char
acterize the breadth of
archaeological views and ideas about significance. A review of each theme was un
dertaken, including both a discussion
and a graphical presentation of trends through time.  Systematic indexing and cr
oss-referencing of publications,
authors, and significance themes have also been carried out to assist users in l
ocating references of special interest.
The concluding section offers some suggestions and insights into the future dire
ction of significance evaluation with
respect to our work unit and within CRM generally. Particular emphasis is placed
 on the opportunities to develop
more holistic management strategies, to make greater use of new approaches and t
echnologies, and to use more
explicit evaluation methods.*
 
Many thanks for your help! (and apologies for cross-posting)
 
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Clay Mathers
National Research Council Fellow
Center for Cultural Site Preservation Technology
CEWES-EN-R
3909 Halls Ferry Road
Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199
 
voice    (601) 634-3791
fax       (601) 634-2835
e-mail   [log in to unmask]
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