December 15, 2004





PUBLIC MEANING OF ARCHEOLOGICAL HERITAGE



“The Public Meaning of Archeological Heritage” conference was held October

27-28 at the University of Maryland Inn & Conference Center in College

Park. Participants in the training explored the public meaning of

archeological heritage from international, national and regional

perspectives. Case studies focused on parks, museums, descendent

communities and local communities. Because of the location of this

training, many of the case studies were specific to the meaning and

interpretation of African American archeological heritage in the middle

Atlantic region.



A description of the four module curriculum, of which this training is

Module I, may be found online at

http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/SITES/inspire/index.htm. Module II – “Archeology

& Interpretation” – consists of two parts, Interpretation for

Archeologists: A Guide to Increasing Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

<http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/ifora/index.htm> and Archeology for

Interpreters: A Guide to Knowledge of the Resource <h

ttp://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/afori/index.htm>, and trains archeologists and

interpreters together in the skills and abilities needed to carry out

effective interpretation of archeological resources.



For further information contact Barbara Little at (202) 354-2130 or

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PUBLIC ARCHEOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES: A TIMELINE



Discover some of the major events in public archeology between 1784-2004 in

this new web feature at <http://www.cr.nps.gov/aad/timeline/timeline.htm>.

This timeline highlights key events throughout those years, including new

legislation, the development of new organizations and public programs,

significant publications, and interesting cases involving the protection

and preservation of sites (both terrestrial and submerged) and collections.





ARCHEOLOGY & ETHNOGRAPHY PROGRAM CHANGES



The Archeology & Ethnography program has undergone several structural

changes in recent months. First, A&E has been restructured into two

independent programs – the Archeology program and the Ethnography program.

Frank McManamon will continue as program manager of the Archeology program,

and also as NPS Chief Archeologist and Departmental Consulting

Archeologist.



Second, the responsibility for overseeing NPS compliance with the Native

American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) has been moved to

the Office of Indian Affairs and American Culture (IAAC) in the

Intermountain region. Park NAGPRA will be supervised by Cyd Martin,

director of IAAC. Mary S. Carroll will continue as Park NAGPRA Program Lead

and will relocate to Denver.



And finally, the Archeology program welcomes Martha Graham and Karen Mudar,

both of whom transferred from the National NAGPRA program to the Archeology

program effective November 15, 2004.





ARCHEOLOGICAL CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE



The NPS Archeology Program was represented at a three-day meeting sponsored

by the National Science Foundation held to discuss development of a

"cyberinfrastructure" for archeological data and information.  A

cyberinfrastructure for archeology will eventually involve common

archeological data standards or "metadata" standards that will enable

researchers and archeologists documenting archeological resources to

provide a common set of markers that will permit the comparison of

archeological data and information among different projects and databases.

The Reports portion of the National Archeological Database (NADB-R) is

recognized as an initial necessary tool for identifying potential

archeological information and data for comparative research and sharing.



More and more archeological data and information are available digitally.

Effective means of accessing information and comparing data sets among

different projects need to be developed and utilized.  Projects already

underway for specific data and information include the Chaco Digital

Initiative (www.chacoarchive.org), led by Steve Plog at the University of

Virginia, and the Digital Archaeological Archive of Chesapeake Slavery

(www.daacs.org), led by Fraser Neiman at Monticello.



These days, public archeology projects create most of the archeological

data and information.  It is important that agency archeologists be aware

of this aspect of archeological research, curation, and data management and

participate in developing solutions to this challenge.