July 2008, Archeology E-Gram

New “Visit Archeology” Web Feature
The NPS Archeology Program has launched new “Visit Archeology” web pages
featuring Ohio. There are lists of sites and museums to visit in northern
Ohio, southern Ohio, and along the I-70 corridor, and a timeline that takes
the visitor from the Paleoindian through the Industrial eras. Be sure to
explore the map! To visit the web pages go to
www.nps.gov/archeology/visit/ohio/index.htm  or via the mound thumbnail on
the “Visit Archeology” main page at  www.nps.gov/archeology/visit/index.htm
.

Archeology on NPR
National Public Radio featured archeology in two programs aired during
July. “Summer Getaways: National Park Service” visited Fredericksburg &
Spotsylvania National Military Park and talked to rangers about looting at
Civil War battlefields. The interview brought the continuing threat of
looting of archeological sites to listeners’ attention. In a recent
incident, looters dug 467 holes in earthworks at the park. Items discovered
during looting are often sold on the Internet or at collectors’ shows. On
NPS lands, theft of cultural and natural resources, such as protected
cacti, ginseng, petroglyphs, petrified wood, and artifacts, from national
parks has more than doubled in the last six years, robbing all Americans.
“Summer Getaways: National Park Service” covers parks all over the country
in a dozen pieces, ranging from a visit to the smallest unit in the system
(Thaddeus Kosciuszko NM in Philadelphia) to a story of ‘lost love’ at White
Sands NM to a composer whose theme is Zion NP. To hear individual stories,
go to www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91890528

NPR host Diane Rehm interviewed Julia King, Associate Professor of
Anthropology, St. Mary’s College; Philip Levy, Associate Professor of
History, University of South Florida; and David Muraca, Director of
Archaeology, George Washington Foundation, about recent archeological
investigations that identified George Washington’s boyhood home at Ferry
Farm, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Although the location of the
Washington farm was never in question, five residences were on the
property. After excavations and analysis of almost half a million
artifacts, Muraca and colleagues identified the house that dates to the
time of Washington’s boyhood and is most likely his residence. The research
project provides information about Washington’s family and about social
relations in general during the slave-holding era in U.S. history. These
excavations, as well as recent excavation at the President’s House site in
Independence NHP in Philadelphia, where Washington lived during his terms
as President, show that masters and enslaved often lived and worked side by
side, and that slave-holding households may have had other servants who
were not slaves. To hear the interview, go to
wamu.org/programs/dr/08/07/22.php#21821.

CESU Network Available for Cultural Resources Projects
The Cooperative Ecosystems Study Unit (CESU) national network provides a
way for Federal agencies, universities, and NGOs to partner on projects.
Many natural resource projects have been successfully accomplished through
the CESU network, and there are increasing numbers of cultural resource
projects, including archeological field schools, ethnographic studies,
administrative histories, and preservation projects, conducted through the
CESU network. CESU is not a substitute for Federal contracting, however, as
the partners must have substantial involvement in the project. There are 17
units in the network. Many Federal agencies are members of more than one
unit, and any member can create partnerships with any other. To learn more
about the CESU national network, go to www.cesu.psu.edu/.

NPS Training for Afghan Cultural Resources Managers in Department of State
Journal
An article in the July issue of eJournal USA discussed the joint
NPS-Department of State effort to provide training in cultural resources
management for Afghan specialists during an eight week visit to U.S.
national parks. Archeologists in the NPS Archeology Program, Washington
Office, and officers in the Cultural Heritage Center organized training for
three Afghan cultural heritage officials in 2007 to learn how the NPS
carries out archeological resources preservation, management, and public
education. The article also reviews NPS efforts to preserve park
archeological resources, and make them accessible to the public.

eJournal USA is a monthly electronic journal sponsored by the U.S.
Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs. Each
volume examines major issues facing the United States and the international
community, as well as U.S. society, values, thoughts, and institutions. The
July volume is devoted to the U.S. National Park System.

To read the online eJournal USA, go to
www.america.gov/media/pdf/ejs/0708.pdf#popup
For more information about the Afghan training, go to the April 2007
Archeology E-Gram.

NPS Announces Battlefield Preservation Grants for 2008
The NPS announced the award of 32 grants totaling $1,367,144 to preserve
and protect America’s significant battlefield lands. Awards were given to
projects in 24 states or territories entailing archeology, mapping,
cultural resource survey work, documentation, planning, education, and
interpretation.
Through an increase in funding, the 2008 grant program is able to support a
dozen more projects than in 2007.

Winning projects include underwater archeology at the Revolutionary War
Battle of Valcour Island, Vermont; documentation of the Revolutionary War
battlefield of Snow's Island, South Carolina; an archeological assessment
of the War of 1812 River Raisin Battlefield, Michigan; a survey of
Montana’s Indian battlefields; two mapping projects that will determine
precise boundaries for more than 40 Civil War battlefields in 13 states; a
preservation plan for the Tebbs Bend Civil War Battlefield, Kentucky;
mapping the World War II Battle of Midway in the South Pacific; and a
cultural landscape survey of the World War II Kiska Battlefield, Alaska.

The grants are administered by the NPS American Battlefield Protection
Program, which promotes the preservation of significant historic
battlefields associated with wars on American soil. More information about
the American Battlefield Protection Program is available at
www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp.

SVBF Preserves Battlefield Land in Cedar Creek & Belle Grove NHP
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF) announced that it has
preserved more than 189 acres of battleground where Confederates assaulted
Federal troops in the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. As the site of the
encampments and line of battle for the Union 8th Army Corps, the newly
protected property contains archeological remains reflecting some of the
most dramatic fighting of the battle.


The parcel lies in Warren County, Virginia, in Cedar Creek and Belle Grove
NHP and links previously protected areas within the park boundary. In the
northern part of the park the NPS, the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, and Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation own and manage 696
acres. To the southeast, the SVBF has already protected more than 303
acres. The new acquisition begins to consolidate disparate areas of the
park.



Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National
Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page,
Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of
Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester. The District’s
legislation authorizes Federal funding for the protection of ten Civil War
battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley and for the coordination of
interpretation and promotion of the valley’s Civil War history.



To learn more about Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park,
go to www.nps.gov/cebe.

New World Heritage Sites Inscribed
The World Heritage Committee, meeting for its 32nd session in Québec,
Canada, on 2 - 10 July 2008, inscribed twenty-seven new sites on UNESCO's
World Heritage List. Of the 19 cultural and 8 natural sites inscribed,
there are several archeological properties, including the following:

Al-Hijr (Madâin Sâlih) is the first World Heritage property to be inscribed
in Saudi Arabia. It features well-preserved monumental tombs with decorated
facades dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD.

Chief Roi Mata’s Domain is the first site to be inscribed in Vanuatu. The
complex of early 17th-century sites reflect the convergence between oral
tradition and archeology and bears witness to the persistence of the last
paramount chief’s social reforms and conflict resolution, still relevant to
the people of the region.

Kuk Early Agricultural Site is in the southern highlands of Papua New
Guinea. Archeology reveals that the landscape is the result of wetland
reclamation worked almost continuously for 7,000 and possibly for 10,000
years. Well-preserved archeological remains demonstrate the technological
leap which transformed plant exploitation to agriculture around 6,500 years
ago.

The Committee also approved extensions for four sites, including Altamira
Cave. Seventeen decorated Paleolithic caves were inscribed as an extension
to the Altamira Cave, inscribed in 1985. The property will now appear on
the List as Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain.

For the full list and descriptions go to
http://whc.unesco.org/en/newproperties/.


Projects in Parks: Projects in Parks is taking a break and will be back in
August.

Archeology E-Gram, distributed via e-mail on a regular basis, includes
announcements about news, new publications, training opportunities,
national and regional meetings, and other important goings-on related to
public archeology in the National Park Service and other public agencies.
Recipients are encouraged to forward Archeology E-Grams to colleagues and
relevant mailing lists.  The Archeology E-Gram is available on the News and
Links page www.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm on the Archeology Program
web site.

Projects in Parks is a feature of the Archeology E-Gram that informs others
about archeology-related projects in national parks.  Prospective authors
should review information about submitting photographs on the Projects in
Parks webpage on InsideNPS.  The full reports are available on the Projects
in Parks web page inside.nps.gov/waso/custommenu.cfm?lv=3&prg=279&id=3670
on InsideNPS or through individual issues of the Archeology E-Gram on the
on the News and Links page http://www.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm on
the Archeology Program web site.

Contact: [log in to unmask]  to contribute news items, stories for “Projects in
Parks,” and to subscribe.