December 2005
New Heritage Tourism Web Pages on Archeology Program Website
The Archeology Program has added four new travel themes to the Visit
Archeology web pages. In addition to a guide to locations, museums, and
parks along the northeast coast that are linked to the 1604-1607 French
explorations described by Samuel de Champlain in his Journals, information
about African American archeology, rock images, urban archeology, and the
archeology of the Chesapeake Tidewater region is now available. Visit
Archeology www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/visit/index.htm includes links to
museums, national parks, state parks, and historical societies that involve
archeology in telling our diverse local and national history. Visitors to
the web pages can use this information to plan trips around specific
archeological topics.
Contact: Barbara Little, [log in to unmask]
Presentation on Chaco Digital Initiative
On November 11, 2005, Dr. Steven Plog, Anthropology Department, University
of Virginia, gave a presentation on the Chaco Digital Initiative to
Archeology Program and CRGIS staff and guests. The Chaco Digital
Initiative is a collaborative effort to create a digital archive that will
integrate much of the widely dispersed archaeological data collected from
Chaco Canyon. Currently, these materials are scattered around the country
at various repository institutions, making it difficult to address, much
less answer, some fundamental research questions. The goal of the project
is to make the research and human history of this national treasure
available through a comprehensive digital research archive that will allow
people to search information such as field notes, images, maps, and tree
ring dates by user specified criteria. Users will also be able to browse
data through a graphical interface. More information about this project is
available at www.chacoarchive.org.
Contact: Frank McManamon, [log in to unmask]
Presentation on Archeological Cyberinfrastructure
On December 7, 2005, Dr. Dean Snow, Anthropology Department, The
Pennsylvania State University, and currently on a fellowship at Dumbarton
Oaks, gave a presentation on archeological cyberinfrastructure to
Archeology Program staff. Cyberinfrastructure is the coordinated aggregate
of technologies and human expertise that integrates relevant and sometimes
disparate resources into a useful framework for research. Snow described
the advancements that The Pennsylvania State University has made in
developing an archeological cyberinfrastructure. Currently, the
Pennsylvania team includes three archeologists and specialists in GIS,
databases, computerized images, and search engines. Snow also provided
examples of databases developed in other contexts that could be modified
for archeologists’ purposes. In his presentation, Snow described some of
the national efforts to develop an archeological cyberinfrastructure,
including a 2004 workshop entitled “The Promise and Challenge of
Archaeological Data Integration,” organized by Keith Kintigh, Arizona
Statue University; and the possibility of the Society for American
Archaeology’s establishing a Cyberinfrastructure Interest Group in the near
future.
Contact: Frank McManamon, [log in to unmask]
Message from Editorial and Production Staff of Archeology E-Gram
This past year the Archeology E-Gram staff posted 12 monthly “issues” and
instituted a regular feature that presents information about projects that
NPS archeologists are carrying out. Several of the Projects in Parks
stories came from PMIS project reports. Two stories developed out of trip
reports submitted by NPS archeologists who carried out archeological
assessments after Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. One Project in Parks
feature was picked up by CRM Journal editors, and a longer discussion of
the Sitka Archeological Survey will be published as a Research Report. Our
readership has grown as well. Currently, the Archeology E-gram is sent to
all NPS archeologists, four list-serves, and a wide range of park
superintendents, cultural resource managers, and federal archeologists. We
have thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone who contributed to the
Archeology E-Gram. The production and editorial staff of the Archeology
E-Gram hope that you have found the newsletter useful, and wish you all the
best for the holidays and the coming year.
Contact: Karen Mudar, [log in to unmask]
Projects in Parks: NPS Archeologist Conducts Archeological Site
Assessments after Hurricane Wilma
On 24 October 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused substantial damage to
archeological resources at four national parks: Everglades National Park,
Big Cypress National Preserve, Dry Tortugas National Park, and Biscayne
National Park. SEAC Archeologist Margo Schwadron conducted hurricane damage
assessments for some of the archeological resources at the four parks,
assessing and updating information on the condition of 31 archeological
sites. She found, fortunately, that most of the sites had suffered minimal
damage. The most severely impacted sites, however, were shell mound sites
in Everglades National Park, which suffered erosion. Also damaged was the
moat around Fort Jefferson, in Dry Tortugas National Park.
NPS employees can learn more about archeological assessments of the damage
caused by Hurricane Wilma by going to the Archeology E-Gram: Projects in
Parks webpage on Inside NPS.
Contact: Margo Schwadron, [log in to unmask]
“Projects in Parks” is a feature of the Archeology E-Gram that serves to
inform others of interesting archeology-related projects in a national
park. To contribute project information, contact Karen Mudar,
[log in to unmask]
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 and new subscribers are accepted. Past issues of
the Archeology E-Gram are available on the Archeology E-Gram webpage,
accessed through the Archeology homepage, on Inside NPS. Contact Karen
Mudar, Archeology Program, NPS, at (202) 354-2103, [log in to unmask] to
contribute news items and to subscribe.
|