March 2009 Archeology E-Gram

Grand Canyon NPs Hosts Archeology Day
On Saturday, March 28, 2009, Grand Canyon National Park hosted Archeology
Day as part of Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month. Arizona
Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month was created 26 years ago by the
Arizona SHPO and the Governor’s Ad Hoc Archeology Advisory Group (now the
Governor’s Archeology Advisory Commission) to inform the public about
archeology in Arizona. In Grand Canyon NP alone, over 4,300 archeological
sites have been recorded to date, and archeologists estimate that the park
may have as many as 50,000 – 60,000 sites. Some of the artifacts found in
the park date back almost 12,000 years, testimony to the human history of
the area. That human history lives on as descendents of these ancient
peoples continue to utilize the area today.

Archeology Day, much like Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month,
gives park visitors the opportunity to learn more about the people who
lived here long ago and to gain a greater understanding of the work that
archeologists do and what can be learned from their research. The event
included two special speakers: Allyson Mathis, park Science and Education
Outreach Coordinator; and Ian Hough, park Archeologist.

Railroad Pays Penalty in ARPA Case
While undertaking flood mitigation repair work on a railway line adjacent
to Effigy Mounds NM, Iowa, in 2007, employees of the Iowa, Chicago, and
Eastern (IC&E) Railroad deposited rock and soil inside the external
boundary of the park. An area of approximately 912 square feet was
affected, all of which was part of a known prehistoric and historic
archaeological site. As a result of an investigation by NPS staff, it was
determined that the strict liability civil penalty provisions of the
Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA) offered the most effective
legal and resource damage mitigation remedy. Informal discussions between
NPS and IC&E staff produced an agreement in which the IC&E agreed to remove
the deposited materials from NPS lands under NPS supervision and, in
exchange, the NPS agreed to reduce the civil penalty to $19,809.50, which
was equal to the government’s restoration and repair costs. The agreed-upon
mitigation work was completed in November 2008, and the civil penalty
payment was received by the park in February 2009.
(submitted by Bob Palmer)

SHA's Cotter Award for NCPTT Grant Research
Christopher Fennell, University of Illinois, was awarded the Society for
Historical Archaeology’s (SHA) 2009 John L. Cotter Award at the annual
meeting in Toronto, Ontario, January 7-11. Named for a former NPS
archeologist, and SHA’s first president, the Cotter Award recognizes
significant contributions to the discipline of historical archeology.
Fennel serves as a Co-Principal Investigator with Paul Shackel, University
of Maryland, and Terry Martin, Illinois State Museum, for the New
Philadelphia Archaeological Project, which received funding assistance from
the NPS National Center for Preservation Technology and Training Center, as
well as other sources. His role in conducting the multi-disciplinary
research program was an important factor contributing to Fennell’s
nomination for this recognition.
(submitted by Vergil Noble)


Archeological Sites Lost as Erosion Doubles along Part of Alaska’s Coast
A USGS-led study reveals that coastal erosion has more than doubled along a
40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea in Alaska - up to 45 feet per year - in
a 5-year period between 2002 and 2007. The average annual erosion rates
along this part of the Beaufort Sea climbed from historical levels of about
20 feet per year between the mid-1950s and late-1970s to a rate of 45 feet
per year between 2002 and 2007. Another recent study along the same stretch
of the Beaufort Sea verified "disappearing" cultural and historical sites,
including Esook, a turn-of-the-century trading post, and Kolovik
(Qalluvik), an abandoned Inupiaq village site that may soon be lost. The
authors speculate that recent trends toward warming sea-surface
temperatures related to global warming and rising sea-level act to weaken
permafrost-dominated coastlines by more quickly thawing ice-rich coastal
bluffs and may explain the disproportionate increase in erosion along
ice-rich coastal bluffs relative to ice-poor coastal bluffs.

To read the USGS study, go to Increase in the rate and uniformity of
coastline erosion in arctic Alaska in the journal Geophysical Research
Letters, at www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0903/2008GL036205/
To read more about erosion and the loss of archeological sites, go to
Modern erosion rates and loss of coastal features and sites, Beaufort Sea
coast, Alaska in the December 2008 issue of Arctic.

Book about Pipes at Fort Union NHS
J. Byron Sudbury has published Politics of the Fur Trade: Clay Tobacco
Pipes at the Fort Union Trading Post (32WI17). Fort Union Trading Post was
the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri from 1828 to
1867. At this post, the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet,
Hidatsa, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and other furs for goods
such as beads, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and pipes.
Archeological excavations at Fort Union NHS have resulted in a significant
collection of 19th century pipes. Analysis of the pipes and origins has
contributed important information about manufacturing and transportation in
the expansion of the U.S. Sudbury’s book provides an overview of research
on the pipes found at Fort Union and, with 108 photographic plates, will be
a useful reference for pipe identification.

Research about Fort Union pipes was featured in the June 2008 Archeology
E-Gram. Read the report Politics of the Fur Trade: Clay Tobacco Pipes at
Fort Union, North Dakota at
www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/fortUnion.htm
To learn more about Fort Union NHS, go to www.nps.gov/fous/
To order the book, go to www.claypipes.com

ICE and CBP return pre-Columbian Artifacts to Peruvian Government
Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) returned to the Peruvian government 334
pre-Columbian artifacts that were seized in 2007 following an ICE-led
investigation. The investigation began when ICE agents in Laredo received
information from ICE's National Cyber Crimes Center about the alleged
illegal sale in the Laredo area of Peruvian artifacts by Jorge  Ernesto
Lanas-Ugaz.

On March 1, 2007, a CBP officer at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport
referred Lanas-Ugaz, who had just arrived from Lima, Peru, for a secondary
examination. After confiscating five items, the CBP contacted ICE, which
had the artifacts evaluated by archeologists from the American Museum of
Natural History. Museum archaeologists confirmed that the items are
authentic pre-Columbian and have significant cultural value.

Four days later, ICE, CBP and Laredo Police Department officers executed a
federal search warrant at Lanas-Ugaz's home in Laredo. They discovered many
additional authentic artifacts, which included textiles, ceramic figures,
wood sculptures, and metal and stone art. All the items had been illegally
exported from Peru into the United States. Lanas-Ugaz was arrested at his
home without incident. All the seized artifacts were further examined and
authenticated by research scientists from the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of Natural History, Latin American Archaeology Program.

This is one of the largest seizures of Peruvian pre-Columbian artifacts
into the south Texas area. Peru is one of the signatories to a 1970 General
Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
Through the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, the United
States entered into a cultural property agreement with the Peruvian
government to help protect archaeological and ethnological materials
through import controls.

To read the entire article, go to www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090211laredo.htm

HUD Develops Section 106 Agreements Database
The HUD office of Environment and Energy has posted a NHPA Section 106
agreement on its public website. The database is a collection of
HUD-related Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) and Programmatic Agreements (PA)
from across the country, mostly from 2001 to present. The main purpose of
this database is to provide users with a way to find agreements that may
serve as models or samples for current projects that require a MOA or PA
for compliance purposes. The intent is to facilitate the drafting of new
Section 106 agreements. Users can also search the database and obtain a
copy of an MOA or PA currently in effect for their records. The database
will be updated as new MOAs and PAs are submitted.

To view the database, go to
www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/environment/section106/index.cfm

Projects in Parks: Archeological Investigations at Ulysses S. Grant NHS
Archeological investigations at Ulysses S. Grant NHS have recovered
artifact assemblages that help to understand the organization of labor at
White Haven, Grant’s wife’s family farm. Excavations in the one significant
stone building on the property suggest that it was the summer kitchen. The
buttons, pins, thimbles, and hooks and eyes that were recovered indicate
that laundry was mended as well. While it is unknown whether enslaved
African Americans actually lived in the building, the artifacts recovered
indicate that a number of domestic activities took place, including cooking
for personal consumption, childcare, and personal hygiene.

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.

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