NPS Archeology Program Website has New Front Page
The NPS Archeology Program website has a new front page promoting
archeology as a way to get moving outside. The America's Great Outdoors and
Let's Move, America! programs encourage outdoor activities. Learn more
about the kinds of outdoor adventures possible through archeology at
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/.

Important Taino Petroglyph Discovered
A Taino Indian petroglyph has been discovered in Virgin Island NP that has
significant implications regarding human occupation and use of Reef Bay and
St. John. Evidence that the petroglyphs were carved by the Taino Indians is
supported by similarity to designs found on pottery at the Cinnamon Bay and
Trunk Bay archaeoarcheology excavations along with correlating radiocarbon
dates. The same design as the recently documented petroglyph was painted on
the oldest dated pottery style in the islands. Saladoid pottery has been
dated between 100 BC and 500 AD. People were coming to the area of the Reef
Bay petroglyphs earlier than was once thought. The petroglyphs were
possibly 2,500 years old.

The finding supports archeological theories about the continuity in use of
ritual places. The carving represents at least 1,500 years of use of a
culturally defines sacred place. It emphasizes the significance that Reef
Bay had to the people who lived here prior to the European colonization of
the islands. The finding also confirms the route of those who came to live
in St. John. This style of carving is found down island in St. Lucia and
even as far as Venezuela. It shows how people travelled and how widely
their cultural beliefs and ties extended throughout the Caribbean, possibly
going back to the fourth century BC.

Additional research on the site is underway. For more information about
Virgin Island NP and the Taino people, go to
http://www.nps.gov/viis/index.htm.

Natchez Trace Parkway repatriates to Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
On February 23, 2011, officials from the Natchez Trace Parkway signed a
major repatriation agreement officially transferring custody of 124 Native
American human remains and over 200 funerary items from the custody of the
NPS to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The agreement represents the largest
repatriation in the history of the Choctaw Nation and the first major
repatriation between the two organizations. The Choctaw Nation has over
200,000 members nationally and is the third largest federally recognized
tribe in the country. The Natchez Trace bisects the traditional Choctaw and
Chickasaw homelands

A signing ceremony was held at tribal headquarters in Durant, Oklahoma.
Superintendent Cam Sholly addressed Chief Gregory Pyle, the tribal council,
members of the NAGPRA Advisory Council, and over 100 members of the tribe.
Twenty-one different tribes were consulted during the repatriation process,
which was funded through the National NAGPRA Program. People deserving
special recognition for completing the agreement include Christina Smith,
Natchez Trace Parkway cultural resources specialist; Margo Schwadron,
NAGPRA Coordinator, NPS Southeast Archeology Center; NAGPRA intern Maranda
Kles; and Ian Thompson, Assistant Director, Historic Preservation, Choctaw
Nation.

Cultural Resources at the George Wright Society Meeting
Cultural resources were on the agenda at the bi-annual George Wright
Society Meeting in New Orleans March 14-18, 2011. Archeologist Brian Fagan
gave the first plenary session talk, “The Long View of Climate Change: What
the Lessons of the Past Teach Us about What We Need to do in the Future.”
The second plenary session featured a panel discussion of Native American
and First Nation representatives entitled “Government-to-Government
Consultations with Native Peoples: From the Rhetoric of Respect to Real
Results.” Ten percent of the sessions and sharing circles (21/217) and
eight percent of the posters (15/197) included cultural resource
presentations. Several sessions, such as Session 79- Vernacular Cultural
Landscapes within Lake Superior Area National Parks and Session 108- a
sharing circle “Integrating Cultural Resources with Wilderness Character”
focused only on cultural resources.

The meeting also hosted the third Native Film Night, which featured the
films of eight Native film makers and started with a reception to honor and
celebrate the presence of Native conference attendees.

For more information about the George Wright Society and the 2011 biannual
conference, go to www.georgewright.org/

NPS Vanishing Treasures Superintendents Honor Toothman
During the Cultural Resources Business Meeting on the last day of the
George Wright Society in March 2011, NPS Superintendents from western parks
honored Stephanie Toothman, NPS Associate Director Cultural Resouces, for
her efforts on behalf of the Vanishing Treasures (VT) Program. Virginia
Salazar-Halfmoon, VT Program Manager, presented Toothman with a handsome
engraved Nambe platter from the Nambe Pueblo and spoke of Toothman’s
efforts to safeguard the future of the program. Toothman was a member of
the VT Board that worked to successfully convert the Vanishing Treasures
initiative to a permanent program by convincing superintendents and
regional directors to support the program. Today, the Vanishing Treasures
Program is one of the most effective cultural resources programs in the
national park system and works with 45 parks in the arid west to protect
and preserve cultural resources.

For more information about the Vanishing Treasures Program, go to
www.nps.gov/archeology/vt/vt.htm.

3-D Film Comes to the NPS!
Almost 150 national parks have significant aquatic resources, from our 40
ocean parks to the springs at Yellowstone, and the NPS has found a new way
to showcase spectacular underwater resources. David Conlin, Chief, and
Brett Seymour, videographer, NPS Submerged Resources Center are developing
three-dimensional (3D), high definition (HD) videos of submerged
archeological and other cultural resources in national parks. NPS employees
at Headquarters and the George Wright Society were invited to put on dark
Roy Oribison glasses and view the work in progress in March 2011.

Endangered elkhorn corals in Virgin Islands NP, healthy reefs off Dry
Tortugas NP; massive shipwrecks near Isle Royale NP, kelp forests of
Channel Islands NP, the USS Arizona, and a submerged B29 Superfortress
aircraft in Lake Mead NRA sprang to life. When combined with the filming
capabilities of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) the results were
breathtaking. ROV images of the interior of the USS Arizona, for example,
showed rooms with desks and sinks still intact, filled with more than two
feet of sediment. The films are so realistic, says Seymour, that children
who viewed the films tried to catch the fish with their hands.

The films being currently produced are ambassadors for the NPS to school
children in order to engage youth in the out of doors. The films shown in
classrooms can be shown on a flat screen TV or projected. The 3D effect
comes from the way that the videos are filmed, not from the way that they
are projected and the cost of making a 3D underwater video is not
significantly more than making a conventional video. A series of films are
planned to showcase the resources of individual parks.

For more information about the NPS Submerged Resources Center, go to
www.nps.gov/applications/submerged/

New State Pages on NPS Website
The NPS has launched a new state-by-state suite of web pages to communicate
the breadth of the Service’s work. The NPS touches almost every county in
the country regardless of its proximity to a national park. Communities
invite the NPS to work with them and to help them by providing expertise
and grants, reviewing tax credit projects, making surplus Federal land
available for parks and recreation facilities, and more.


The goal of the pages is to tell the full story of what the NPS does in 394
parks, and national programs that benefit communities. Many of the programs
have the potential to protect and preserve archeological resources. In
addition to parks, this first phase of the project includes “by the
numbers” statistics for activities of nine additional programs in each
state:  Land and Water Conservation Fund; American Battlefield Protection
Program; Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance; Save America’s
Treasures; Preserve America; Certified Local Governments; Federal Lands to
Parks; National Register of Historic Places; and Historic Rehabilitation
Tax Incentives. More programs will be added in future phases. The pages
include an interactive map that shows national parks, and additional layers
that show national program activities. The list view is another way to
explore the map layers.



Find your state by adding the full state name to www.nps.gov/. For example,
Mississippi’s state page is http://www.nps.gov/mississippi.

Rosie Pepito to Head Grand Canyon-Parashant NM
Rosie Pepito has been selected to be the next superintendent of Grand
Canyon-Parashant NM, located in northwestern Arizona and headquartered in
St. George, Utah. The million-plus acre national monument was established
in 2000 by President Clinton and is jointly managed with the BLM.

Pepito previously served as the cultural resources manager at Lake Mead
NRA. She began her park service career in 1985 as a museum technician in
Yosemite NP and has worked in cultural resource management positions at
Joshua Tree NP and Lake Mead and completed a variety of temporary
assignments at national parks in California, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Crow Canyon Archaeology Center Partners with Mesa Verde NP on Pottery
Analysis
In 2010, Crow Canyon and Mesa Verde NP partnered on a pottery analysis
project to study 11,000 pottery sherds and intact pottery vessels from more
than 100 sites in the park. The artifacts were from collections that had
been catalogued, but not analyzed. Data from the analysis, including
counts, weights, and information about pottery types and vessel forms, will
help researchers develop occupational histories for the sites from which
the pottery was collected. That information, in turn, can be used to
address key questions about changes in population size and settlement
patterns through time that refine understanding of climate change and
demography.

The pottery examined was highly variable, from crude mud ware to highly
decorated black-on-white vessels. Some of the most intriguing were also
among the oldest, such as Basketmaker Mud Ware dating from the Basketmaker
III period (A.D. 500–750). This ware represents the earliest pottery
manufactured in the Mesa Verde region. As its name suggests, it is
characterized by vegetal temper, unpolished and unpainted surfaces, and a
friable texture. Several examples of "fugitive red" were present in the
collections. Fugitive ware refers to a decorative process in which an iron
oxide pigment is applied to the surfaces of vessels after they are fired.

The analysis was part of the larger Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP), a
multi-institutional, multidisciplinary project studying the long-term
interaction between the ancestral Pueblo Indians and their environment.

From story by Jill Blumenthal, Crow Canyon Archeology Center Laboratory
Program Coordinator

Northeastern Native American Stonework Given Recognition in Film
Ted Timreck gave a talk to NPS WASO archeologists in February about Native
American stone ruins in northeastern U.S. “The New Antiquarian” is the
latest film produced by Spofford Films, in Hidden Landscapes, a series that
chronicles new theories about Native American monuments. It tells the story
of a partnership between archeologists, Native American representatives,
and avocational researchers to identify stone monuments and earthworks in
eastern North America. Variously interpreted as proof of Viking exploration
or remnants of colonial settlement, the standing stones, earthworks,
cairns, and dry stone walls are re-interpreted as surviving elements of a
sacred landscape. The merger of scientific, Native, and avocational
research brings a new perspective to one of America’s most perplexing
mysteries.

The video documentation for these projects is an extensive archive that has
been preserving the record of the stone ruins and the field work of
scientists for the last 30 years. As part of the Smithsonian Institution’s
Human Studies Archive, the collection now contains hundreds of hours of
field documentation and interviews with scientists and indigenous peoples
from the North.

For more information, go to http://www.hiddenlandscape.com/

Professor Pleads Guilty in Artifacts Case
On February 25, 2011, Daniel Amick, a professor of archeology at Loyola
University in Chicago, entered a guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of
violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), by
systematically removing archeological resources from Federal lands in New
Mexico. Amick entered his plea under an agreement with the U. S. Attorney’s
Office. The U.S Magistrate Judge ordered him to a one-year probation.

The plea and sentencing was the result of a 2 .5 year BLM investigation
that culminated in the service of a Federal search warrant that led to the
seizure of over 1800 artifacts. Amick admitted to the court that he had
knowingly and willfully removed, transported, and possessed archeological
resources from public lands without a permit for archeological
investigation. Amick had also directed two other conspirators to locate and
remove thousands of artifacts from in and around the Jornada Del Muerto
Wilderness Study Area for the purposes of his own research and personal
gain. Some of these artifacts were sold on E-Bay and recovered through a
BLM undercover purchase operation. The two other conspirators are also in
negotiations to enter separate pleas.

After sentencing, Amick agreed to turn over nearly 80 other artifacts that
he had accumulated and had maintained in his possession. As a condition of
his plea, Amick must cooperate and give testimony in furtherance of this
investigation.

Durango Artifacts Dealer Pleads Guilty in Trafficking Case
An artifacts collector and dealer apprehended during a Federal sting
operation against traffickers of illegal Four Corners antiquities pleaded
guilty Wednesday in Salt Lake City’s Federal court. Carl “Vern” Crites, of
Durango, Colorado, admitted to three felonies associated with buying a pair
of Basketmaker sandals worth more than $1,000 from an undercover source in
August 2008 and excavating on Federal lands in San Juan County in September
2008, disturbing human remains and unearthing a knife worth more than $500.
The two counts of theft and damage of government property each carry
maximum penalties of 10 years in prison, and one of trafficking in stolen
goods carries a maximum two years.

A plea deal could get Crites, 76, probation when Judge Dee Benson sentences
him August, 11, 2011. Government agents removed five truckloads of
artifacts from the Crites’ home, and the plea agreement would make that
forfeiture official. A co-defendant who helped Vern Crites during the
excavation, Richard Bourret, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to
36 months of probation. Crites’ wife, Marie, pled guilty to one count
involving purchase of ancient sandals. Eleven defendants in the artifact
sweep, mostly from Blanding, have pleaded guilty in the case and received
probation plus restrictions on use of public lands.

From story by Brandon Loomis

Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter -Archaeology of the Colonial
Chesapeake
A Project Archaeology workshop for upper elementary grade teachers will be
held on June 27- 29, 2011. The workshop includes classroom instruction and
a tour of the Smithsonian exhibit Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17
th Century Chesapeake. Teachers will participate in one in of the largest
ongoing archeological excavations in Maryland at Historic London Town and
Gardens, a colonial seaport in Anne Arundel County. Participants will
excavate, screen, and clean artifacts that were used by men and women,
convict and indentured servants, enslaved people and others who lived in
London Town.

The workshop will introduce the curriculum guide, Project Archaeology:
Investigating Shelter, in which elementary school students conduct an
archeological investigation based on authentic archeological data from
excavations of a 17th century earthfast house in Calvert County, Maryland.
The students play the role of an archeologist as they investigate the house
and grounds occupied by a tobacco planter and his family from 1690 to 1711.
The students generate hypotheses about how people lived in the Chesapeake
region and examine artifacts, oral history, and historic photographs to
help answer their questions.

This multidisciplinary curriculum has been endorsed by the National Council
for the Social Studies. The curriculum is targeted for grades 3, 4, and 5
but teachers of other grades are welcome to participate. As an
interdisciplinary science, archeology offers innovative and exciting
opportunities to integrate math, science, and the social studies to engage
youth in science and social studies education.

The workshop is sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, National
Museum of Natural History (NMNH), and Historic London Town and Gardens. The
Anthropology Outreach Office, NMNH, is home to the Chesapeake regional
office of Project Archaeology.

Workshop contact: Ann Kaupp, (202) 633-1917

Other educational opportunities offered by Project Archeology:

Teacher Workshop: Intrigue of the Past
Nashua, New Hampshire, April 1, 2011
Contact: Tanya Krajcik (603) 271-6568

Educator Workshop: Investigating Shelter - Investigating a Plains Tipi
Bozeman, Montana, June 13-16, 2011
Contact: Crystal Alegria (406) 994-6925

Project Archaeology Leadership Academy and Facilitator Training
Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, June 20-24, 2011
Contact: Kathy Francisco (406) 994-6727

Teacher Workshop and Facilitator Training
Hutchinson, Kansas, August 3-5, 2011
Contact: Virginia Wulfkuhle (785) 272-8681, Ext. 266

Project Archaeology Educator Field School
Virginia City, Montana, August 8-11, 2011
Contact: Crystal Alegria (406) 994-6925

Project Archaeology Online Course: Investigating Shelter
This eight-week online course uses archeological data to teach the basics
of scientific inquiry: observation, inference, evidence, and
classification. Educators will learn how to help students apply
archeological concepts to investigate a shelter using maps, artifact
illustrations, historic photographs, and oral histories. In the classroom,
teachers can use the nationally-endorsed Project Archaeology: Investigating
Shelter curriculum to fulfill many core requirements in social studies,
science, mathematics, language arts and art. Students will discover
archeology and history through engaging hands-on activities that provide
opportunities to reflect on citizenship, build personal ethics and
character, and achieve deeper cultural understandings.
 8 Weeks for 2 graduate credits, October 3, 2011
For more information or to register, go to
http://umnh.utah.edu/projectarchaeologycourse.

Project Archaeology produces high quality educational materials for grades
3-8 that use scientific inquiry to foster understanding of past and present
cultures and to improve science and social studies education. The
curriculum materials are culturally relevant and designed to connect
scientific inquiry to culture and history through archeology.

For more information about Project Archaeology, go to
www.projectarchaeology.org

New Archeology E-Gram Feature: Civil War Commemorations
In March 2010 the NPS began celebrations to commemorate the 150th
anniversary of the Civil War. We are establishing a new feature in the
Archeology E-Gram to provide information and links about activities to
commemorate the Civil War. Each month, the E-Gram will feature information
about activities such as exhibits, re-enactments, and lectures taking
place. Here are some events that will take place in April:

Bell and History Days – The Victorian Internet
Monocacy National Battlefield, Monocacy, MD (map), Saturday, April 2, 2011
Ranger programs and exhibits will compare the telegraph to our modern
internet and explain its role at the outbreak of the Civil War. For more
information, visit Monocacy National Battlefield.

Lecture Series: “Why They Fought: Reflections on the 150th Anniversary of
the American Civil War"
Charleston, SC (map), Friday, April 8-12, 2011, 9:00 am
Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie Historical Trust, the Citadel, South Carolina
Historical Society, and the NPS will sponsor a lecture series “Why They
Fought: Reflections on the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War.”
For more information, visit Lowcountry Civil War Sesquicentennial
Commemoration.

Civil War Education Day at Manassas Battlefield
Manassas National Battlefield Park, Manassas, VA (map), Saturday, April 9,
2011
An education day event that will include living history portrayals of
soldier and civilian life, historic weapons demonstrations, Civil War
period music performances, and other activities. For more information,
visit www.nps.gov/mana.

150th Anniversary at Fort Sumter: Garrison at the Fort
Charleston Harbor, SC (map), April 14-17, 2011
On April 14, 1861, the U.S. garrison surrendered and left Fort Sumter and
Company B, South Carolina Artillery Battalion and the Palmetto Guard, an
infantry company, moved into the fort. Re-enactors representing the units
will garrison the fort, offering living history programs to visitors on
each tour boat. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/fosu/planyourvisit/

Resignation of Robert E. Lee
Arlington House National Memorial, Arlington, VA (map), Saturday, April 16,
2011
A weeklong series of events, tours, and lectures focuses on Robert E. Lee’s
decision to leave the U.S. Army and fight for Virginia. The April 20,
7pm-10pm: Evening Program marks the exact anniversary of Lee’s Resignation.
For more information, visit Arlington House National Memorial.

War Comes to Harpers Ferry: The Burning of the Federal Arsenal
Harper's Ferry National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry, WV (map), Saturday,
April 16, 2011
This two day event will focus on the April 1861 secession of Virginia from
the Union and the subsequent burning of the Federal Arsenal at Harpers
Ferry. Activities will include, living history, ranger conducted programs,
and family/youth activities. For more information, visit
http://www.nps.gov/hafe/index.htm

Virginia Battlefield Preservation Conference
Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Manassas, VA, April 17 – 18, 2011
Co-hosted by the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources, NPS, and Prince
William County, the conference will cover tools and methods on preserving
battlefield land in Virginia. To register for the conference, go to
www.dhr.virginia.gov/BattlefieldConference/battlefieldConference.html

Hidden History at the Wayside
The Wayside, 455 Lexington Road, Concord, MA 01742 (map) April 27, 2011,
7pm – 9pm
Sponsored by Minute Man NHP, consider how The Wayside was home to slave
owners and later harbored a fugitive slave. Study letters and diaries of
residents and decide for yourself who was an abolitionist and who was not.
Read More

Brentsville Civil War Weekend
Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre, 12229 Bristow Rd., Bristow, VA
20136 (map)
April 30, 2011, 10am – 5pm
This program will commemorate Prince William County’s decision in April of
1861 to vote and endorse Virginia’s secession and the creation of the many
military units from Prince William County that were formed in Brentsville.
Visit www.pwcgov.org/brentsville or call 703-365-7895 for more information.

More information about Civil War commemorations can be found on the NPS 150
th website http://nps.gov/civilwar150.

Projects in Parks: Surveillance and Control on a Plantation Landscape
By Megan Bailey, University of Maryland, College Park
Recent excavations at the site of a former plantation, L’Hermitage, on the
grounds of Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland, revealed
substantial evidence of slave quarters that stood on the site in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An archeological investigation
undertaken by the NPS in summer 2010 exposed several features associated
with domestic structures on the historic plantation. Testing of the
eighteenth and nineteenth century occupations of Best Farm uncovered
features related to the enslaved population of L’Hermitage, including a
dump, two ambiguous trench-like features, and anomalies that could
represent the slave quarters.

To access this and other Projects in Parks report, go to
www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm.

Projects in Parks is a feature of the Archeology E-Gram that informs others
about archeology-related projects in national parks. The full reports are
available on the Research in the Parks web page
www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm or through individual issues
of the Archeology E-Gram. Prospective authors should review information
about submitting photographs on the Projects in Parks web page on
InsideNPS.

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 NPS 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 NPS Archeology Program web
site.

Contact: Karen Mudar at [log in to unmask]  to contribute news items, stories for
Projects in Parks, submit citations and a brief abstract for your
peer-reviewed publications, and to subscribe.