January 2012, Archeology E-Gram
NPS to Develop Guidance on Valley Fever for Archeologists
Valley fever (Coccidioidomycosis), is a fungal disease that infects people
by inhaling spores in soil. If untreated, valley fever can be very serious.
Because of the nature of fieldwork, archeologists are particularly at risk
for the disease and a case of valley fever was identified in an
archeological field team at Pinnacles NM in the summer of 2011 and ten
cases at Dinosaur in 2001. The disease has been primarily confined to dry
areas of the west, but may be found in other areas.
David Wong, Chief, Epidemiology and Health Promotion Branch, NPS Office of
Public Health, is preparing guidance for prevention of valley fever, and
will work with archeologists in the West and Southwest to develop
prevention methods and disseminate information. The Office of Public Health
is planning to conduct focus groups at several parks with high levels of
archeological activity to identify feasible prevention methods. NPS
archeologists with an interest in supporting these efforts should contact
Wong at 505-248-7806.
Sue Renaud Has Retired
Sue (Henry) Renaud retired on December 31, 2011, after more than 22 years
of service to the NPS and its partners. She spent her NPS career in WASO
Cultural Resources, where she shared her expertise in historic preservation
planning and historical archeology. Renaud received her academic training
in historical archeology at Catholic University and at George Washington
University and did her field school work at Historic St. Mary’s City. She
is a nationally known expert on colonial terracotta tobacco pipes,
protecting archaeological sites on private land, and historic preservation
of the recent past.
Before joining NPS in 1989, Renaud spent six years as a preservation
planner and historical archeologist for the Fairfax County, Virginia,
Office of Comprehensive Planning. Prior to her stint with Fairfax County,
she worked for an archaeological consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona; the
Alexandria, Virginia, city archaeology program; the Delaware Department of
Transportation; and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s
property, “Oatlands,” near Leesburg, Virginia.
While with the NPS, Renaud helped develop the current process that SHPOs
use to meet their statutory requirement to have statewide comprehensive
historic preservation plans. For many years, now, through her guidance, all
56 states and territories have statewide preservation plans that serve as
guides for effective historic preservation decision-making. She also helped
develop NPS policy for the development of park planning documents to ensure
that historic preservation and cultural resource management were
appropriately addressed. Renaud also helped to develop the Secretary of the
Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Historic Preservation Planning. She
also developed and maintained a comprehensive and useful website on
preservation planning (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/pad/index.htm).
There will be a celebration of Sue’s career on the morning of February 14,
2012, in the 1201 Eye Street Building, in Washington, D.C. Please send any
well-wishes or memories of Sue to John Renaud. (If you are interested in
making other contributions to the celebratory event, please contact John
Renaud at 202-354-2066, Kristen McMasters at 202-739-4200, Erika Siebert at
202-354-2217, or Marcia Keener at 202-354-3956).
Passing Of Diane Nicholson
Diane Nicholson, regional curator for NPS Pacific West Region, died while
leaving work on January 3, 2012. Nicholson was born in San Francisco,
California, in 1951. She received a BA in history from Oregon State
University in 1974 and a MA in museum science from Texas Tech University in
1976.
That year, she joined the NPS as a seasonal museum aid at the NPS Harpers
Ferry Center. After a similar appointment in the Midwest Regional Office in
1977, Nicholson assumed her first permanent position as a museum technician
at Tuskegee Institute NHS in 1979.
In 1980, she took a position as museum curator at Golden Gate NRA, bringing
her home to California and beginning her long career in the NPS Pacific
West Region. While at Golden Gate NRA, Nicholson was instrumental in
building the collections management facility in Building E at Fort Mason
Center.
In 1983, Nicholson moved on to the Regional Office in San Francisco as the
regional curator. She served in that capacity for nearly a decade,
developing such park assistance programs as the "curatorial swat team" that
brought museum personnel from around the region to parks to complete
projects and produce documents critical for museum planning and management.
At the national level, Nicholson assisted with rewriting the NPS museum
handbook and policy for museum collection management.
In 1991, Nicholson returned to Golden Gate NRA first as a curator, and
shortly thereafter as the chief of museum management. While there, she was
instrumental in developing the “Curator of Record” program for the region,
an innovative response to staffing reductions and the requirements for
professional oversight of museum collections, as well as developing and
participating in training and mentoring programs for full-time and new
curators in the region.
Nicholson oversaw the transfer of the Army's museum during the transfer of
the Presidio of San Francisco to the NPS. The museum collection jumped from
about 600,000 objects to 6,000,000 objects as a result. She built a museum
collections staff and oversaw the development of the Park Archives and
Records Center to house millions of archival materials and photographic
images.
In 2007, Nicholson returned to the NPS Pacific West Regional Office as the
regional curator. She played a critical role in the development of the
region's cultural resources emergency response team, deployed most recently
to preserve cultural materials damaged during the tsunami that struck
National Park of American Samoa in 2009. She engaged tirelessly in a wide
range of professional responsibilities, from organizing the regional office
move to sitting on service wide committees, most recently the Cultural
Resources Academy.
For more information and to share your thoughts, please visit the Facebook
page set up to celebrate her life Diane Nicholson - Celebration of Life
(https://www.facebook.com/DianeNicholsonMemorial?sk=info#).
If you do not have a Facebook account you may also use a Sharepoint site
set up for the same purpose at
http://inpniscsfern1:8000/sites/PWR/PWRCR/Diane/SitePages/Home.aspx
The Federal Archeologist’s Bookshelf: Saugus Iron Works: The Roland W.
Robbins Excavations, 1948-1953
edited by William W. Griswold and Donald W. Linebaugh
During this current era of tight budgets and online publishing, it is a
pleasure to see a well-illustrated hard cover book on historic archeology
in a national park. The generosity of Saugus Iron Works National Historic
Site (NHS) supported publication of Saugus Iron Works: The Roland W.
Robbins Excavations, 1948-1953.
Saugus Iron Works NHS was established in 1968, when the NPS took over the
management of a 17th century iron smelting site in Saugus, Massachusetts.
The ironworks were established in 1646, within 20 years of the founding of
the Puritan colony in Boston, and abandoned in 1670. From 1943 to 1968, the
site was managed by the First Iron Works Association (FIWA), which based
reconstructed buildings on the findings from excavations conducted by
Roland Robbins, a gifted amateur archeologist. Robbins excavated at Saugus
from 1948 to 1953 and located many of the 17th century building
foundations.
Don’t be misled by the title; this book has much to offer historic
archeologists, historians of science, industrial archeologists,
interpreters, among others. The first two chapters provide overviews of
European iron smelting during the 17th century, including descriptions of
the facilities, the smelting process, and social context of iron
production. Iron production was resource intensive, requiring large amounts
of wood, as well as iron ore and stone flux. Ready supplies of wood for
charcoal in North America were a major draw for wood-poor Europe. These
chapters add to scholarship of the colonization of New England, and a nice
introduction to iron production. My only quibble with these chapters is a
noticeable lack of schematic drawings. The book relies heavily on the
excellent black and white photographs of Robbins’ photographer, probably to
keep publishing costs down, but a few diagrams would have been useful here.
Chapters 3 and 4 provide an overview of the pre-NPS history of preservation
at the ironworking site, outlining the role of the FIWA in commissioning
Robbins to carry out archeological investigations. He came to the attention
of the association after locating remnants of Thoreau’s cabin on Walden
Pond. Roland Robbins was a high school drop-out who lacked any formal
training in archeology. Professional archeologists never accepted Robbins
because of his perceived crude excavation methods, and encouragement of
public participation in his projects. The author, however, gives a
surprisingly non-judgmental account of Robbins’ plan and excavation
methodology, noting that his commonsense approach to early industrial
archeology and attention to documentation have created a legacy that more
conventionally-trained archeologists would envy.
Chapters 5-9 focus on details of the excavations, and Chapters 9-11 outline
curatorial work with the artifacts derived from Robbins excavations.
Chapter 12 examines Robbins’ public programs. In this, he was ahead of his
time in use of motion picture cameras to record activities and to create
informational and promotional films about the iron works. He also engaged
the local community through school programs and lecture series, encouraging
volunteers to work at the excavations.
Chapters 13 and 14 examine Robbins’ contributions to the interpretation of
the Saugus Iron Works and to historic archeology. Relations between the NPS
and Robbins deteriorated in the 1970s, but had recovered sufficiently by
the 1980 museum addition dedication to allow him to attend. The development
of historical and industrial archeology as an accepted academic discipline
has created the context for evaluating Robbins’ work and recognition of the
many contributions he made to those fields and to cultural resource
management.
Despite the fact that Robbins never completed a final report, his detailed
documentation and field notes enabled editors Griswold and Linebaugh, and
individual authors to pull together a coherent account of excavations at
the Saugus Iron Works. Beyond this goal, however, Saugus Iron Works will be
of interest to a wide range of readers. Well written, with extensive
footnotes and handsome black and white photos, the volume provides
thoughtful overviews and comments on topics such as the development of
industrial archeology in the U.S., the organization of metallurgy, public
involvement in archeology, curation of metallurgical archeological
collections. The Saugus Iron Works NHS has done us a great service by
supporting publication of this volume.
NPS Museum Database Goes Live
The NPS Museum searchable online database provides access to thousands of
images and records from NPS museum collections, including archeological
collections. Online visitors can perform simple or advanced searches by
keyword, park name, object name, people, places, and date. Visitors can
also browse or search collection highlights and park summaries. The records
found in this database will vary in the level of detail.
NPS museums collect objects specific to the mission of the individual parks
and interpret those collections in their original context. The collections
are site-specific, that is, they pertain to that particular NPS site.
Records and images will be updated and added on a continued basis.
Currently there are 44 parks with collections online representing over a
million objects. We expect this number to grow considerably in 2012.
To browse, enjoy, and learn from the collections, go to www.museum.nps.gov
Archeology Reveals History Of Stanton House at Women’s Rights NHP
Archeologists working this year at “Grassmere,” the Seneca Falls, New York,
home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, social activist and leading figure in the
early women’s movement, have uncovered details about the house and grounds’
configuration when Stanton lived there.
Soon after the Stantons left Seneca Falls for New York City in 1862, the 2+
acre lot was divided into several parcels. Each plot was developed
separately through the 1970s. By the time that the NPS reunited the parcels
in the late 1990s, documentary evidence had only mentioned a driveway,
flagpole, several outbuildings, some apple and cherry trees, berry bushes,
and flower gardens. No maps, descriptions, photographs, or illustrations of
these elements of Stanton’s landscape have ever been found.Yet, the
documents showed that the Stantons valued their home and landscape, which
provided food, exercise, transportation, and political expression.
In 2011, New South Associates completed a geophysical survey of the entire
Stanton lot, using ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, and
electromagnetic conductivity to map underground anomalies, and Hartgen
Archeological Associates excavated specific targets to locate remnants of
Grassmere’s landscape. The project established that elements of the 19th
century landscape are intact, including the oval driveway that gave access
to the front of the house from Washington Street, the foundation of the
missing north wing, and a large privy. In addition, archeologists learned
that the Stanton property had been extensively regraded, and was probably
not the current flat expanse of lawn.
Archeologists recovered pottery, nails, and other artifacts from the period
of Stanton residency. These artifacts have been cleaned, analyzed, and
added to the museum collection at Women’s Rights NHP. They will be used to
identify the location of activities in and around the Stanton yard and to
guide future archeology and treatment of the Stanton landscape.
To learn more about Women’s Rights NHP, go to
http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/elizabeth-cady-stanton-house.htm
Prescribed Fire Renews Traditional Practice at Pinnacles NM
Pinnacles National Monument conducted a small prescribed fire on December
8, 2011, as part of a Joint Fire Science Program research project to learn
about the traditional use of fire in central California.NPS fire management
staff from the San Francisco Bay Area network completed the burn operations
with cooperators from the Cal Fire San Benito-Monterey Unit, the Amah
Mutsun Tribal Band, and the BLM. The burn was approximately two acres in
size.
The burn was located on the east side of Pinnacles in an area rich in deer
grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) and white root sedge (Carex barbarae), both
highly valued by California Indian tribes. Pinnacles NM has begun research
for the purpose of restoring traditional land management techniques to
these plant communities. The central research questions are, “How did the
use of fire and other practices by California Indians influence the
vegetation of central California, and what techniques best achieve cultural
goals for plant use?” The burn was ignited by a representative of the Amah
Mutsun tribe.
The effects of burning deer grass will be compared with effects of
mechanical clipping on growth of flower stalks that are used in the
foundation of coiled baskets. Additional research at Pinnacles National
Monument will determine what techniques promote longer, straighter rhizomes
in the white root sedge, characteristics which enhance their use for basket
making.
Fire temperature was measured during the burn and silica particles known as
phytoliths (or plant stones) will be collected from the ash to learn about
the fire history of the site. Fire scars in tree rings will also be studied
at Quiroste Valley, a cultural preserve in Ano Nuevo State Park, 65 miles
south of San Francisco.
More Information
By Jennifer Chapman, Fire Communication and Education Specialist
Interpol’s Cultural Property Program Re-organizes
INTERPOL Washington’s Cultural Property Program has been divided into two
distinct programs in order to better combat the theft of cultural
properties. The two new programs are the Stolen Art Program and the Stolen
Antiquities Program. The Stolen Art Program will be dedicated to providing
investigative analysis pertaining to stolen art. The Stolen Antiquities
Program will be dedicated to providing investigative analysis pertaining to
stolen ancient antiquities.
For further information and/or assistance, please contact:
Stolen Art Program
Gloria Ford
Tele: 202-305-2007
Stolen Antiquities Program
David Whitmire
Tele: 202-305-8171
In the Beginning: Archeology of George Washington’s Birthplace
Modern historical archeology, albeit in its most rudimentary form, had its
earliest beginnings at George Washington Birthplace NM 130 years ago and
has continued, growing in scholarship and method through the 20th and 21st
centuries. Much of this archeology, under the stewardship of the NPS, has
made significant contributions to both the prehistoric and historical
archeology of the Chesapeake region.
To read the entire report, go to
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/gewaHistoricArchy.htm
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