*July 2013 Archeology E-Gram*
*Liza Rupp, New Park Representative on NPS GIS Council*
Liza Rupp, is the new Park GIS Representative on the NPS service-wide GIS
Council (GISC). Liza is the archeologist and GIS specialist at Valley Forge
NHP and supports smaller parks in Pennsylvania as well as advising Regional
and WASO CR staff on geospatial technology for cultural resource
issues. She will serve a two-year term on the GISC, beginning this month.
Her role on the GISC includes representing park GIS users and promoting
coordination and communication. Her contributions will be sought in other
areas of activity that the GISC anticipates for the coming year, such as
Enterprise GIS, tools for implementing data standards and geo-enabling NPS
staff and programs.
Liza attended Georgetown University, the University of Maryland, and
Niagara College. She has an MA with a focus on historical archeology and
certification in geospatial technology as well as professional experience
in both fields predating her NPS career, which started in 2002. At Valley
Forge NHP, she supports all divisions of an active and highly visible park,
creating maps and data, providing technical support and training, and
utilizing GIS extensively in her own archeological work.
The GISC holds a regular monthly teleconference and, in mid-August, will
hold a ‘virtual face to face meeting’ in which Liza will participate. Park
GIS specialists across the NPS are invited to contact Liza, (and/or their
Regional or Program GIS Coordinators), with ideas and concerns about the
NPS Geospatial Program and related matters.
*Denali National Park and Preserve Archeologists Leads Field School*
The aspiring archeologists are looking for artifacts at a site just a few
yards away from the Denali NP&P Talkeetna Ranger Station in Talkeetna,
Alaska. The currently empty wooded lot once held a large structure that
collapsed sometime after 1963. As of right now, it’s a mystery what the
students from local communities may find. “We’re trying to get a better
idea of when the site was used. We found artifacts from the sixties, and
now we’re getting a little lower in our excavation and starting to find
stuff from the twenties.” That’s Phoebe Gilbert, park archeologist. She and
other NPS staff are instructing the students as part of a new field school.
Gilbert hopes that the week-long course will help pave the way for the
next generation of archeologists. “If you want to become an archeologist,
one of the requirements is that you attend a field school–a college level
field school. Those are generally month-long courses where you go out to a
remote setting and camp and excavate at a site. This is much smaller scale
but it will give the students a taste of what archaeological field work is
like.”
The students are spread out in small teams on the footprint of what was
once a forty-by-sixty foot building. The young archeologists focus on
finding artifacts in situ, meaning the items are left in the spot where
they are found until they can be photographed and documented. The digging
is done gradually, as participant Michael Kinsey of Talkeetna demonstrates.
“What we do is first we dig five centimeters down. We scrape slowly,
looking for stuff. If we find something, we leave it there. Then what we do
is put the stuff in the buckets and take them to the screens and shake them
out, hopefully to get some small pieces of artifacts that we missed.”
Some of the artifacts found so far include glass bottles, buttons, nails,
and a carbide mining light, which dates back to 1925. Gilbert says that the
most desirable items are the ones that give a clue to when they were made.
The dig site is right on Main Street in Talkeetna, so not all of the items
found date back to the original building, says Kia Heuton of Willow as she
points out a blue extension cord buried a few centimeters below the surface.
The students will present their findings at the Community Arts Hangar in
Talkeetna.
*by Phillip Manning*
*NPS Archeology Program Posts Webpages on Archeology for Scouts and Others*
*Hey, Scouts!*
The NPS Archeology Program has compiled a webpage for Girl Scouts and Boy
Scouts. You'll find brochures to print, information on stewardship
programs, and examples from parks of scouting programs. Check it out at
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/public/scouts.htm .
*Career Guide*
A new version of the Career Guide is available on the NPS Archeology
Program website. It includes links to colleges and universities with
archeology programs, advice on getting experience in archeology, and more.
Find it at http://www.nps.gov/archeology/public/career.htm .
* **NPS Archeologists Explore New Ground for Interpretation at Fort Smith
National Historic Site*
NPS archeologists from the Midwest Archeological Center conducted
exploratory investigations at Fort Smith NHS. Their project focused on land
next to the park's historic Commissary Building. Built in 1838-1839, during
the second military era for Fort Smith, the Commissary Building is the
city’s oldest standing structure. The research is part of the NHPA Section
106 review process for construction of a sidewalk leading to a new viewing
platform.
The archeological work is part of a larger project that includes opening a
central portion of the commissary’s main interior and providing
interpretive exhibits that include tactiles, audio/video, and scented
pellets of various food items. Interpretation of the building’s interior
will include telling the story of the Hammersly family who resided there
from 1890 to 1896 while working for the Federal Court under Judge Isaac C.
Parker.
*By Michael Groomer **
*
*Sitka National Historical Park Totem Poles Enters Digital Age*
The formula to preserve totem poles at Sitka NHP from decay in the rainy
climate of southeastern Alaska and keep them accessible to visitors has
eluded caretakers for more than a century, beginning with the collection’s
arrival to Sitka in 1906. Removed from original villages by Alaska
Territorial Governor John Brady for display at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in St. Louis and 1905 Portland World’s Fair, 14 totem poles from
the collection returned to Alaska and entered into the care of local
photographer E.W. Merrill.**
A volunteer, and later the park’s first custodian, selected by Stephen
Mather, first director of the NPS, Merrill oversaw their initial placement
in Sitka NHP. Since then, park custodians have patched, painted, treated,
and sealed the original poles; raised their bases out of the ground; and
commissioned the carving of new poles and the re-carving of the originals.
Carvers turned to Merrill’s photographs for dimensions and appearance of
the intricate figures on poles that had deteriorated.
Following in Merrill’s footsteps, whose photographs documented the totem
poles, two specially trained architects from the NPS Heritage Documentation
Services have digitally scanned many of the totem poles for a special
collection in the Library of Congress archives. The documentation performed
by laser scanner serves the same purpose as the photos, eliminating
uncertain measurements for future carvers and facilitating cultural
research. The team will transcribe the three-dimensional digital “point
cloud” for each totem pole into line drawings on archival paper vellum and
submit them to the Library of Congress along with photographs and data
points, capturing the totem poles’ existing conditions down to the
millimeter.
However, drawings of the totem poles rendered even at the hand of a skilled
architect using the latest technologies don’t fully capture the
magnificence of these cultural objects. Even when exhibited in the urban
settings of the St. Louis and Portland, the totem poles retained the same
allure for expo-goers and journalists that captivated famous naturalist
John Muir, who saw the totem poles in their cultural context in 1897 and
called them “the most striking of objects.”
Heeding the NPS Director’s Call to Action #17 “Go Digital!" park management
will create interactive tours from high-resolution photographs masked over
the three-dimensional models of the totem, including a close look at each
figure of each pole from top to bottom. Just as the expositions were
temporary exhibits, so are the virtual tours online. The next generation of
caretakers will continue the mission of predecessors Brady and Merrill –
finding the best resources and venues to share the totem poles with the
largest possible audience.
For Brady, showcasing the poles meant exposing 1.7 million visitors in two
states to 14 totem poles collected from his territory. For Merrill,
preservation meant photographing the totem poles, and creating Alaska’s
first national park to display them, which 200,000 people visit each year.
In the digital age, scanning grants visitors worldwide high resolution
access to the poles – following in the footsteps of the caretakers who have
worked to preserve and display these “these most striking of objects” for
more than a hundred years.
For more information about the totem poles in Sitka National Historical
Park, go to http://www.nps.gov/sitk/index.htm
*By Michael Hess*
*Conversation with an Archeologist: Pei Lin Yu*
(The Archeology E-Gram is initiating a new series “Conversation with an
Archeologist.” Each month, we talk with an archeologist working in the NPS.)
This month, we caught up with Pei-Lin Yu, Rocky Mountains Cooperative
Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Cultural Specialist for the Intermountain
Region, at her duty station at the University of Montana. Pei-Lin says that
her job is a lot like running a scientific dating service! She and Research
Coordinator Kathy Tonnessen match up parks needing scientific research or
technical assistance with university departments and laboratories with
appropriate expertise. Pei-Lin assists with proposal development, helps
develop scopes of work, checks budgets, serves on review panels, and
coordinates scientific peer reviews. She assists parks by ‘shepherding’
agreements through the contracting process. She also serves on MA and PhD
committees at the university as an affiliate faculty member.
Decades of diverse experience in research, three Federal agencies,
academia, and tribal consultation has sharpened her technical assistance
skill set. Pei-Lin has wanted to be an archeologist since she was eight
years old, when her parents took her to Mesa Verde NP. She spied two bone
awls eroding out of a walkway while on a tour of the Cliff Palace and was
thrilled with her finds as well as the kindness of the handsome ranger who
praised her for turning in the artifacts instead of sneaking them out of
the park! Pei-Lin decided that she had found her calling. After a college
internship at the Chaco Center, she considered graphic arts, marine
biology, and journalism before completing a BS in Anthropology at the
University of New Mexico in her home town of Albuquerque.
Post-graduation, Pei Lin worked for the Winema NF in Oregon as an
archeologist for four years, starting out as a SCEP intern before moving
into a permanent position. Then adventure called and she answered, living
with the hunter-gatherer Pumé Indians in Venezuela for two years with PhD
candidate Russell Greaves. The job entailed ethnoarcheological research as
a field assistant, assigned to following women on gathering trips and
recording data on mobility and yields. Other ‘duties as assigned’ included
eating (and enjoying) palm beetle larvae the size of Twinkies, avoiding
anacondas, and delivering twin girls.
This fieldwork experience led to Pei-Lin’s first publication (“Hungry
Lightning: Field Notes of a Woman Anthropologist”) and inspired her to head
to graduate school at Southern Methodist University, where she worked with
Lewis Binford. Her dissertation focused on the intensification of Archaic
wild plant use in the North American prehistory and how this affects the
tempo and mode of earliest agriculture. While working on her dissertation,
Pei-Lin got a job with the NPS as the first-ever park archeologist at Great
Smokies NP. She did Section 106 compliance work for infrastructure projects
in a park with over ten million visitors per year.
Pei-Lin then took a position as the BOR Power Office Archeologist for Grand
Coulee Dam and Lake Roosevelt in central Washington, and Hungry Horse Dam
and Reservoir in Montana. Here, she conducted Section 110 inventory and 106
compliance for the operation of the dams and reservoirs (those who work in
NRAs know what it’s like to have sites change shape and size every few
weeks!). The constant discovery of Native American burials exposed by
reservoir erosion led to extensive tribal consultations, which, along with
the completion of the doctorate in 2006, gave Pei-Lin the credentials to
land an academic job with the California State University, Sacramento.
In her position as Assistant Professor, along with teaching, she served as
the first Director of the NAGPRA Program. Pei-Lin loved teaching and took
up the challenge of the university’s NAGPRA responsibilities – which
involved repatriation of thousands of burials and objects as well as
consultation with dozens of bands, tribes, and Rancherias of Native
Californians. When budget cuts threatened her position, Pei-Lin became
intrigued when she saw that NPS was advertising a job for a CESU Cultural
Specialist, a position unique to the Intermountain Region that is
responsible for brokering cutting-edge science research and technical work
for the Rocky Mountains network of parks.
I asked Pei Lin to describe her dream job. She said that it would include
being connected with a large number of busy groups doing interesting work,
and being involved in research, research dissemination, and public and
traditional community outreach: a lot like her present job! She sees
responsible stewardship of irreplaceable archeological resources as being
at the heart of the NPS mission and, through her work, wants to make sure
that archeology stays relevant to the agency, traditional stakeholders,
decision makers, and the public. She currently serves on the IMR Wilderness
Executive Committee and recently conducted a webinar for the Arthur Carhart
National Wilderness Training Center to bring messages about the importance
of archeology to other programs of the NPS such as Wilderness Stewardship.
Pei-Lin is intrigued by the knowledge that archeological research has to
offer climate change studies, and is proud to assist Glacier NP in
developing and implementing the multi-year Ice Patch Archeology Project to
recover and learn from perishable items from ice patches melting from
climatic warming. Involving three universities and two Native American
tribes, this was the only cultural resource project to be funded by the NPS
Climate Change Response Program in 2010. The project won the Department of
Interior’s Partnerships in Conservation Award in 2012.
Pei-Lin is also concerned about another irreplaceable resource, NPS
archeologists. Among all of the Federal agencies where she has worked, she
says NPS archeologists excel in research and public outreach, maintain
currency in the discipline, and are deeply committed to the stewardship
mission. To continue to lead in cultural resource preservation, Pei-Lin
feels that NPS archeologists need to actively cultivate a sense of
community, recognize professional accomplishments through the John L.
Cotter Award (of which she currently serves as Chair), and maintain a sense
of shared purpose through teleconferences, webinars, and newsletters like
the Archeology E-Gram. She says that she enjoys reading the E-gram while
eating her lunch, and uses it to stay plugged in to archeologists
throughout the service and become inspired by the archeological work taking
place in parks all over the country. Thanks for talking to us, Pei Lin!
*By Karen Mudar*
*New Tools for Examining, Interpreting, And Managing Fort Monroe National
Monument*
A partnership between NPS, the Fort Monroe Authority, and the NASA Langley
Research Center presents exciting new tools for examining, interpreting,
and managing Fort Monroe. First designated a National Historic Landmark
(NHL) in 1960, Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, became a National Monument
in 2011 by Presidential proclamation.
English colonists established Fort Algernourne on the Fort Monroe
peninsula, which was originally named “Pointe Comfort” by Captain John
Smith in 1607. Since then, Fort Monroe has served as a key point in the
protection of our nation. Built in the early 1800s, the fort stood as a
Union stronghold in Confederate Virginia during the Civil War, becoming a
refuge for freedom seekers declared “contraband.” President Lincoln
strategized the attack on Norfolk from the fort.
In 2005, Fort Monroe was one of the military installations on the
Department of Defense’s list of Base Realignment and Closure actions. A
programmatic agreement was reached between the Army, the ACHP, the Virginia
SHPO, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the NPS, and the Fort Monroe Authority
for preservation of the fort. Compilation of historic materials for use in
the protection and preservation of the NHL district after the Army’s
departure led to the awareness of the unique historical nature of the
collection.
The NASA Langley Research Center and Fort Monroe Authority have created a
GIS website that allows viewers to compare historical maps side-by-side.
After the Army digitized all of Fort Monroe’s archives, the Langley
Research Center and Fort Monroe Authority were able to use historical maps
and aerial comparisons to construct other reference tools. The maps can be
used to examine coastal zone management, significant landscape and
shoreline areas of the peninsula, and how providing limited access may be
the best way to protect some natural and cultural areas.
The comparison tool can be accessed at:
http://gis.larc.nasa.gov/fmamaps/compare_aerials/index.html.
Other GIS tools can be accessed at:
http://gis.larc.nasa.gov/fmamaps/basemap/,
http://gis.larc.nasa.gov/fmamaps/floodtool/index.html,
http://gis.larc.nasa.gov/fmamaps/impervious_surface/index.html.
*By Lorin Diaz*
*NPS Awards Grants to Support* *Historic Preservation through Technology*
NPS Director Jarvis announced the award of $195,000 in grants from the
National Center for Preservation Technology & Training (NCPTT) to assist
with projects using science and technology for historic preservation. The
eight grants range from $8,000 to $25,000 for projects. One award involved
archeological methods. The NPS Southeast Archeological Conservation Center
was awarded funding for a grant to develop cone and friction cone
penetrometer applications to archeological organic midden deposits.
Since 1994, NCPTT has funded science and technology projects in historic
preservation. The center strives to create new technologies and training
opportunities to preserve prehistoric and historic resources throughout the
United States.
*NPS Awards Battlefield Preservation Grants*
More than $1.1 million in NPS grants were awarded to help preserve and
protect America’s significant battlefields. Funds from the NPS American
Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) will support 24 projects at 38
battlefields in 15 states. Awards were given to projects entailing
archeology, mapping, cultural resource survey work, documentation,
planning, education and interpretation. Funded projects include:
- archeological survey covering part of the War of 1812 Battle of
Baltimore in Maryland;
- a strategic landscape plan for the American Revolution Battle of
Brandywine in Pennsylvania;
- boundary delineation at the Bear River battlefield in Idaho;
- GIS mapping and military terrain analysis at multiple U.S.-Dakota War
battle sites in North Dakota;
- a cave survey and inventory project at the World War II Battle of
Peleliu in Palau;
- re-evaluation of National Register of Historic Places nomination for
the Civil War Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle in Alabama; and
- a preservation plan and community support-building for the Civil War
Battle of Greenbrier River in West Virginia.
Priority was given to those groups submitting applications for nationally
significant battlefields. The majority of awards were given to battlefields
listed as Priority I or II sites in the NPS *Civil War Sites Advisory
Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields** *and the* **Report
to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of
1812 Sites in the United States*.
Federal, state, local, and Tribal governments, nonprofit organizations,
and educational institutions are eligible for the battlefield grants,
awarded annually. Since 1996, more than $14 million has been awarded by the
ABPP to help preserve significant historic battlefields associated with
wars on American soil.
More information is available online at *
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp*.
* *
*NPS Announces NAGPRA Grants*
DOI Secretary Sally Jewell and NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced
nearly $1.5 million in grants under the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes, and Native
Hawaiian organizations in documenting and returning human remains and
cultural objects to communities of origin.
The grants support the efforts of museums, Indian tribes and Native
Hawaiian organizations to further NAGPRA related projects
(consultation/documentation grants), and to pay for the costs associated
with the return of the human remains and objects to their native people
(repatriation grants). Projects funded by the grant program include
training for both museum and tribal staff on NAGPRA, digitizing collection
records for consultation, and consultations regarding cultural affiliation
and culturally unaffiliated individuals.
Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA requires museums and federal agencies to inventory
and identify Native American human remains and cultural items in their
collections and to consult with federally recognized Indian tribes, and
Native Hawaiian organizations regarding the return of these objects to
descendants or tribes and organizations. The Act also authorizes the
Secretary of the Interior to award grants to assist in implementing
provisions of the Act.
*Contact*: Sherry Hutt, National NAGPRA Program Manager, at 202-354-1479.
*Park NAGPRA Program Offers Training*
The Park NAGPRA program, in cooperation with the Pacific West region NAGPRA
program, is offering training about the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) at Kaloko-Honokohau NHP in Kailua-Kona,
Hawaii. Park superintendents, resource managers, archeologists, curators,
and other staff with NAGPRA duties are invited to attend. The training,
scheduled for September 10-11, 2013, provides a comprehensive overview of
NAGPRA, and prepares participants to respond to inadvertent discoveries and
plan for intentional excavations as prescribed by the law. A portion of the
training will focus on issues of special concern to Hawaii and the Pacific
West region; an optional tour of the park is planned.
Topics include, but are not limited to, NAGPRA basics; collections
(inventories and summaries); intentional excavations and inadvertent
discoveries; culturally unidentifiable and unclaimed; tribal consultation;
evaluating repatriation requests (claims); transferring control/custody;
the Kennewick Man case; and reburial on park lands.
There are no fees or tuition for the training. To register, log in to DOI
Learn <http://www.doi.gov/doilearn/index.cfm> and search for *NAGPRA in the
Parks* (Course Code=NPS-CRS3401). The deadline for registration is August
21, 2013.**
* *
*Contact:* Mary S. Carroll, Park NAGPRA Program, (303) 969-2300
*Symposium Offered on Battlefield Archeology: Global Perspectives in
Research and Preservation*
Palo Alto Battlefield NHP, the University of Nebraska, Department of
Anthropology, and the Brownsville Independent School District (B.I.S.D.) is
offering a free symposium about current methods and research on battlefield
archeology, on October 10-11, 2013. Speakers include global experts on
battlefield and conflict archaeology, and will discuss new methods and
techniques being used to answer questions about the history of conflict and
war. Speakers include:
• Carl Carlson-Drexler, Arkansas Archaeological Survey
• John E. Cornelison, NPS Southeast Archeological Center
• Angélica María Medrano Enríquez, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico
• Araceli Rivera Estrada, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia,
Monterrey, Mexico
• Glenn Foard, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom
• Rolando Garza, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park
• Charles Haecker, NPS Heritage Partnership Program
• Nathan Ledbetter, United States Army
• Tony Pollard, University of Glasgow, Scotland
• Daniel Sivilich, Bravo, Syracuse, New York
• Daniel Westcott, Texas State University, San Marcos
• Antonio Zavaleta, University of Texas at Brownsville
The symposium will be held October 10, 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm, and October 11,
8:30 am - 5:00 pm, at the B.I.S.D. Auditorium, Central Administration
Building, 708 Palm Boulevard, Brownsville, Texas. Symposium speakers will
also present their studies as posters at the 7th annual Rio Grande Delta
International Archeology Fair on Saturday, October 12, 2013 in Brownsville.
*Contact:* Rolando Garza, Palo Alto BNHP, (956) 466-5490; Douglas Scott,
University of Nebraska, (402) 429-3268; Peter Bleed, University of
Nebraska, (402) 472-2349.
*SAA Offers Seminar on Laser Scanning*
On September 17, 2013, at 11 a.m. EDT, SAA will launch its new online
seminar series with a presentation by Dr. Rachel Opitz, RPA, on *Archaeological
Applications of Airborne Laser Scanning. *Registration is on a first-come,
first served basis and will remain open until all 25 seats are filled. The
Group registration option enables one registered user to invite an
unlimited number of participants to view the presentation from the same
physical location. All participants will receive a certificate of
completion from SAA. Individual price is $99.00; Group price is $135.00.
SAA online seminars are designed to provide continuing
professional development opportunities to student and professional
archaeologists and will be offered on a wide range of high-interest topics
from September through May each year. Instructors are RPAs and top scholars
in their field. All seminars are certified by RPA for Continuing
Professional Education (CPE) credits.
Additional online seminars will be announced soon, including a series of *free,
member-only* seminars. Check SAAweb frequently for the latest offerings.
*Contact:* SAA at 202-559-5709 or [log in to unmask]
*Projects in Parks: **Archeology at the Kuka’iwa’a Landshelf, Kalaupapa
National Historical Park*
Kalaupapa NHP, on Molokai Island, Hawaii, is best known as the isolated
peninsula where people afflicted with Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) were sent
between the years 1866-1965. However, the park also preserves thousands of
archeological features which represent pre-leprosy settlement life.
Underlying the historic settlement on the peninsula and in the adjacent
valleys of the north shore, intact traditional Hawaiian dry set features
indicate early life was characterized by agriculture. Recently, NPS staff
conducted an archeological inventory of a remote area of the park.
To read the full story, by Mary Jane Naone, NPS archeologist, Kalaupapa
NHP, go to http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/kalaupapa.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 *Projects in Parks *web page
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/index.htm or through individual
issues of the *Archeology E-Gram*.
*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 *
pagewww.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm<http://www.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm_>
on
the NPS Archeology Program website.
*Contact*: Karen Mudar at [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> to contribute news
items, stories for *Projects in Parks*, and to subscribe.
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