Remember the "Golden Marshalltown"!

KRD

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill Liebeknecht
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 8:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Divide Between Academic and CRM Archaeology

Well said Jim!  I only wish all those practicing CRM (for lack of a better term) would follow your model.

William B. Liebeknecht, RPA
Hunter Research, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 4:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Divide Between Academic and CRM Archaeology

 Karlis:
Interesting subject worth revisiting on a regular basis. Thank you for bring the posting to our attention.

I have worked in cultural resources management, as it is called, for nearly 40 years. I did it before earning masters and and doctoral degrees and continued afterwards to the present.
That said, I have been doing archaeology all these years, not cultural resources management. I have never managed cultural resources and make no claim to the skills necessary for doing so. I find the term CRM archaeology both redundant and a little condescending. Academic archaeology has always struck me as having an air of superiority about it, undeservedly if not backed by extensive experience. The closest I get to managing anything, apart from my crew, is when I make recommendations regarding my findings. I use National Register criteria, primarily but not exclusively Criterion D, which is all about scholarship.

In my routine, my crew and I search for archaeological sites, we test them to determine what if any non-trivial questions we might be able to ask with those sites, and we intensively investigate some sites to recover data, guided by well-structured research questions that we connect to anticipated data (established during testing) with appropriate methods of collection and analysis. Generally, developers pay us for this work. Where we work and the kinds of sites we get to investigate are driven by laws governing development. Apart from that, we are archaeologists engaged in scientific work to explore the past: we are not tradesmen. During this process, I also train my assistants and I train train them to train others.

The combination of classroom and investigative work--not in tandem, but by sustained, alternating bouts with each--makes good archaeologists. Theory is valueless if you can't read the soils and landscape, select or develop appropriate quantitative tools to analyze data, and if you do not have the technical reporting skills to turn the data and analyses into something others can use. On the other hand, the ability to layout a near perfect square or dig stratigraphically doesn't make one an archaeologist...these are technical skills exercised by technicians, necessary but insufficient for conducting scientific research.

Developments of recent years have made it plain that additional skills are required of archaeologists, particularly principal investigators; but the ability to work with communities or conduct oral histories is not a substitute for conventional archaeological skills. And if we can't relate theories to the little bits of cultural material that we pick out of the screen and the soil textures and colors that we record, we need to reflect on those theories and our training and decide whether those theories and training are truly archaeological or something else.

The ruminations of one aging shovel bum, proud of both degrees and field experiences, and disinclined to be pigeon-holed regardless of the prestige accorded.

Jim


 
 
 
James G. Gibb

Gibb Archaeological Consulting

2554 Carrollton Road

Annapolis, Maryland USA ?? 21403

443.482.9593 (Land) 410.693.3847 (Cell)

www.gibbarchaeology.net ? www.porttobacco.blogspot.com
 
On 02/17/14, Karlis Karklins<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
Hi All!

This item was posted on the ARCH-L list and I think it is quite relevant to our group as well.

http://www.succinctresearch.com/field-techs-dont-have-to-teach-archaeology-phds/

Karlis