*July 2016 Archeology E-Gram*
*NPS NEWS*
*Passing of Pioneer Gender Archeologist Joan Ger*o
Archeologist Joan Gero died on July 14, 2016. She was 72 years old. Gero
was Professor Emerita of Anthropology from American University and a
Research Fellow in the Anthropology Department, Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. She was a lifelong fellow of Clare Hall,
Cambridge, and taught at the universities of Cambridge, Uppsala (Sweden),
Catamarca (Argentina), Magdalena (Colombia) and the University of South
Carolina. She conducted archeological excavations in the Andes (Peru and
Argentina) with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities,
National Science Foundation, Fulbright, the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the
Heintz Foundation. In addition to the Andes, Gero excavated in Britain,
Labrador, Massachusetts, and South Carolina.
Gero dedicated her career to exposing inequality and focused on gender
issues, with particular attention to spotlighting issues of feminist
concern within the current practice of archeology. Her article
"Socio-politics and the woman-at-home ideology" was one of the first
publications to highlight the inequities and expectations faced by female
archeologists. She went on to publish numerous other gender studies,
including "Archaeology and the Study of Gender" with Janet Spector;
"Original Narratives: The Political Economy of Gender in Archaeology" with
Sarah Williams; “Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory” and "From
Programme to Practice: Archaeology and Gender,” both with Margaret Conkey.
She also received a Squeaky Wheel Award from the American Anthropological
Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology.
In addition to her contributions to feminist archaeology, Gero was active
in the global politics of archeology. She worked tirelessly for the World
Archaeological Congress (WAC) over many decades. She was the nationally
elected senior North American representative for WAC from 1999 to 2008.
When the arrangements to hold WAC-5 in Brazil fell through, Gero agreed to
coordinate the meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2003. It supported some 230
participants from Indigenous groups and low-income countries and provided a
surplus that put WAC on a secure financial footing for the first time. From
2003 to 2008, Gero was Head Series Editor of the One World Archaeology book
series. In 2003 she became a founding member of the Advisory Board for
Archaeologies: The Journal of the World Archaeological Congress. From 2007,
she was a member of WAC’s Standing Committee on Ethics. Together with
Stephen Loring, Gero received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World
Archaeological Congress.
Gero’s final contribution to archeological theory is “Yutopian:
Archaeology, Ambiguity and the Production of Knowledge in Northwest
Argentina,” (2015) an account of excavations in an early settlement in
northwestern Argentina. Her unique approach to writing a site report offers
a new model as she demonstrates how the decisions made in conducting
scientific research play a fundamental role in shaping the knowledge
produced in that project. She was able to visit Argentina, and her field
site, shortly before her death.
Gero was an active mentor and valued colleague. Her office door was always
open, and her wit, sage advice, and enthusiasm for anthropology never
faded. She inspired generations of archeologists, both men and women, to
commit to archeological careers and to include gendered perspectives in
every aspect of research. North American archeological research might have
gone in a different direction without her energetic commitment and
enthusiasm. Her family, students, and friends
will miss her greatly.
*By Karen Mudar*
*Stephanie Stephens Named Chief Curator of the National Park Service*
The Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science Directorate has selected
Stephanie Stephens as the NPS Chief Curator. Stephens began her NPS career
in 1989 at Joshua Tree NP as a museum aide. In 1998, Stephens moved to
Alaska as the curator/registrar for the NPS Alaska Regional Curatorial
Center (ARCC) and served as a roving curator for all Alaskan national parks.
Since 2003, Stephens has been the Alaska Regional Curator and manager of
the ARCC. She has also served as acting superintendent of the Western
Arctic National Parklands and was the subject matter expert on museum
collections for the Flight 93 Serious Accident Investigation Team.
Stephens brings to the Washington Office extensive regional and park
experience in professional support, policy direction, park and program
oversight, funding management, consultation, technical assistance, and
collaboration with other partner museums and native organizations.
Stephens earned a BA in anthropology from California State University, San
Bernardino, and an MA in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Museum Studies
and Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. Stephens will
begin her duties in August 2016.
*By Hampton Tucker*
*NPS Helping Tribes and Museums Repatriate Native American Remains and
Objects*
The NPS has announced over $1.6 million in grants to Indian tribes and
museums to assist in repatriation of human remains and cultural items to
Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. The grants are provided to
14 Indian tribes and 14 museums for projects related to repatriation,
including consultation and documentation of collections. The grants are
administered by the NPS National Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program.
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 Indian tribes organizations regarding
repatriation. Section 10 of the Act authorizes the Secretary of the
Interior to award grants to assist in implementing provisions of the Act.
For more information, go to https://www.nps.gov/nagpra/.
*From story by Jeremy Barnum*
*Wendy Davis Selected as Superintendent of Keweenaw National Historical
Park*
Wyndeth (Wendy) Davis, a 27-year veteran of the NPS, has been selected as
the Superintendent of Keweenaw NHP. She is currently the Associate Manager
for Interpretive Planning at the NPS Harpers Ferry Design Center.
Davis is an award-winning Interpreter in the NPS, who has enhanced the
field of interpretation for the Service. She has spent her NPS career
building and maintaining unique partnerships to accomplish shared goals and
create new ways of doing business. Davis graduated summa cum laude with a
MS in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of Oregon.
She begins the new assignment on September 4, 2016.
*By Alexandra Picavet*
*Young People Join Effort to Identify Slave Ship Guerrero at Biscayne
National Park*
July 18-23, 2016 divers of Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP) joined
Biscayne NP to search for and identify the slave shipwreck Guerrero. The
Guerrero wrecked near or on Key Largo reef in 1827 with 561 enslaved
Africans on board. Suggestive remnants of an appropriately aged wreck have
been identified on earlier dives.
Diving instructors include previous students of YDWP. Rachel Stewart
trained with the Tennessee Aquatics Project (TAP), and joined YDWP four
years ago. Julian Perez, who trained at the Harbor School in New York and
has been with YDWP for four years, is also a DWP instructor. Joshua
Harrison also trained with TAP. This will be his second year as an
instructor. The three are interns with the NPS.
YDWP is made up of youth 15 to 23 years old. It was created in 2013 by the
organization Diving With a Purpose to train young people to be underwater
archeology advocates. To date, 48 young people have been trained in
maritime archeology with YDWP. They are part of the investigation of the
historic continuum of trade in human beings that funded the world’s economy
for centuries with implications that are still being considered today.
For more information about the project, go to the Diving With a Purpose
Facebook page at http://divingwithapurpose.org
*Join the IAD Celebrations this October!*
Summer means that International Archaeology Day (October 15, 2016) is
getting closer and the 2016 list of Collaborating Organizations is getting
longer! Are you on the list yet? Be sure to submit your event to be part of
the action! Completing the event form will automatically add any
organizations you include on the Sponsoring Institution/Organization line
to the 2016 IAD Collaborating Organizations list. Not ready to list your
event? Fill out the Collaborating Organization agreement form to have your
organization listed on the website now. You can add your event to the
website later when you are ready.
*3-D imagery of Native American Artifacts from Grand Teton National Park*
Staff at Grand Teton NP are working with Idaho State University (ISU) and
various tribes to better document Native American artifacts from the park's
David T. Vernon Collection and create digital 3-D visualizations. Laurance
S. Rockefeller gifted the Vernon Collection, consisting of more than 1,400
Native American artifacts, to Grand Teton NP in 1972. ISU researchers
Yolonda Youngs and Donna Delparte, are working with NPS Museum Curator
Bridgette Guild on the project, funded through the NPS National Center for
Preservation Technology and Training.
Three-D exhibits are planned for the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor
Center in the park. The displays of the objects – such as moccasins, saddle
blankets, cradles or shirts – will allow visitors using electronic
notebooks or tablets set up by displays to virtually zoom-in, rotate and
closely examine them. The ISU researchers have taken hundreds of photos of
these objects to create the visualizations.
The work will develop datasets to aid in creation of interpretive materials
about objects, and training materials for park staff. The project will be
finished by January 2017.
*From Idaho State Journal*
*Final Regulations for Gathering Published*
The NPS has modified the regulation governing the gathering of plants in
national parks to allow members of federally-recognized Indian tribes to
gather and remove plants or plant parts for traditional purposes, and
published the changes in the Federal Register on July 12, 2016. To be
eligible under the rule, a tribe must have a traditional association to
lands within the national park system and plants must be gathered only for
traditional purposes. Agreements between tribes and the NPS will identify
what plants may be gathered and in what quantities, and be subject to
permits that identify the tribal members who may conduct these activities.
The rule retains the existing regulation that prohibits commercial uses of
gathered materials. The final rule will require an Environmental Assessment
and a finding of no significant impact for any agreement between a park and
a tribe. Additionally, the rule will not abrogate, nullify, or diminish any
rights to gather plants by any tribes that have gathering rights under
treaty provisions, or through federal statute, or have a separate gathering
agreement created under this rule.
The changes to the regulation take effect 30 days after July 12, 2016.
After that time, tribes will be able to enter into agreements to conduct
gathering activities.
Read the final rule at
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-07-12/pdf/2016-16434.pdf
*Ex-Superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument Sentenced for
Stealing Human Remains *
Former NPS Superintendent of Effigy Mounds NM Thomas Munson was sentenced
in federal court on July 8, 2016, for stealing the remains of more than 40
American Indians. As part of his plea agreement, he wrote a public
acknowledgement expressing his guilt and apologized for his actions. During
the sentencing hearing, Munson was ordered to serve 10 weekends in jail and
a year of home confinement. He must also complete 100 hours of community
service and pay $108,905 in restitution and a $3,000 fine.
On or about July 16, 1990, Munson removed the remains from the museum
collection of Effigy Mounds NM and concealed them in his garage for more
than two decades. Munson's intent was to circumvent the requirements of the
soon to be enacted Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA). Munson thought thwarting the law would allow the monument to keep
the associated funerary objects in its museum collection.
Although subsequent park administrators were aware of the disappearance,
they did little to recover the bones. In 1998, an investigation by an
outside contractor failed to resolve the mystery. "There will eventually
come a day when this story likely sees the light of day," current
superintendent Jim Nepstad wrote in a memo, "and at that time the NPS will
be confronted with the difficult task of defending itself against the
shameful actions of some of its employees."
For years, Munson lied about the fate of the bones, saying that they might
have been accidentally thrown away or taken to an archeological center.
Only after a 2011 investigation did Munson finally return one box of bones.
In 2012, another investigation uncovered a second box of bones in Munson’s
garage. Both boxes had suffered from improper storage.
*From story by Christina Beck, Christian Science Monitor*
*FEDERAL NEWS*
*Congress Reauthorizes Army Corps of Engineers’ Veterans Curation Program*
On July 7, 2016, President Obama signed the Army Corps of Engineers
Veterans Curation Training Act, which became P.L. 114-189. Under this
initiative, the Corps trains active duty and veteran armed forces personnel
in curation and historic preservation techniques, in part through
cataloguing the Corps' enormous number of archeological materials. The bill
authorized a total of $35 million for the program through 2020.
In 2009, the ACOE St. Louis District’s Mandatory Center of Expertise for
the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections (MCX-CMAC)
implemented the Veterans Curation Program (VCP) and opened labs in Augusta,
Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri. The third opened in 2010 in Washington,
D.C. and relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, in 2011.
Since the inception of the program, 323 veterans have been trained and
employed by the program. Training offered through the VCP includes database
management, report writing, digital assets management, digitizing records,
records management, photography and scanning, objects inventory and
tracking, and objects and records processing.
The ACOE Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of
Archaeological Collections received SAA's 2016 Award for Excellence in
Curation, Collections Management, and Collections-based Research and
Education.
At a reception at the Alexandria laboratory on July 19, 2016, Michael
Trimble, ACOE Chief, Curation and Archives, announced two new laboratories,
one devoted to archives in Suitland, Maryland, and one on the Colville
Reservation in Washington State. Trimble also announced that data from the
projects will be available on the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR)
website after August 2016.
*By David Lindsay, Society for American Archaeology, and Karen Mudar*
*U.S. files Complaint to Recover Acoma War Shield*
The U.S. is seeking to recover an Acoma Pueblo war shield that came up for
sale earlier this year in Paris. The EVE auction house withdrew the shield
from sale after lobbying by the tribe and U.S. government officials,
including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. The pueblo claims the shield is
part of its cultural patrimony, and was stolen in a home burglary in the
1970s and smuggled out of the country.
The AUSA for New Mexico filed a complaint for forfeiture, a civil action
to condemn the shield to the benefit of the U.S. The sale of the shield,
the complaint says, violates the Archaeological Resources Protection Act
because it is over 100 years old and was removed from Native lands without
permission. Unwritten laws prohibit removal of items of cultural patrimony
from the Acoma Pueblo.
New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich has introduced STOP, the Safeguard
Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, which would prohibit the export of items
obtained in violation of federal laws, including NAGPRA, ARPA and the
Antiquities Act. The bill would increase penalties from a maximum of 5
years to10 years for violations of NAGPRA. Besides barring exports, the
bill would establish a two-year amnesty period during which people could
voluntarily return to the tribes cultural objects obtained illegally.
In the U.S., it is illegal to sell ceremonial Native American items
illegally obtained. But in other countries, such as France, it is not. The
proposed budget for the Interior Department sets aside $1 million for a
cultural items unit within BIA Law Enforcement Division. In March,
Congressman Steve Pearce, New Mexico, introduced a resolution calling on
the federal government to work with the tribes globally to halt the
practice of selling sacred cultural items.
*By Anne Constable, The New Mexican*
*Bureau of Land Management Partners with Amah Mutsun on Land Deal*
The BLM in May 2016 entered into an agreement with the Ohlone Amah Mutsun
Tribal Band to share authority for management of native plants, wildlife
and archeology in the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property on the western slopes
of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. Amah Mutsun tribe members hope
that Congress or President Obama will issue a declaration to turn the
5,741-acre federal property into the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National
Monument. The tract is just outside Davenport, and is located in the
traditional territory of the Amah Mutsun.
The Amah Mutsun lack federal recognition and therefore have no claim on
their ancestral land. Recently, however, they created a land trust that
would allow the tribe to buy property or enter into management agreements.
The land conversion process began in 1998, when the Trust for Public Land
bought nearly 7,000 acres of property from the Coast Dairies and Land
Company. California State Parks manages about 400 acres of the Coast
Dairies property, which includes seven beaches just south of Davenport. The
Trust for Public Land has also retained a few parcels of farmland in the
interest of keeping agricultural uses open.
Under the agreement, the BLM will develop a management plan for the
property. Federal land management officials say they will work with locals
to figure out what recreational activities they would like to see—such as
mountain biking, equestrian uses and hiking.
*From story by Jessica and Matthew Renda, San Jose Inside*
*The Federal Archeologist’s Bookshelf*
*Ancestors of Worthy Life: Plantation Slavery and Black Heritage at Mount
Clare* by Teresa S. Moyer. University of Florida Press 2015
Abstract: Black history at historic plantations concerns more than slavery
and freedom; it also tells the story of why blacks in the past are omitted
at places with so much of their history to tell. Historic plantations
exemplify the ways that racism changes and stays the same through the
circumstances that enable black history to be revealed or hidden. Mount
Clare in Baltimore, Maryland, offers a case study of how white history is
told over the stories of black heritage. During Mount Clare’s management by
the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of
Maryland, black history and slavery were ignored in favor of white ancestry
and the material evidences of whites’ ancestors’ societal prominence.
In her balanced discussion, Moyer examines the inextricably entangled lives
of the enslaved, free blacks, and white landowners. Ultimately she argues
that the inclusion of enslaved persons in the history of these sites would
honor these “ancestors of worthy life,” make the social good of public
history available, and address systemic racism in America.
*GRANTS AND TRAINING*: No training announcements were submitted to E-Gram
staff.
*SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC: Solar Calendar in Wupatki National Monument*
Archeologists exploring remote mesas of northern Arizona have confirmed the
presence of a prehistoric solar calendar which has been marking the seasons
for more than 700 years with a striking “shadow dagger” that travels across
its sandstone face.
Researchers made these finds in the backcountry of Wupatki NM, which
includes the ruins of dozens of sites built by Ancestral Puebloans known as
the Kayenta and the Sinagua. Experts with the Museum of Northern Arizona
(MNA) and the NPS set out to explore the isolated reaches of the monument
in 2014, in order to document the full extent of the rock art and other
features that scientists had not studied in decades or, in many cases, had
never seen before.
“As a result of the current project, the NPS now has a complete library of
photographic images of every panel, every element, and every feature [in
the study area]”, said MNA’s David Purcell, who supervised the study.
Researchers used time-lapse, video, and panoramic photos to document the
petroglyphs. The recordings also provide a baseline record in the event of
vandalism, and a way to recover looted images.
More recent markings include graffiti made by American travelers in the
late 1800s, and historic-era images of horses, barns, and cattle, sometimes
with visible brands, scratched into the rock by Navajo inhabitants. But the
study also turned up evidence of human occupation dating back farther than
some researchers expected. A petroglyph of a desert bighorn sheep is
rendered in the Glen Canyon Linear style, a sign of Late Archaic culture,
which dates back as much as 4,000 years.
The majority of the petroglyphs documented by the team seem to be the work
of the Kayenta, who lived in the Wupatki area from about 1150 to 1300 CE.
Among the Kayenta petroglyphs was a cluster of geometric forms. It was
originally recorded by archeologists surveying the area in 1931 and wasn’t
suspected to have played a role in tracking the movement of the sun until
the 1990s. New research confirms that it is an “imaging calendar” — a
time-tracking feature that uses the play of light and shadow — to mark the
winter solstice, as well as the spring and fall equinoxes.
While the area around it is crowded with a variety of images, the calendar
consists of only two large motifs. First, on the left or north side of the
panel, partially protected by a rock overhang, is a set of eight circles,
each 3 to 4 inches across, arranged in rows of two, three, two, and one. To
the right, under another small projection of rock, is a large spiral, which
winds counterclockwise into a coil 10 lines deep.
The solar calendar consists of two elements, a spiral and a set of eight
disks. Using video and time-lapse photography during the “solar milestones”
that mark the start of each season, archeologists observed the appearance
of what they call a “shadow dagger” that interacts with these two elements
in a unique way on those days. On both equinox days, the calendar begins
totally immersed in shadow, until exactly 12 noon local time, when sunlight
first falls on the panel, striking the projection of rock above the spiral,
and forming the triangular shadow. As the hours progress, the dagger — the
only shadow that appears on the spiral that day — narrows and moves upward,
its leading edge running through the precise center of the spiral.
At the same time, to the left, the clutch of eight circles is encroached
upon by another shadow, cast by the outcrop overhead. This shadow falls
precisely along the bottom right edge of the grouped circles — at the same
moment that the dagger bisects the spiral. As time passes, the shadow moves
up, covering some rows of circles in darkness, while leaving others in the
light. “We think that somehow this provides a countdown to the equinox or a
count from the equinox to some other important date, such as planting,”
Purcell said.
Another unique interaction takes place on the equinox, at sunset. At that
time, light passes through a natural crevice in the mesa opposite the
panel, forming what the researchers call a “bar of light” that touches the
upper left edge of the group of circles. And the day after the equinox,
again at sunset, this bar completely covers the whole group of circles, and
touches the edge of the spiral, before receding.
“Because this bar of light moves so much in one day — it does not even
touch the panel on the day before the equinox — this may confirm the exact
date of the equinox,” Purcell said.
A few other rock-art sites in Wupatki have been thought to be solar
calendars, but none of them, so far, has demonstrated the complexity and
specificity observed in this one. It shows that its creators had an
intimate knowledge of the equinoxes and the solstices, and how the light of
those days fell upon that particular site.
The day after the equinox, a bar of light appears to isolate the circles,
before moving right to graze the spiral’s edge. By contrast, on the day
before the equinox, this light bar does not touch the panel at all.
Given that the panel was crafted by the Kayenta, it’s possible that the
solar calendar is a local manifestation of the same knowledge that the
Ancestral Puebloans used to craft solar calendars elsewhere.
“The ethnographic literature is clear that ‘sun priests’ or ‘sun watchers’
are a common and important role in historic Puebloan society, and the
timing of ceremonies and dances requires careful observation of solar
milestones,” Purcell said.
The solar calendar has much in common with Chaco Canyon’s now-defunct
calendar known as the Three Slab Site — where three sandstone panels placed
on end created a dagger of sunlight that either bisected, framed, or grazed
an etched spiral, depending on the season being marked.
In an effort to learn more about solar calendars and what it can tell us
about the Kayenta, their ties to Chaco, and the prehistory of northern
Arizona, Purcell and his colleagues are continuing to study the thousands
of photographs, maps, and hand drawings that the team has produced. Among
the questions they’d like to pursue: Why does the solar calendar mark the
advent of every season except summer?
“The shadow pointer does not mark the summer solstice, and the other
interactions visible on that day are not completely convincing as solstice
markers, so we believe that the people who made the solar calendar were
probably not there to observe the summer solstice,” Purcell said. “Since
the summer solstice really marks mid-summer, not the beginning of summer,
in northern Arizona, the date with which they would have been concerned is
the beginning of the monsoons, which averages July 4.”
The new insights this research has provided into the rock art of Wupatki
adds to the evidence of just how complex the Ancestral Puebloans’
understanding was of the natural world.
Photographs from this research appear in the exhibit “Images on Stone:
Petroglyphs of Wupatki National Monument,” at the Museum of Northern
Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona March 26-September 5, 2016.
* From story by Blake De Pastino, Western Digs*
Archeology E-Gram, distributed via e-mail on a regular basis, includes
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