June 2012 Archeology E-Gram
Passing of Archeologist Bill Rathje
William L. Rathje, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, who
pioneered the study of modern refuse as a scientific discipline, died in
Tucson, Arizona, on May 24, 2012. Rathje's three decades of landmark
studies punctured assumptions of what happens when people throw things
away. He demonstrated that the principles and methods of archeology could
extract information about behavior in contemporary society.
A native of Wheaton, Illinois, Rathje graduated from the University of
Arizona in 1967, and earned his doctorate at Harvard in 1971. Early in his
career, Rathje specialized in Mayan studies. In 1973, he was co-director
of the Cozumel Archaeological Project, sponsored by National Geographic,
and his models of the rise and fall of classic Maya civilization have been
used to explain the fate of other civilizations as well.
In 1973, Rathje began the Garbage Project, which stemmed from an idea by
his students, who collected trash from several parts of Tucson and
correlated it with census data. Their results differed from assumptions
about consumption patterns in specific areas: higher-end products in
wealthier areas, and more modest consumption in less-affluent
neighborhoods. Rathje mobilized a small paid staff and a cohort of
volunteer students to expand the project. Working with the City of Tucson,
they surveyed homeowners about consumption and disposal patterns. City
garbage collectors routed trash containers from the surveyed households to
Rathje's lab where he and his students sorted, weighed, recorded, and
analyzed what they found. They discovered gaps, often significant ones, in
what people reported they used and discarded, compared to what actually
was found.
In 1987, Rathje turned his attention to the landfills themselves, to find
out what they contained and how materials behaved inside them. Using a
bucket auger, workers scooped out vertical shafts of garbage from
landfills, first in Arizona and later across the United States. The
landfill excavations revealed an astonishing lack of knowledge not only
about what was in the country's waste streams, but the eventual fate of
materials buried underground. Conventional wisdom held that much of the
trash in landfills would quickly decompose. Instead, organic materials
were found mummified in the airless depths of sanitary landfills. Items
like hot dogs and lettuce that had been entombed for years looked as if
they had just been recently thrown out. Decades-old newspapers were still
intact and readable. Construction materials, originally thought to be
virtually non-existent in landfills, actually accounted for a significant
portion of waste.
The Garbage Project had an impact on fields beyond archeology, including
nutrition, hazardous waste – including disposal of nuclear materials – and
recycling, and landfill management. Funding increased as the project grew,
with grants coming from USDA, the EPA and other Federal agencies; and
state and municipal grants in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
In 1990, Rathje earned the Award for Public Understanding of Science and
Technology given by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, which cited "his innovative contributions to public understanding
of science and its societal impacts by demonstrating with his creative
'Garbage Project' how the scientific method can document problems and
identify solutions." He also won the 1992 Solon T. Kimball Award for
Public and Applied Anthropology, given by the AAA.
In addition to numerous academic journals, Rathje also wrote popular
articles. In 1992, he collaborated with Cullen Murphy on "Rubbish! The
Archaeology of Landfills.”
By Jeff Harrison
Media Relations, University of Arizona
NPS Archeologist Remembers Bill Rathje
Bill Rathje passed away May 24, 2012, in Tucson, Arizona. He had a
significant effect on the field of archeology, stretching the boundaries
of what archeologists do and the questions they address. After a
successful career as a Mayanist, Bill developed the field in archeology of
modern material culture studies.
To me, however, Bill was an energetic mentor, a perfectionist that threw
himself fully into his projects, including his graduate students. This was
of tremendous value to me as one of the graduate students. I remember a
particularly excruciating 6-month period when I drafted a proposal to the
National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore household hazardous wastes. I
would present Bill with my best graduate student writing, trying to
address the somewhat mysterious (to me) proposal requirements of the NSF’s
Environmental and Water Quality Engineering Directorate, and Bill would
quickly return it to me covered in red ink. After a few iterations of
this, I would think I was getting better because there was less red ink,
but then the next draft would “bleed” as much or more than the first.
While frustrating, this process was exceptionally useful to me and
ultimately paid off in a funded grant.
Working with Bill helped my writing immensely, but also taught me how
important the grants process was to scholarship. Working through reports
and articles with him showed me how attention to detail and clear and
effective writing was a critical skill in archeology, one that has served
me well in the NPS, and in mentoring my own students.
Bill was also acutely aware of the media and the good that positive media
had on developing an understanding of what scientists really do. He was a
master in front of a television camera. He taught me how to develop and
present the “sound bites” that would forward one’s research objectives
while dampening perceptions of lunacy, particularly acute when
anthropology students are doing such nontraditional things as poking
through modern garbage or drilling holes in landfills.
Bill could be very persuasive in front of a lecture hall, or in a
boardroom. He had no problem explaining why garbology was a valid science
and how archeology could contribute to the modern world. Bill was a
charmer, and could tell incredibly funny jokes and stories. He loved to
talk and socialize. While he was by no means a perfect man, his strengths
outweighed his weaknesses. While I have had other mentors in my life,
there was no one quite like Bill Rathje.
By Doug Wilson
Archeologist, Cultural Resources Partnerships
New NPS Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator for Cultural Resources
Marcy Rockman is the new NPS Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator for
Cultural Resources, joining the NPS and initiating the position in October
2011. Rockman is an archeologist by training. She has a B.Sc. in Geology
from the College of William and Mary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in
Anthropology from the University of Arizona. She recently completed a
2009–2011 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the EPA’s National Homeland
Security Research Center, Washington, DC; and is a Fellow with the Cotsen
Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Prior to her AAAS fellowship, she worked
in cultural resource management in California and Arizona. She has
conducted fieldwork in the American West, Europe, and the Middle East.
Rockman’s long-term research focus is the landscape learning process - how
human populations gather, share, remember, and transmit environmental
information. Her current role addresses impacts of climate change on
cultural resources across the nation, and translation of archeological
information into forms useful for Federal- and partnerships-level planning
regarding adaptation and resilience. Rockman is also the lead editor of
two edited volumes about archeology, including the new “Archaeology in
Society: Its Relevance in the Modern World” released in December 2011 by
Springer Press and has published multiple scholarly chapters and journal
articles.
Visitors Peer Into Past at Archeological Open House at Hopewell Culture
National Historical Park
Hopewell Culture NHP hosted an open house at Hopewell Mound Group,
Chillicothe, Ohio, on June 2-4, 2012. Over 100 visitors watched ongoing
archeological research and learned from researchers. Paul Pacheco, State
University of New York/Geneseo, and DeeAnne Wymer, Bloomsburg University,
Pennsylvania, were working at Hopewell Mound Group with anthropology
students from both universities.
Tucked away on the north side of the earthwork, the choice of location for
the excavation was based on results of a 1994 project led by Bill Dancey,
Ohio State University. The high density of Hopewell artifacts led Pacheco
and Wymer to their project area. The researchers have found projectile
points, pieces of pottery and more than 200 bladelettes. Pacheco said they
also have found obsidian native only to Wyoming or Idaho. Structural finds
include earth ovens, where piled rock is cracked and flecks of burnt
orange charcoal are present.
Sandy Bender, an anthropology student participating in the dig, said they
also have found spots where its posts likely once stood to support a
dwelling or other structure. Based on the types of artifacts discovered,
the site appears to be a domestic area that would have been in use while
ceremonial events were taking place inside the earthwork at Hopewell Mound
Group.
For more information about Hopewell Culture NHP, go to
http://www.nps.gov/hocu/index.htm
By Rick Perkins
Chief Ranger, Hopewell Culture NHP
NPS Awards Civil War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants
The NPS has announced the award of more than $3.8 million in grants to
help with land acquisition at six Civil War battlefields. Grant projects
include easement purchases at Cross Keys, Virginia ($181,125); Tom’s
Brook, Virginia ($25,000); Buckland Mills, Virginia ($3,350,060); and fee
simple acquisition at Mill Springs, Kentucky ($90,800); South Mountain,
Maryland ($149,000); and Bentonville, North Carolina ($45,325).
The grants were made from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program
(ABPP) to help states and local communities acquire and preserve
threatened Civil War battlefield land outside the boundaries of national
park units. Priority was given to battlefields listed in the NPS Civil War
Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields
(CWSAC Report). Funds were awarded based on the property’s location within
CWSAC-defined core and/or study areas, the threat to the battlefield land
to be acquired, and the availability of required non-Federal matching
funds.
The grant funds were made available under the Department of Defense and
Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-10) and
the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-74), which
appropriated a combined $17,967,600 for the Civil War battlefield land
acquisition grants program. Applications for the balance of the funds are
accepted at any time. Information to consider in applying for the Civil
War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants includes:
Grants are awarded through a competitive process to units of state and
local governments.
Private non-profit groups may apply in partnership with state or local
government sponsors;
Each grant requires a dollar-for-dollar non-Federal match;
Grants are available for the fee simple acquisition of land, or for the
acquisition of permanent, protective interests in land at Civil War
battlefields listed in the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission's (CWSAC)
1993 Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields;
Higher consideration will be given to proposals for acquisition of
endangered lands at battlefields defined as Priority I or II sites in the
CWSAC report.
Complete guidelines for grant eligibility and application forms are
available online at http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp
For further information, contact Kristen McMasters, ABPP Grants Manager,
at 202-354-2037.
San Antonio Missions Cleared by Department of the Interior for World
Heritage Nomination
The DOI has authorized the San Antonio Franciscan Missions for nomination
to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The San Antonio Franciscan Missions,
currently on the Tentative List of Potential Future Nominations and
recently recommended for World Heritage nomination by the Federal
Interagency Panel for World Heritage, includes four missions and their
archeological resources (San Antonio Missions NHP), and the Alamo (Mission
San Antonio de Valero). San Antonio Missions NHP preserves four missions
that embody the cultural roots of this great city and represents the
single largest concentration of Spanish Colonial resources in the United
States.
The NPS will propose the nomination to the 21-nation World Heritage
Committee during the next available round of nominations. The nomination
dossier will be completed by the end of 2013, in time for consideration by
the World Heritage Committee in 2015.
San Antonio Missions NHP, attracting more than 1.6 million visitors a
year, supports nearly $100 million in economic activity annually. Those
dollars translate into over 1,100 jobs for the local San Antonio
community. A National Parks Conservation Association report estimated that
a $1 investment in the park yields $16 in local economic activity.
World Heritage listing is a prestigious designation that acknowledges the
historical, cultural or natural value of a site, as well as the commitment
of the sovereign nation and the site’s owners to its long-term protection
and management. Under the World Heritage Convention, the Secretary of the
Interior is charged with identifying and nominating worthy U.S. sites that
display superlative cultural and/or natural attributes for designation.
For more information on the San Antonio Missions NHP, go to
www.nps.gov/saan/index.htm
For more information on the World Heritage Sites, go to
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
National Park Foundation Awards $658,000 to 2012 America’s Best Idea Grant
Recipients
The National Park Foundation has announced $658,000 in grants will be
awarded to the 49 parks participate in the 2012 America’s Best Idea
program. Inspired by Ken Burns’ documentary “The National Parks: America’s
Best Idea,” the America’s Best Idea grant program funds park projects
designed to connect underserved and under-engaged populations with
national parks.
Some archeological programs made possible through the 2012 America’s Best
Idea grants include programs at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and
Katmai National Park and Preserve. High school students will participate
in a two-week archeological dig in Great Smokies NP along with archeology
students and professors from the University of Tennessee. The students
will learn about the process of archeology, how artifacts tell a story
through context.
The descendants of the Alutiiq refugees who fled the largest eruption of
the 20th century will journey back to their ancestral home near Novarupta,
Katmai NP and P, known as the “American Pompeii.” The youth will hike,
camp, learn about geology, and study with an anthropologist who will
retell the story of
their ancestors’ evacuation.
Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official
charity of America’s national parks. For a full listing of participating
parks and program descriptions, visit the National Park Foundation website
at www.nationalparks.org
Archeological Resources in “Teaching with Historic Places”
For more than 20 years NPS Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) has been
offering curriculum-based lesson plans about sites on the National
Register of Historic Places. The plans use historic sites to explore
American history. They focus on historic places, as tangible links to the
past and as sources of evidence, to help teach academic subjects, raise
awareness of available information about places, and foster an
appreciation for the value of cultural resources. Aimed at middle school
students, the lesson plans can be adapted both for older and younger
grades and link to the national Curriculum Standards for History for
Grades 5-12, and Social Studies standards for middle school.
Currently, 140 lesson plans are available. At least ten of the lesson
plans have an archeological focus. The archeology lesson plans are an
eclectic mix of historic themes and time periods that include
transportation (King of Prussia Inn, PA); mining (Johnson Lake Mine, NV);
settlement (Frederica, GA); and ironworking (Saugus, MA). There are also
lesson plans about a pre-Civil War interracial town (New Philadelphia, IL)
and Native American settlements (Gran Quivera, NM, and Knife River, ND).
The 20+ lessons plans having to do with the Civil War are particularly
relevant during this sesquicentennial of the conflict between the States.
The lesson plans are an excellent way to introduce students to
archeological concepts and the unique information and perspectives that
archeology can provide. To obtain a list of lesson plans with an
archeological focus choose “Archeology” on the Lesson Plan Index: Theme
page at www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/descrip.htm of TwHP.
To learn more about Teaching with Historic Places, visit the website at
www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp.
More information about Teaching with Historic Places is available in
"History in the Hands of Tomorrow's Citizens,” at
http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/23-08/23-08-1.pdf. The article was published
by Carol Shull and Beth Boland in the Cultural Resource Management issue
Creative Teaching with Historic Places (CRM Vol. 23, No. 8, 2000). Another
useful article is “Teaching with Historic Places Looks Back, Looks
Forward,” (Forum Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 2004).
National NAGPRA Launches On-Demand Training Video Series
The National NAGPRA Program is excited to announce the launch of its
YouTube Channel. The channel now features eight training videos covering
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and
its implementing regulations. In addition to an in-depth treatment of the
law, the videos include grant-writing tips, first-person narratives, and
program statistics. The eight segments in the series, which are available
on-demand, are:
NAGPRA
NAGPRA Notices
NAGPRA Grants
Consultation under NAGPRA
Decision-making under NAGPRA
NAGPRA Civil Penalties
NAGPRA Review Committee
The Development of NAGPRA
In the course of producing the video series, the National NAGPRA Program
conducted fifty interviews with Indian tribe and Native Hawaiian
organization members, museum and scientific organization officials,
Federal agency representatives, and cultural heritage stewards in ten
cities nationwide. The interviews themselves comprise an important archive
for studying the history of NAGPRA.
Visit the site at www.youtube.com/user/NationalNAGPRA. For more
information about the National NAGPRA Program, go to www.nps.gov/nagpra/
Contact: [log in to unmask]
NPS History Program Offers Training in Oral History
The NPS History Program will offer "Effective Oral History: Interviews,
project management and practical applications" (NPS-2012-0910-STMA)
September 10-14, 2012, at the Stephen T. Mather Training Center, Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia. This workshop is a great opportunity for hands-on
learning about oral history practice led by a team of experienced NPS oral
historians. The instructor team includes historians, an ethnographer,
archivists, and a solicitor.
Topics include oral history project planning; legal and ethical issues;
recording technologies (audio and video); oral history and ethnography;
interview preparation; interviewing; processing interviews (indexing and
transcribing); preserving, archiving, and managing oral history
interviews; using oral history in interpretive programs, exhibits, Web
sites, and publications.
The goal of this course is to apply oral history theory and principles.
Much of the classroom time will be spent practicing all phases of an oral
history project. Participants will also conduct and critique an interview
on-site. Instructors will share case studies based on NPS oral history
projects they have designed and completed.
The course is intended for historians, interpreters, ethnographers,
archivists, and museum curators who conduct oral history projects, and
staff with collateral responsibility for oral history projects.
The course, listed in DOI Learn, requires supervisory approval. There is
no tuition charge; travel scholarships are available. For questions
regarding the course, contact Lu Ann Jones, Park History Program, WASO,
(202) 354-2219.
Registration for 2012 Pecos Conference
Mark your calendars and register early! The 85th Pecos Conference,
co-hosted by School for Advanced Research, Museum of Indian Arts and
Culture, New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office and others, will be
held at Pecos NHP on August 9-12, 2012. First inspired and organized by
A.V. Kidder in 1927, the Pecos Conference has no formal organization or
permanent leadership. Open to all, the Pecos Conference remains an
important opportunity for students and students of prehistory to meet with
professional archeologists on an informal basis to learn about the
profession, gain access to resources and research opportunities, and to
test new methods and theories related to archeology.
Expect the highest caliber reports from the field and labs (as usual).
Same great on-site camping as in 2007 is available. For more information
on the conference, please visit the conference website:
http://www.swanet.org/2012_pecos_conference or find us on Facebook.
Mount Vernon's Mystery Midden
NPS partner Mount Vernon Ladies Association’s archeologists have announced
that the website for the Archaeological Collections Online Project – South
Grove Midden is live. The two year project to analyze and digitize more
than 120,000 artifacts excavated between 1990 and 1994 is directed by
Eleanor Breen. It dates from the mid-eighteenth to the twentieth century,
with the bulk of the assemblage deposited prior to the Revolutionary War.
The first component available on the website is the Invoices and Orders
database, that contains information about the the objects and shipping
materials received from England between 1754 and 1773. Almost 4,000
objects are searchable and represent typical material culture from Mount
Vernon. Each object is matched with Washington’s corresponding order to
compare what was ordered and what was received. The database documents
materials intended for use by George and Martha Washington; other items,
like the coarse linen fabric called oznabrig, were destined for the
growing community of enslaved individual.
The Invoice and Order database can be searched on the Midden website or
downloaded. A manual and FAQs are available on the website to facilitate
using the database. Over the next several months additional content will
be added to the Midden website including the 400 Objects database,
featuring selected objects from the archeological site.
To visit the website, go to http://mountvernonmidden.org. Progress of
analysis of the Midden site can be followed on the weekly blog, linked to
the Midden website and accessible by “liking” Mount Vernon’s Mystery
Midden Facebook page.
The project’s Facebook page is “Mount Vernon’s Mystery Midden”
www.facebook.com/pages/Mount-Vernons-Mystery-Midden/117164641680347
Projects in Parks: Projects in Parks is taking a break this month.
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.
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