Welcome

Welcome to Archeology for Interpreters: A Guide to Knowledge of the Resource! Through this guide, interpreters may gain the basic knowledge needed to carry out effective interpretation of archeological resources. This guide covers interpreting archeological resources-the physical evidences of past human activity, including evidences of the effects of that activity on the environment (such as Indian mounds, campsites, battlefields, farms, shipwrecks, and trash pits)-in all kinds of places (such as national parks, museums, and the classroom.) This guide is one of several additional developmental opportunities available to NPS interpretive rangers.

This guide supports Effective Interpretation of Archeological Resources: The Archeology-Interpretation Shared Competency Course of Study (Module 440) finalized in 2000. An interdisciplinary work group of archeologists and interpreters developed this training module in response to the NPs Employee Training and Development Strategy. Through this joint course of study archeologists and interpreters can be trained together in the skills and abilities needed to carry out effective interpretation of archeological resources.

Archeology for Interpreters: A Guide to Knowledge of the Resource is not a substitute for Effective Interpretation of Archeological Resources: The Archeology-Interpretation Shared Competency Course of Study. Rather, it is a resource for learning about archeology.

Guide purpose

This guide creates the opportunity for participants to learn about archeological methods, to explore how archeological interpretations are made, to ascribe meaning to archeological resources, and to increase public understanding and concern for the preservation and protection of archeological resources.

Visitors to many National Parks see the results of archaeology. Parks in the Southwest come to mind most readily because the spectacular ruins have been well publicized, but nearly all parks have archaeological resources. Often the archaeology is less visible, but is fundamental to the park's purpose. Archeological resources are actively interpreted in hundreds of national parks, monuments and recreation areas across the nation.

Many parks offer a variety of ways for visitors to learn about archaeology: tours, pamphlets, interpretive trails and roadside displays, films, and book sales in the visitors center. In most National Parks archaeologists are not directly involved with the public but provide essential information to the "front-line" interpretive staff who then convey it to visitors. Less frequently, visitors see actual excavation in progress and get to talk to actual archaeologists. Through web links and suggested interpretive strategies offered in the FOR YOUR INFORMATION, CASE STUDY, TRY IT YOURSELF, FUN FACT and USE WHAT YOU KNOW boxes, this guide presents examples of how archeological resources may be effectively interpreted in the national parks.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is designed for those who are interested in or need to learn more about interpreting archeological resources for the public. Since the National Park Service developed this guide, an important audience includes the archeologists, interpreters, cultural resources managers, educators, planners, museum staff, and other NPS staff who investigates, interpret, preserve and share with the public information regarding archeological resources.

This guide is primarily designed for self-motivated learning. Our goal is to increase your base of knowledge about the effective interpretation of archeological resources each time you visit. We planned this guide to allow you to tailor your visit to what you want to learn today. In other words, you can come back as frequently as you want and learn at your own pace.

In the end, we hope you find a number of valuable resources for further exploration in this guide, particularly through the numerous links we provide to other significant sources of on-line activities, case studies and related information. We plan to periodically update those links as we discover relevant new materials about and methods for effectively interpreting archeological resources.

Format

We hope you find this guide both informative and fun. It consists of ten sections, including the one you are in right now. Each contains information on a particular set of subject matter, such as the methods and concepts in archeology and sensitivity.

If you know little about archeological resources, we suggest that you complete all sections in the order they are presented.

The time it takes to work through the whole guide depends on how much knowledge you wish to extract. It takes approximately twenty hours to read all the text, complete the on-line activities, link to and read the case studies, and explore all the links in each section.

The highlights of each section are photographs, links to illustrative case studies, additional information sources and/or on-line activities, and a glossary linked to keywords in the text and marked by underlining the first time they appear in a section. In each section, you are provided with a list of suggested readings. Several sources furnished the photographs and illustrations (see Credits) in order to demonstrate effective archeological resource interpretation experience and expertise at the federal, state, and local levels.

Each section may include TRY IT YOURSELF, CASE STUDY, FUN FACT, FOR YOUR INFORMATION, and USE WHAT YOU KNOW boxes that are linked to other web sites.

- Activities in TRY IT YOURSELF boxes provide you with the opportunity for interactive study of archeological methods such as seriation, artifact analysis and site sampling strategies. While many of these activities are designed for students, you may find the information and interaction they provide valuable in increasing both you own understanding of the concept or method and your ability to explain the concept or method to visitors.

- Each CASE STUDY demonstrates some or all of the concepts or methods discussed in that section. Where possible the case study represents archeological work undertaken within a national park.

- FUN FACTS offer unique insights into archeology.

- FOR YOUR INFORMATION boxes suggest additional resources.

- The Highlighted Case Study contains questions to help you USE WHAT YOU KNOW to interpret archeological resources in any situation.

At the end of each chapter there is a USE WHAT YOU KNOW box with questions to help assess your knowledge and understanding of the material covered.

Please note that web addresses provided in CASE STUDY, TRY IT YOURSELF, FUN FACT, and FOR YOUR INFORMATION boxes are current at the date of guide publication (date appears in parenthesis in each box) but may change beyond the control of the NPS. Also note that the NPS Internet policy does not permit links to commercial web sites (URL that ends in .COM). Therefore, this guide only links to web sites of educational institutions, non-profit organizations, state agencies, and federal agencies. Highly recommended web sites are particularly relevant to issues discussed in the text.

As a final note, the spelling of "archeology" and its derivatives follows the conventions of the federal government. The spelling commonly used in academia and in publications for the public, "archaeology," is followed when appropriate in quotations and bibliographical citations.

Navigating the guide

This guide is designed to be user friendly. The top of each page is clearly marked with the title and number of the section you are in, and the title of the currently active subsection appears in bold above the text.

Some of the features of this online guide that crosscut or are present in all sections are:

- A navigation column with all the section titles. It allows you to quickly jump between and within sections in order to match the course to your current needs.

- A sub-menu on the navigation column that appears for the current section. The sub-menu provides active links to all the sub-sections.

- Left- and right-arrows at the bottom of each page. These allow you to move through the entire course from beginning to end, or through an entire section.

- Many archeological terms link to the Glossary. The first time each term appears in a section it is underlined. Clicking on an underlined term will take you directly to the Glossary. A link to the Glossary is always available from the right navigation column.

- A print version of each section.

USE WHAT YOU KNOW: ASSESS YOUR KNOWLEDGE — What do you know about archeology already? — What resources do you use to learn about archeology? —What do you hope to learn from this distance learning course?

Please send questions or comments about this guide to Barbara Little, dca@nps.gov

References S

Sections of this chapter were taken from:

Childs, S. Terry and Eileen Corcoran
2000     Managing Archeological Collections-Technical Assistance. Archeology Program, National Park Service, Washington, D.C.

National Park Service
2000     Effective Interpretation of Archeological Resources: The Archeology-Interpretation Shared Competency Course of Study (Module 440)