Session Abstract
Federal, state, and even local governments in the USA have issued standards and guidelines for archaeological investigations in their respective jurisdictions. Standards and guidelines for public outreach programs, including those required in connection with mandated archaeological studies, seem to be wholly lacking. Who is qualified to convey archaeological findings to public audiences? What constitutes an appropriate, acceptable product prepared for public audiences? By whom and by what means should these products be evaluated? Contributors to this session explore the goals of public programming, consider some of the criteria by which these programs might be evaluated, and comment on the wisdom of establishing guidelines and standards for public interpretation.
James G. Gibb
2554 Carrollton Road
Annapolis, MD 21403
410.263.1102
jggibb@erols.com
Participants
2) Be All You Can Be: Evaluating Archeological Outreach
Programs
Arthur S. Krupicz, Independent Scholar
We are currently situated
within the most active period of outreach development in American archaeology's
history. To continue this trend, our programs must be maintained and improved
upon. This process involves several steps, some logistical and some conceptual.
Primary among these is program evaluation. Acknowledging that archaeologists
are not trained to conduct such work, we may look at other disciplines
for guidance. But doing such work involves more than following a step-chart.
Archaeologists must also be aware of how outreach applies to their own
concepts of disciplinary identity, purpose, and community. Most importantly,
the level of commitment required by evaluation brings to the fore issues
of institutional legitimacy: To what degree is American archaeology willing
to accept outreach as a legitimate member of its internal political environment?
These issues must be addressed if evaluation, outreach, and archaeology
are to succeed on the scale we would like.
3) Digging our way towards 2007: Public Archaeology at
James Fort
Eric Deetz, APVA, Jamestown Rediscovery
The APVA Jamestown Rediscovery
project began in 1994 with a commitment to make the project as accessible
to public as possible. Over the last six excavation seasons the public
aspect of the project has evolved to meet the needs of research and visitation
alike. With a limited staff in relation to number of annual visitors we
have focused our public outreach on three fronts: on-site tours, an extensive
web site, and annual publications. All of these strategies have proven
successful in spite of potential pitfalls and limitations. Due to the historic
significance of the Jamestown story, the Jamestown rediscovery project
is being conducted on a site with built-in visitation of hundreds of thousands
of people annually. Working under the eye of an ever-present public has
presented certain challenges. Presenting preliminary results on a regular
basis, working with over sixty volunteer site interpreters, and continuing
a productive work schedule have all been a challenge for our staff. This
paper will share our program's results as well as a few cautionary tales
along the way.
4) For a General Audience: Public Outreach at the Anthropological
Studies Center
Grace H. Ziesing, Adrian Praetzellis, and Mary Praetzellis
In exurban California, a
small, miraculously undeveloped valley was targeted for flooding with a
new reservoir. Archaeological investigators spent 15 years researching,
surveying, and recording more than 80 sites. Many of the families who had
once lived in the area contributed to the research. They submitted themselves
to lengthy oral-history interviews, drew memory maps, shared their family
archives, and accompanied archaeologists on site visits.
In an effort to give some
of their history back to them, two public outreach products were written
with the one-time residents in mind. The results were gratifying. As one
area descendant wrote to us: "I was sad when they were going to build the
dam, But now I am happy the history is recovered."
The Anthropological Studies
Center has been including "public-oriented" projects in its contracts with
public agencies for the last decade. A range of products has been proffered,
including pamphlets, monographs, exhibits, and videos, all of which have
been widely distributed and many of which have been well praised. This
paper explores the primary author's early experiences with "public outreach"
and presents examples of successful products.
5) Sharing the Past Effectively: An Evaluation of Passport
In Time Excavation Projects
Catherine Dickson
The United States Forest
Service's Passport In Time (PIT) program is designed to involve the public
in archaeology on National Forest land. Three of the program's goals are:
1) allow archaeologists to conduct research they would not otherwise have
the time or the budget to conduct; 2) teach the public about history and
prehistory, as well as how and why archaeologists study them; and 3) create
a constituency of advocates for archaeology. This study evaluates these
three goals based on interviews that took place in late 1996 and early
1997 with a limited number of volunteers who worked on excavation projects
and archaeologists who led excavation projects. Whether or not PIT is achieving
each goal is considered and recommendations for improvement are provided.
6) The National Park Service Archaeology-Interpretation
Shared Competencies Curriculum
John H. Jameson, Jr., National Park Service
A National Park Service
(NPS) training curriculum has been established to strengthen the relationships
between archaeology and public interpretation and ultimately to improve
how archaeology is presented to the public. Archaeologists, interpreters,
and educators have collaborated in developing a curriculum that can be
used by NPS in training employees in the three career fields. They will
be trained together in the skills and abilities (shared competencies) needed
to carry out a successful interpretation program. Among the main precepts
of the curriculum are the needs for interdisciplinary communication and
for sensitive interpretation to multicultural audiences. The initiative
stems from a service-wide push to improve training and development of its
employees and to promote better methods for interpreting archaeological
resources.
7) Discussion
Martha Williams