Archeology E-Gram October 2022

Anthropologist Superintendent of Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites

Jennifer Hardin is the new superintendent of Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites. Both sites are located in the Essex National Heritage Area in Massachusetts. Hardin holds both a Ph.D. and a MA in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, as well as a MA in Applied Anthropology from the University of South Florida.

Hardin began her federal career in 2009 at Yosemite NP, where she served as park anthropologist and Tribal liaison. She also worked for several years with the Federal Subsistence Management Program in Alaska. Since 2019, Hardin has served as chief of External Affairs at Glen Canyon NRA and Rainbow Bridge NM in Utah. At both sites, Hardin led multiple park teams to address critical resource protection needs. These included the protection of irreplaceable archeological assets and the provision of water- and land-based recreation opportunities.

Her tour of duty began October 23, 2022.

San Juan Island National Historical Park Opens Visitor Center with Tribal Assistance

In June 2022 San Juan Island NHP opened the new American Camp Visitor Center in collaboration with participating Coast Salish Tribes traditionally associated with parklands. Park staff worked with tribal representatives over 18 months to develop exhibits that enhance visitor experiences and highlight enduring connections of Coast Salish Tribes to culturally significant lands in the park. Exhibits include a wall-to-wall mural depicting traditional lifeways prior to colonial settlement, living languages audio recorded by speakers of four Indigenous languages, a Coast Salish ocean travel canoe model, and canoe paddles carved by Tribal members from each participating Tribe.

National Historic Landmarks Program Releases New Theme Study

The National Historic Landmarks Program has announced the release of a new theme study Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites. The study identified the Cold War period to be from the detonation of the first two atomic bombs in 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The historic context section introduces the ways in which international affairs and the political and military challenges of the Cold War era influenced the weapons systems and defense programs of the United States. A study list includes 24 potential Cold War NHLs for consideration. The context here and in other NHL theme studies can also inform National Register of Historic Places nominations.

The report is available on the National Historic Landmarks Program website – Recent Theme Studies.

National Park Service Releases Traditional Cultural Places Bulletin for Comment

A “traditional cultural place” (TCP) is a building, structure, object, site, or district that is eligible for inclusion in the National Register for its significance to a living community because of its association with cultural beliefs, customs, or practices that are rooted in the community’s history and that are important in maintaining the community’s cultural identity. As the nation’s official list of buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture, the National Register includes many types of historic places, reflecting the diversity of the nation's history and culture.

The National Register Program issued the original TCP Bulletin in 1990 and revised versions in 1992 and 1998. This draft, now available for comment, provides in plain language, guidance for developing TCP documentation and includes additional examples and expanded discussions of acknowledging community-provided information and respecting confidentiality.

The Draft TCP Bulletin is available now for public comment at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/TCPBulletin

Timpanogos Cave National Monument Celebrates Centennial

Timpanogos Cave NM celebrated its centennial birthday on October 14, 2022. The cave system was made an official National Monument by President Warren G. Harding. The Timpanogos Cave system has been cared for by many groups, both local and federal, since the first discovery of Hansen Cave in 1887. The 100th anniversary of the monument celebrates this effort to preserve the caves for future generations.

You might not think that a park unit established for its geology would have very much to do with archeology but, in fact, without archeology we probably wouldn’t have Timpanogos Cave NM. It was the Antiquities Act, passed by Congress to protect archeological resources on Federal lands, that gave President Harding the power to establish this national monument. Every time we celebrate national monuments we should remember where they came from!

To learn more about Timpanogos Cave NM and the celebrations, go to Timpanogos Cave National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

To learn more about the Antiquities Act, go to NPS Archeology Program: About the Antiquities Act

New Film on The Archaeology Channel

The Archaeology Channel has a new archeology film in its Heritage series, beginning on October 17. You can watch this and other films in the series on your smart TV with Roku or access them at heritagetac.org.

Ancient History of Anatolia: Adventure of Neolithic from East to West
This film covers the development of the Neolithic culture, which started with hunter-gatherer communities' transitioning to agriculture in the core regions of Anatolia between 13,000 and 5,000 BC and its spread to Europe. The documentary team has approached the making of this film with a key question in mind: How did civilization develop, beginning in these ancient times, from the humble human origins in small, scattered, and nomadic hunter-gatherer bands?

The Federal Archeologist’s Bookshelf: Forecast for the US CRM Industry and Job Market, 2022–2031 by Jeffrey H. Altschul and Terry H. Klein in Advances in Archaeological Practice, Published online by Cambridge University Press, 17 August 2022

In the next 10 years, the US cultural resource management (CRM) industry is expected to grow due to monies spent on infrastructure and development activities and associated planning and compliance needs. Between US fiscal years 2022 and 2031, annual spending on CRM is estimated to increase from about $1.46 to $1.85 billion, due in part to growth in the US economy but also to a projected $1 billion of CRM activities as a product of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in November 2021. The increased spending will lead to the creation of about 11,000 new full-time positions in all CRM fields. Archeologists will be needed to fill more than 8,000 positions, and of these, about 70% will require advanced degrees.

The authors examined the current economic state of the CRM industry, through analyzing the effect on the CRM labor market of forecasted growth in the US economy and increased CRM activity due to the newly passed bill. They projected both the number of jobs needed to meet CRM demand and the number of qualified people entering the job market over the next decade. If all the archeologists graduating from current graduate programs in the next decade entered the CRM field (about 3,250), there would still be a job deficit for MA/PhD CRM archeologists of about 2,400.

Based on current graduation rates, there will be a significant MA/PhD-level gap between positions to be filled and available graduates to fill those positions. Accordingly, there is a compelling need to (a) stop the trend to close or decrease the size of current graduate programs, (b) reorient academic programs to give a greater emphasis to the skills needed to be successful in CRM, and (c) better integrate academic and applied archeology to leverage the vast amount of data that will be generated in the next decade to best benefit the public and our shared human past.

To read the full article, go to Forecast for the US CRM Industry and Job Market, 2022–2031 | Advances in Archaeological Practice | Cambridge Core

WEBINARS AND TRAINING

Cotter Award Webinar

Join the NPS Archeology Program on November 15, to celebrate the professional achievements of Cotter Award winner David Cooper. He founded the Wisconsin state underwater archaeology program, initiated survey of historic Great Lakes shipwrecks and played a lead role in locating, protecting, and educating public about submerged resources in Lake Superior. He helped establish the U.S. Navy’s first underwater archeology program. At Grand Portage NM, Cooper, working with Grand Portage Anishinaabeg members, revolutionized understanding of the park’s 8.5 mile portage use prior to the fur trade era. At Apostle Islands NS, Cooper works creatively to expand baseline documentation of the park’s cultural resources and advises on historic preservation, working with historic use families and public interest organizations. He actively partners with various Tribal partners, SHPOS, THPOS, and other groups, to bring expertise and support to cultural resource stewardship.

Time: Nov 15, 2022 03:00 pm ET
Join ZoomGov Meeting: https://doitalent.zoomgov.com/j/1616465523

Tribal Consultation Webinar Series

Federal agencies are required to engage in regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with Tribal officials. Government-to-government relationships should include regular and timely communication so that tribes may provide input on issues that may have a substantial direct effect on them. The Tribal Consultation Webinar series is being offered for NPS employees looking for an introduction into the Tribal consultation process, or those who want to refresh their skills or ask experts for advice on best consultation practices for managing park resources.

November 15, 2022 - Cross-cultural Communication - How to Communicate with Tribes
December 13, 2022 - Shared Stewardship
January 10, 2023 - Applied Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

These webinars are offered on the second Tuesday of the month, using the MS Teams platform, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET.

Register through the Common Leaning Portal. The link registers you for full series but you may attend as few or as many as you wish. Speakers for each session and additional information are available on the Common Learning Portal.

Contact: Cari Kreshak, e-mail us

SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC: Historic Canoe Recovered from Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota

Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archeologists, alongside partners from Wisconsin’s Native Nations, recovered a 3,000-year-old dugout canoe from Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, a year after recovery of a 1,200-year-old canoe in November 2021. Radiocarbon dating of the latest canoe places it to 1000 B.C., making it the oldest ever discovered in the Great Lakes region. Although it is likely that water transportation dates to the arrival of Native peoples in this region, this discovery provides the earliest direct evidence.

The canoe is carved from a single piece of white oak and measures approximately 14.5 feet in length. It was initially located by Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archeologist Tamara Thomsen during a recreational dive. Discussions about recovering it from the lakebed began immediately following the discovery, in collaboration with Wisconsin’s Native Nations. It was found in the same area the first canoe was discovered, suggesting that the location of Lake Mendota’s shoreline may have once been much lower, according to James Skibo, Wisconsin Historical Society state archeologist.

“Finding an additional historically significant canoe in Lake Mendota …unlocks invaluable research and educational opportunities to explore the technological, cultural, and stylistic changes that occurred in dugout canoe design over 3,000 years,” said Skibo. “Since it was located within 100 yards of where the first canoe was found at the bottom of a drop-off in the lakebed, the find has prompted us to … explore the possibility that the canoes were near what is now submerged village sites.”

“The recovery of this canoe built by our ancestors gives further physical proof that Native people have occupied Teejop (Four Lakes) for millennia, that our ancestral lands are here and we had a developed society of transportation, trade and commerce,” said Ho-Chunk President Marlon WhiteEagle. “Every person that harvested and constructed this caašgegu (white oak) into a canoe put a piece of themselves into it. By preserving this canoe, we are honoring those that came before us. We appreciate our partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, working together to preserve part of not only our ancestors’ history but our state’s history.”

The canoe was transported to the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison for preservation and storage. It will be cleaned and cared for by Tribal members and Wisconsin Historical Society staff before being lowered into a preservation vat also containing the 1,200-year-old canoe discovered in 2021. Together the canoes will undergo a two-year preservation process that will conclude with freeze-drying to remove any remaining water.

For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.

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 E-Gram archive is available at https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1038/archeology-e-gram.htm.

Contact: Karen Mudar at e-mail us to contribute news items and to subscribe.