Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Public archaeology is a forum for engaging stakeholders from all backgrounds. Beyond the professional archaeological community, repository specialists, and the individual practitioners of our discipline, there is another audience—the broader public—that takes equal joy in discovering the past. By connecting with them at the community and individual levels, we create a relationship between archaeologists and the public that promotes and protects cultural heritage. Of the various ways in which public archaeology operates, perhaps one of the most successful and satisfying ways is through direct public interaction with real sites and artifacts. Through programs that allow people to view, touch, and care for archaeological materials, we have found a way to make the past come alive and feel personal to people in the present. The different approaches presented here describe both successes and challenges of that engagement: they are guides and stories to learn from. Though they are as diverse as the practice of archaeology itself, their common thread is the creation of genuine experiences with the past for our communities in the present.

Other Keywords
Public and Community Archaeology • Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Conservation and Curation • Education • Underwater Archaeology • Deaccessioning • Plains Village • Veterans • Paleoindian and Paleoamerican • Education/Pedagogy

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • North America • United Mexican States (Country) • Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Antigua and Barbuda (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • The Benefits and Challenges of Active Excavations as Tools for Interpretation and Public Outreach: Examples from Blackwater Draw Locality 1 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brendon Asher. Heather Smith.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Blackwater Draw Locality 1 is one of few archaeological sites in North America open to the public with exposed cultural deposits on permanent display and protected by an enclosed structure. With deposits spanning the last 13,000 years, the locality provides a unique opportunity to interpret in situ past human...

  • Community Archaeology at the Trowel’s Edge (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laurie Miroff. Nina Versaggi.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Public Archaeology Facility's Community Archaeology Program (CAP) provides non-archaeologists with an opportunity to participate in archaeological field research projects. CAP participants experience the discovery of artifacts at the "trowel's edge" and follow the journey of an item through processing to...

  • Deaccessioning for Education: It's Not a Four Letter Word (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenna Domeischel.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological curators struggle with the growing number of collections in our repositories, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the ‘curation crisis.’ Yet ‘crisis’ is an acute term, when the problem is instead chronic. The discipline of archaeology marches on, and so must repositories, even as the quantities...

  • Engaging the Public: The Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adrien Hannus.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village (39DV2), an Initial Middle Missouri site in the James River valley of southeastern South Dakota, serves as the platform for this presentation. The site boasts both a museum with a variety of exhibits relating to Plains Village cultures and a facility called the...

  • Engaging Veterans in North American Archaeology (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Trimble.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As professional archaeologists who are charged with carrying out meaningful research and long-term collections care, one of our ethical and professional obligations is to inform and engage the public in what we do and why it is interesting and important. Our attempts at this are often uneven, but we recognize...

  • Investigating a Shelter in Oklahoma Schools: Bringing Museum Artifacts into the Classroom (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Luthman. Meghan Dudley.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Oklahoma, giving K-12 students hands-on experiences with real artifacts can be challenging when collections are inaccessible in museum repositories. To make archaeology accessible to all students at the national level, Project Archaeology’s Investigating Shelter (2009) for grades 3-5 supplements social...

  • Maritime Archaeological Collections and Public Engagement in Florida: An Ocean of Opportunity (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Grinnan. Michael Thomin.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the second longest coastline in the United States, Florida has a maritime past that spans at least 14,000 years of human habitation. Archaeological collections from prehistoric middens, colonial-era shipwrecks, and industrial coastal communities, among a variety of other maritime and submerged sites,...

  • Outreach, Education, and Archaeological Collections: Public Archaeology at the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Greg Pierce. Marieka Arksey. Marcia Peterson.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (OWSA) has become increasingly focused on implementing public outreach initiatives to more effectively engage Wyoming’s citizenry in archaeological investigations and collections care. Our office manages the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository, and the...

  • Time Jumpers: Community-Based Approaches to Archaeology in the Classroom (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Ellens.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Unearthing Detroit Project is a collections-based research and public archaeology initiative focused on the historical collections housed in the Grosscup Museum of Anthropology at Wayne State University. Reflecting on our experiences and integrated feedback has allowed Unearthing Detroit to consider the...

  • Working Towards Collaboration: a Model of Interaction between Archaeology Professionals and Avocationalists (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ray McAllister. Sharon McAllister.

    This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Avocationalists are a valuable asset for museum curators and collection analysts. Budget-strapped institutions can benefit from a structured program of volunteers trained to clean, sort, analyze, and catalog artifacts for inclusion into museum collections. From an existing strained relationship, archaeology...