Inexorably Contemporary: Archaeology as Performance Art at Italian Hall Memorial Site, Calumet, Michigan

Summary

In the Fall of 2012, students from Michigan Technological University undertook a Phase I site assessment of the three city lots of the Italian Hall Memorial in Calumet, Michigan, in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the disaster/massacre.  The Keweenaw National Historical Park, which alternately owns or manages the three contiguous lots on behalf of the Village of Calumet, sought help with clearance of cultural resources before they could improve the quality of the memorial’s landscaping and plan for more substantial improvements in the long term. Rather than a mundane assessment of subsurface features, the project pushed the team into whirling debates surrounding contemporary communities and active memorialization of the disaster/massacre site. Considering "fieldwork" as akin to the collaborative social performance of 4-D artwork and "fieldworkers" as a community of practice including stakeholders and investigators, future work at the memorial site can help build stronger social connections in Calumet.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Applied Contemporary Archaeology

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 433