Educating The Public About Archeological Excavations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Public education is important to promote understanding of archaeology. Excavations I have directed since 1972 have both educated students and welcomed visits and participation of local adults and children who became interested in the hands-on experiential learning involved in excavations. Media publications, including newspaper articles, radio programs and TV programs are major instruments I have used to educate the public about excavations. I wrote scripts for two videos about excavations and was featured in these and another one by Vermont TV. One of the videos won a first place award for public education in a Massachusetts community cable TV contest in 1984. In 1986 I successfully lobbied the state legislature, along with the West Roxbury Historical Society, to make Brook Farm into a Massachusetts state park. In 2005 a Detroit Free Press newspaper article educated the public about the volunteer excavations I co-directed at a parsonage site in Michigan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 499