The Hows, Whys, and Huhs of Archaeology at the Headwaters

Summary

This is an abstract from the ""Is There Gold in that Field?" CRM and Public Outreach on the Front Lines" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation describes the holistic and forward-looking public outreach and engagement effort that was developed to correspond with “the Big Dig,” a Phase III archaeological mitigation excavation at the Headwaters at the Comal Nature Interpretive Center (41CM204) near New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas, United States (2018–Present). The Headwaters Outreach Team developed the program to specifically not speak to archaeologists. Its primary goal was demystifying our science for a geographically broad general public to improve archaeology’s accessibility and educational versatility. For members of the local community, there were guided tours and archaeology-themed events on site. For attendees farther away, the team developed a weekly YouTube Livestream and supporting media on an excavation blog site as a relevant and easily accessible teaching resource for elementary and middle schools in the future. To date, 18 videos have been produced with nearly 280 collective hours of viewing time on YouTube. The Headwaters archaeology-themed programming has been broadly praised and continues to pay dividends in outreach, advocacy, and education not only for members of the local community but across the United States and beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• "Is There Gold in that Field?" CRM and Public Outreach on the Front Lines

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32099