Blog

By Patricia Samford, Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum Several years ago, I told a colleague that I was working with a group of high school students, cataloging and writing up a mid-19th century privy assemblage, excavated forty years ago in Baltimore. She was aghast, insisting that the students would surely screw...

By John P. McCarthy, RPA Delaware State Parks In 2014 as a new employee of Delaware State Parks, I was charged with reactivating the Time Traveler volunteer archaeology program (https://destateparks.com/Programs/TimeTravelers). I knew from the outset that rebooting a program that had been idle for at least a decade was not something I could do by...

By Lydia Wilson Marshall Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, DePauw University While knee-deep in your dissertation, it’s easy to let publishing plans fall by the wayside. You might think, “How can I possibly do one more thing?” or “Let me finish my degree first and I’ll worry about the rest later.” However, students...

By Tristan Harrenstein, Public Archaeology Coordinator, Florida Public Archaeology Network Talk, talk speaker matey, work it move, that partner’s lazy Not all interpretation is worth your time. Interpretation itself is, of course, a vital part of archaeology as it builds support for preservation and it passes on those untold stories that we are uncovering, which...

Post prepared by Mark Axel Tveskov, Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology The forthcoming issue of Historical Archaeology [Vol 53(1)] includes a thematic collection dedicated to the archaeological reading of frontier fortifications, one of our most enduring signifiers of settler colonialism. The authors consider the role of military, colonial, or trade fortifications and their imposing...

Barbara Clark, Northwest Region Director, Florida Public Archaeology Network As an archaeologist, the idea of walking the halls of your state capitol to speak with legislators and their staff might be horrifying. I get it. We are natural introverts who prefer the comforts of our labs, a good book, or the isolation of conducting fieldwork...