Presidential Election
U.S. government has a wonderful ability to reinvent itself every four years with the Presidential election. That ability can be disconcerting when the election results in a sharp change in…
President’s Corner
Posts from our SHA President.
Our Challenges and Mission
[pt id='14240' size='full' class='alignright']by Joe Joseph, SHA PresidentI am two weeks into my term as SHA President and find in my in-box a bill in the Florida legislature that would…
Diggers Done Right
They’re back! Yes, the King and Ringy, that duo you love to hate will be kicking off the third season of Diggers, July 20th on The National Geographic Channel. What?…
Diggers: making progress
Well it happened and it appears you missed it. I was on an episode of Diggers. I expected a torrent of disapproving emails from colleagues or, at least, a few…
Historical Archaeology, the NSF, and Why Archaeology Matters
As many of you know, last week the SHA responded to Eric Cantor and Lamar Smith's USA Today letter advocating NSF funding regulations. There was a rush of tweets on…
Response to Eric Cantor and Lamar Smith
Many of you know that Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) last week published a piece in USA Today advocating tighter controls of National Science Foundation funding. Their…
Archaeological Personalities and the Profession’s Future
We live in a moment in which the profession of historical archaeology seems characterized by an odd divide. On the one hand, material things and archaeology are staples of popular…
The Primal Fear: Historical Archaeology and De-Accessioning
In 1996, former SHA Curation Committee Chair Bob Sonderman (Museum Resource Center, National Park Service) argued that archaeologists’ commitment to preserve an astounding volume of artifacts has fostered “an overwhelming…
Historical Archaeology will be Televised: Ethics, Archaeology, and Popular Culture
The hallmark of digital democracy may well be C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network), the network that provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of the US Congress. One 2009 poll indicated that 20% of…
Diversity and Difference in SHA
In 2012 the SHA has been active on a number of fronts, and this month I want to examine two of those that I think are exceptionally important to the…