Internet Archaeologists Find Ruins Of 'Friendster' Civilization

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/internet_archaeologists_find

Thinking about tribal consultation

I seem to be reblogging just about everything that Tom King posts these days. Here I go again. Dr. King continues his critique of CRM in a new post, in which he argues eloquently that consultation, with tribes and others, is really the core of historic preservation law, though in practice it is often neglected in favor of formulaic and bureaucratic approaches to management.

On CRM practitioners:

I naively continue to be surprised by how reluctant many who purport to value cultural and historic preservation (not just expect to make a living at it) consider it unnecessary and/or scary to consult with interested parties about those resources.

The big finale:

It can be scary, no question about it, and it also can be irritating, frustrating, time consuming, and generally a pain in the backside. This is particularly the case because those interested parties – whether they’re tribes or others – probably don’t speak our specialized language; they may not relate very well to the National Register Criteria or the Criteria of Adverse Effect. They may not split hairs the way we do, and they may split different hairs. But the fact remains – here I go on my soap box again – that Congress enacted NHPA and other such laws not for the convenience and enjoyment of CRM practitioners and government officials, but to ensure consideration for places that citizens – that is, taxpayers, voters – care about. And when, in the 1980s, we failed to pay proper attention to the concerns of tribes, the tribes prevailed on Congress to change the law and remind us of our duty. However inconvenient it may be, I don’t think we’re doing our jobs – whether we’re consultants, federal officials, or SHPOs – if we close our eyes to the law’s clear direction to consult with tribes and others. And in evaluating historic places, we can’t pretend that archaeologists speak for anybody but themselves, about what’s important to them. They certainly don’t speak for tribes unless the tribes authorize them to.

Kokopelli of the North

As far as I know, this is the northernmost representation of Kokopelli. It is just South of Rangely, CO, in the Canyon Pintado (Douglas Creek), at about 40.05 degrees north latitude. It is almost certainly Fremont. If anyone knows of a representation located further to the north please let me know. I'm interested.

Apparently someone is reading this blog

Awesome. Adam Henne makes mention of several of my posts over at The Four Stone Hearth #74 on natures/cultures. Check it out. I am pleased that he was interested in farming/language micro-dispersals, since that is my current obsession, but I am not sure what he meant by Terralingua's "argument by coincidence." I guess I'll have to ask him.

A Wyoming Sitescape

Yes, that's all FCR.

What is the NHPA really all about?

Tom King enlightens us. Hint: it's not all about the archaeological record.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

This really is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of historic preservation practice in the United States, and how we came to be where we are today.

Open Data and Archaeology

Computing, GIS, and Archaeology in the UK point to a short guide to making your data open, provided by the Open Data Commons. This is a topic that will be of increasing importance in archaeology in the next few years with major initiatives like Digital Antiquity poised to transform the way archaeologists share, archive, and publish basic data.