A variety of materials and methods have been used to preserve ceramic vessels. Many have proven successful, while others are damaging. Monitoring and evaluation of past treatments is a documented research priority in the conservation field. The Arizona State Museum (ASM) has examined, recorded and analyzed the performance of past treatments on 20,000 southwest vessels and a modern storage facility.
This research has afforded the opportunity to look forwards and backwards to identify patterns in archaeological methods, museum management and conservation.
Read more →
One of the biggest barriers to the rapid spread of cutting edge, innovative technologies in archeology is cost. Let’s face it: things that end in “-ometer” or “-oscopy” tend to be pricey. And if they are really new, or if their utility in some contexts has yet to be proven, the price remains in the stratosphere [...]
Read more →
New Philadelphia, Illinois was the first town platted and legally registered by an African American in the United States. Founded by Frank McWorter, a former slave, in 1836, this town grew as a demographically integrated community through the late nineteenth century. The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) awarded funding of $14,800 to test the usefulness of low-altitude aerial surveys employing high resolution thermal imaging at New Philadelphia.
The success of this technique will provide an extremely useful resource for applications on numerous similar sites throughout the nation.
Read more →
This project involved developing a new method for using the chemical content of freshwater mussel shell as a means of sourcing prehistoric, shell-tempered pottery and shell artifacts to their places of origin. By extension, this means that prehistoric trade and exchange networks can be mapped out.
Because each waterway is chemically different to some extent, and because mussels incorporate the chemicals into their shells, it is theoretically possible to identify where shell artifacts or shell-tempered pottery was made by chemically analyzing the shell.
Read more →
Getting archeology onto the silver or flat screen has always been a tricky proposition: you have to entertain, but stick to the facts, all without encouraging site looting. One of the programs that seems to have done it, at least in the U.K., is Time Team. And now it’s coming to the U.S.
As Kris Hurst put it on her About.com blog, Time Team America “brings a Mission Impossible team of professional archaeologists to a different archaeological site in the United States,” where they spend “three days at each site, bringing along a raft of cutting edge remote sensing and geophysical survey techniques.”
Read more →
This report is an overview and assessment of the cultural landscape of the Tongue River Valley, its historic themes and cultural resource site types. Designed to accompany other project deliverables (the video documentary and map-based digital archive), the goal of the project is to demonstrate the national, state and local significance of the layers of prehistory and history located in one small corner of southeastern Montana.
Read more →
The need is clear for rapid, wide-area, planning level inventories of archaeological sites, which are disappearing rapidly because of development and looting. Inventory makes preservation through monitoring and proactive planning possible.
Successful protocols for the use of sophisticated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technologies for such inventories in certain environments were formulated recently.
Read more →
When the use of the internet for communication is exploding exponentially, the economics of California and Stanford University has brought an end to the Conservation Online DistList and Archives (CoOL).
Read more →
NCPTT awarded 12 projects, totaling $262,500, for preservation technology and training awards to universities, non-profit organizations, and state agencies.
Read more →
The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) developed the Architectural Records Symposium: Managing and Preserving Design Records to improve practices for preserving and providing access to architectural records in museums, archives, libraries, and historic sites throughout the country.
Read more →
