The Archaeological Conservancy

Last updated
The Archaeological Conservancy
FoundedFounded in 1980
Type501(c)(3) Non-profit Organization
FocusAcquisition and management of significant prehistoric and historic archaeological sites on private land
Location
Area served
United States
Website http://www.americanarchaeology.org

The Archaeological Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that acquires and preserves archaeological sites in the United States. Whereas nearly every other nation protects all archaeological sites within its borders as part of its national patrimony, in the United States archaeological resources on private land are the private property of the landowner. [1] As a result, archaeological sites in the United States are subject to destruction by urban development and sprawl, mechanized agricultural and land-leveling, and commercial looting to fuel the antiquities trade. [2] By the 1970s the extent of archaeological site loss was increasing recognized as a crisis for the scientific study of the nation's past. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

History, organization and means of operation

The Conservancy was established in 1979 by Mark Michel, who continues to serve as its president; California businessman Jay Last; and archaeologist Steven A. LeBlanc using $300,000 in start-up funds from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The organization received a boost in stature and fund-raising ability in 1982 when former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall joined its board of directors, where he served until his death in 2010. [5]

The organization is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but also operates regional offices in Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, and California. In 2010 it reported a membership of about 23,000. [6]

The Archaeological Conservancy uses states' private property laws to protect archaeological sites. Typically it buys the land encompassing the sites, stabilizes the site to protect against erosion and other natural degradation, and prepares a management plan to guide the use of the property as an archaeological research preserve. The organization works closely with amateur and professional archaeologists, particularly State Historic Preservation Offices to identify sites worthy of acquisition. [1] Funding for the organization comes from membership dues, individual contributions, corporations and foundations. [7]

Notable acquisitions

The Archaeological Conservancy has preserved portions of two World Heritage Sites. Andrews Ranch Ruin and Candelaria Pueblo are outliers of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The former was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management, and the latter has been incorporated into El Malpais National Monument. The Archaeological Conservancy owns three parcels at Cahokia Mounds, Illinois. The Fingerhut tract is an area of Cahokia that may have included the workshop for basalt figurine production. The Powell tract contains the remnants of the Powell Mound, the marker mound for the western boundary of the site, and Cahokia Mound 1 may have been the marker mound for the eastern boundary. In addition The Archaeological Conservancy acquired then transferred to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park major portions of the Hopewell Mound Group and the High Bank Earthworks, which along with other Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are on the World Heritage Conventions tentative list. [8]

The Archaeological Conservancy has preserved seven National Historic Landmarks. The ruins of Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi, and 18th-century Spanish Mission in southern Arizona, were transferred to the National Park Service and incorporated into Tumacácori National Historical Park. [9] The Lamoka Lake site, New York provided the evidence establishing the existence of a pre-agricultural culture in the Northeastern United States. [10] The Silver Mound Archaeological District, Wisconsin preserves the remains of a complex of quarry pits and associated lithic workshops where Native Americans mined Hixton Orthoquartzite over several millennia. The New Philadelphia Town Site is the original site of the first town in the United States platted and registered by an African-American. The Jaketown Site in Mississippi, preserves a mound and village center associated with the Poverty Point culture. Watson Brake, Louisiana, has provided the earliest evidence of mound-building in the prehistoric United States. The Archaeological Conservancy transferred its portion of the site to the state of Louisiana.

The Archaeological Conservancy acquired the Royal Blockhouse site in 2011. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. [11] [12]

American Archaeology magazine

In 1997 The Archaeological Conservancy began publication of American Archaeology, described as "the only popular magazine devoted to presenting the rich diversity of archaeology in the Americas". [13] American Archaeology received a Folio "Ozzie" bronze award for excellence in magazine design in 2008 [14] and a Silver award in the Magazines and Bookseller's Annual Magazine Cover Contest in 2000. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hopewell tradition</span> Ancient North American indigenous civilization

The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to 500 CE, in the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cahokia</span> Archaeological site near East St. Louis, Illinois, USA

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park</span> National monument in the United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hopewell Culture National Historical Park</span> United States national historical park

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park is a United States national historical park with earthworks and burial mounds from the Hopewell culture, indigenous peoples who flourished from about 200 BC to 500 AD. The park is composed of four separate sites open to the public in Ross County, Ohio, including the former Mound City Group National Monument. The park includes archaeological resources of the Hopewell culture. It is administered by the United States Department of the Interior's National Park Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spiro Mounds</span> Precontact Indigenous ceremonial site in Oklahoma

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren K. Moorehead</span>

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Moorehead Circle was a triple woodhenge constructed about two millennia ago at the Fort Ancient Earthworks in the U.S. state of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site</span> Archaeological site in Illinois, US

The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site c. 1050–1400 CE, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the southern tip of present-day U.S. state of Illinois, along the Ohio River. Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques. The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds, and 8 other monuments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newark Earthworks</span> Archaeological site in Ohio, United States

The Newark Earthworks in Newark and Heath, Ohio, consist of three sections of preserved earthworks: the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks, and the Wright Earthworks. This complex, built by the Hopewell culture between 100 BCE and 400 CE, contains the largest earthen enclosures in the world, and was about 3,000 acres in total extent. Less than 10 percent of the total site has been preserved since European-American settlement; this area contains a total of 206 acres (83 ha). Newark's Octagon and Great Circle Earthworks are managed by the Ohio History Connection. A designated National Historic Landmark, in 2006 the Newark Earthworks was also designated as the "official prehistoric monument of the State of Ohio."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeology of Iowa</span> Aspect of archaeology in the United States

The archaeology of Iowa is the study of the buried remains of human culture within the U.S. state of Iowa from the earliest prehistoric through the late historic periods. When the American Indians first arrived in what is now Iowa more than 13,000 years ago, they were hunters and gatherers living in a Pleistocene glacial landscape. By the time European explorers visited Iowa, American Indians were largely settled farmers with complex economic, social, and political systems. This transformation happened gradually. During the Archaic period American Indians adapted to local environments and ecosystems, slowly becoming more sedentary as populations increased. More than 3,000 years ago, during the Late Archaic period, American Indians in Iowa began utilizing domesticated plants. The subsequent Woodland period saw an increase on the reliance on agriculture and social complexity, with increased use of mounds, ceramics, and specialized subsistence. During the Late Prehistoric period increased use of maize and social changes led to social flourishing and nucleated settlements. The arrival of European trade goods and diseases in the Protohistoric period led to dramatic population shifts and economic and social upheaval, with the arrival of new tribes and early European explorers and traders. During the Historical period European traders and American Indians in Iowa gave way to American settlers and Iowa was transformed into an agricultural state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portsmouth Earthworks</span> Archaeological site in Ohio, United States

The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric mound complex constructed by the Native American Adena and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America. The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell and is located at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, in present-day Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunns Pond Mound</span> Archaeological site in Ohio, United States

The Dunns Pond Mound is a historic Native American mound in northeastern Logan County, Ohio, United States. Located near Huntsville, it lies along the southeastern corner of Indian Lake in Washington Township. In 1974, the mound was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a potential archeological site, with much of its significance deriving from its use as a burial site for as much as nine centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Ridge Island Mounds</span> Archaeological site in Ohio, United States

The Lake Ridge Island Mounds are a group of small hills in Logan County, Ohio, United States that have been thought to be Native American mounds. Located in an area of about 5 acres (2.0 ha) at the northern end on Lake Ridge Island in Indian Lake, the mounds are near the village of Russells Point in the southeastern corner of Stokes Township. State Route 368 passes a short distance to the east of the mounds, even weaving at one point to avoid them. The four mounds on the island are small, not reaching a height greater than 3 feet (0.91 m) or a diameter greater than 40 feet (12 m); they are small enough that they appear to be natural knolls. A report produced in the 1970s observed that the mounds were in "excellent" condition at the time, never having been disturbed by artifact seekers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mann site</span>

The Mann site is a Crab Orchard culture site located off Indian Mound Road in Mount Vernon, Posey County, Indiana. It was placed on the National Historic Register on October 1, 1974. Exotic ceramics and other artifacts found at the site reflect contact with Ohio Hopewell people, in addition to more distant peoples in the Southeast of the Swift Creek culture of the Georgia Piedmont and Gulf Coastal Plain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolf Plains</span> Archaeological site in Ohio, United States

The Wolf Plains Group is a Late Adena culture group of 30 earthworks including 22 conical mounds and nine circular enclosures. The Plains, originally known as Wolf's Plains, located a few miles to the northwest of Athens, is a relatively flat terrace in an area of hilly terrain in southeastern Ohio's Hocking River valley. The terrace was formed by glacial outwash coming down the Hocking River, which became dammed at The Plains and found a new outlet to the northeast, leaving the terrace in place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spikebuck Town Mound and Village Site</span> United States historic place

The Spikebuck Town Mound and Village Site is a prehistoric and historic archaeological site on Town Creek near its confluence with the Hiwassee River within the boundaries of present-day Hayesville, North Carolina. The site encompasses the former area of the Cherokee village of Quanassee and associated farmsteads. The village was centered on what is known as Spikebuck Mound, an earthwork platform mound, likely built about 1,000 CE by ancestral indigenous peoples during the South Appalachian Mississippian culture period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Too-Cowee</span> United States national historic site and former Cherokee town

Too-Cowee, was an important historic Cherokee town located near the Little Tennessee River north of present-day Franklin, North Carolina. It also had a prehistoric platform mound and earlier village built by ancestral peoples. As their expression of public architecture, the Cherokee built a townhouse on top of the mound. It was the place for their community gatherings in their highly decentralized society. The name translates to "pig fat" in English. British traders and colonists referred to Cowee as one of the Cherokee Middle Towns along this river; they defined geographic groupings based in relation to their coastal settlements, such as Charlestown, South Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Romain (archaeologist)</span>

William Francis Romain is an American archaeologist, archaeoastronomer, and author. William Romain received his Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Leicester and M.A. and B.A. degrees in anthropology from Kent State University. He specializes in the study of ancient religions, cognitive archaeology, and archaeoastronomy. William Romain is a Research Associate with the Indiana University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Assistant Editor for the Journal of Astronomy in Culture. He serves on the editorial board of the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. Romain has served as an advisor to the Board of Trustees for the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy, as well as Research Associate with the Indiana University, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University. He is a recipient of the Archaeological Society of Ohio's Robert Converse award for Outstanding Contributions to Ohio Archaeology. William Romain is a licensed private pilot and holds certification in marine celestial navigation. He has conducted archaeoastronomic fieldwork in the Eastern United States, China, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma).

References

  1. 1 2 Michel, Mark, "Private Property-National Legacy", The SAA Archaeological Record, May 2003
  2. 1 2 Davis, Hester, "The Crisis in American Archeology", Science 175:267-272 (1972).
  3. ↑ McGimsey, Charles, "Archaeology and the Law", American Antiquity, 36:125-126 (1971)
  4. ↑ Lipe, William, "A Conservation Model for American Archaeology", In Conservation Archaeology: A Guide for Cultural Resource Management Studies, edited by M. Schiffer and G. Gumerman, pp. 3-18. Academic Press (1977)
  5. ↑ Steward, Tamara, "Thirty Years of Preservation", American Archaeology 13(4) Winter 2009-2010
  6. ↑ "The Archaeological Conservancy". Archived from the original on 25 November 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Welcome to the Archaeological Conservancy", American Archaeology 14(4):4 Winter 2010-2011.
  8. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks" . Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  9. ↑ Burton, Jeffrey "Acknowledgements" In San Miguel de Guevavi: The Archeology of an Eighteenth Century Jesuit Mission on the Rim of Christendom, edited by Jeffrey Burton, p. 8., Western Archeological and Conservation Center, Tucson, AZ, 1992. Retrieved from http://core.tdar.org/filestore/501%5B%5D
  10. ↑ "Lamoka". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-11-16. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05.
  11. ↑ Chris Carola (December 19, 2011). "UPDATED: ABQ-Based Group Buys N.Y. Site of Colonial British Blockhouse". Albuquerque Journal . Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  12. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Listings". Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 2/13/12 through 2/17/12. National Park Service. 2012-02-24.
  13. ↑ The Role of the Magazine Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine p.2
  14. ↑ "2008 Ozzie Awards Winners". Folio. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  15. ↑ "Letters" Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine p. 3
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