The Archaeology Education A Team: Public Archaeology and Public Media

Introduction

The pandemic created a variety of challenges for those that do public outreach. However, it also provided an opportunity to try new approaches, form new partnerships,  remove ourselves from our comfort zone, and learn new things. The FPAN North Central Regional Center, located in Tallahassee, Florida, has always had a good relationship with WFSU Public Media, the local PBS and NPR affiliate, but the pandemic provided the impetus to strengthen that partnership and take it to the next level! WFSU's television production expertise and FPAN's archaeology outreach expertise resulted in a series of quality public television programs as part of the PBSKids Camp TV virtual summer camp program. The broad audience and reputation of PBS and WFSU allowed us to broaden our following and provide public outreach programs to an audience that would have otherwise been outside of our immediate reach. 

The Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN)

The Florida Public Archaeology Network’s mission is to promote and facilitate stewardship, public appreciation, and value of Florida’s archaeological heritage through regional centers, partnerships, and community engagement. We approach our mission by focusing in three core areas: Public Outreach, Assistance to Local Governments, and Assistance to the Florida Division of Historical Resources. For this topic, we will be focusing on public outreach.

FPAN has eight regional centers throughout the state that each operate their own visible public outreach programs. Under normal circumstances, these public outreach programs consist of promoting archaeological and heritage tourism, assisting heritage-based organizations, disseminating information to the public, working with volunteers, and attending regional heritage events.  In March of 2020, that all changed when the State of Florida, along with so many other states, shut down due to COVID 19. This unprecedented event changed the face of public outreach for FPAN staff, but also allowed us unique opportunities to experiment with various platforms in order to reach people safely and effectively. The majority of our public engagement was done digitally or virtually. 

WFSU Public Media

WFSU Public Media provides quality public broadcasting services to the North Florida and South Georgia area. WFSU Public Media is both an NPR and a PBS member station. Their FCC licenses are held by Florida State University. WFSU Public Media provides two television broadcast stations (WFSU and WFSG), one cable television station (4fsu), one statewide satellite television service (The Florida Channel), and Internet webcasting services. WFSU Public Media provides community outreach and educational services, such as the American Graduate Project and children's projects associated with PBS KIDS. Their mission is to enrich lives and cultivate diverse perspectives by connecting the community through media content and services that inform, educate, and entertain.

Camp TV

Camp TV is a PBSKids program that provides a day-camp experience for kids every weekday via television! The head counselor, Zach, guides “campers” as they learn through play in the comfort of their own home. This virtual programming was vital in the summer of 2021 due to the closure of so many in-person summer programs for children. Guest experts are invited on the program to lead activities like science experiments, dances, animal encounters, story times, and crafting. Partners from across the nation included the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, OK Go, Memphis Zoo, Lincoln Center and more. 

Thanks to grant funding from WNET in New York, WFSU Public Media was able to highlight several partner organizations from across the Tallahassee area in their own series of Camp TV videos! Throughout the 2021 summer break, children’s educational videos appeared on WFSU-TV, Facebook and YouTube. In addition to the Florida Public Archaeology Network, other local partners featured for this program were the Florida Center for Reading Research and the Southern Shakespeare Company.

 

Barbara guiding children through the PB&J Archaeology
activity for Camp TV

The Florida Public Archaeology Network, with the expertise of the WFSU’s film crew, filmed two educational activities from our “Beyond Artifacts” curriculum guide at the WFSU studios in Tallahassee, Florida. Barbara Clark (North Central Regional Director) acted as the host guide for “Peanut Butter and Jelly Archaeology”. This activity teaches children how archaeological sites are formed, how time is recorded in soil stratigraphy, how archaeologists excavate a site, and how stratigraphy can be destroyed by human activity.  Tristan Harrenstein (North Central Regional Public Archaeologist) acted as the host guide for  the “cookie excavation” program. This activity teaches students the process of excavation and how delicate artifacts are recovered from the soil by archaeologists. 

Tristan Harrenstein (FPAN Public Archaeologist) and Suzanne Smith
(WFSU Executive Director) prepare to film the "Cookie Excavation" activity. 

          In conjunction with the televised Camp TV programming, WFSU/PBS  hosted a virtual camp for the 2021 Summer break, PBS Camp TV! This virtual camp – sponsored by Leon County Schools – brought a day-camp experience to  children’s homes, with local partner spotlights (including the Florida Public Archaeology Network), engaging hands-on activities, and standards-aligned educational content. This program was conducted over Zoom, with Camp TV “counselor”, Zac, and a WFSU staff member guiding the children through the activities. After the guided activity there was a question and answer session with the guest. For this portion the children did PB&J Archaeology and then spent time virtually with Barbara Clark from FPAN discussing the activity. This interactive component provided a unique opportunity for the kids to interact with the expert and ask questions about their field.

Camp TV "Counselor", Zac, takes children through the PB&J
activity step-by-step via Zoom during the live virtual camp.

 

Conclusion

 While the pandemic created many challenges for those that do public outreach, it also provided an opportunity to try new approaches, form new partnerships, and strengthen old partnerships. FPAN had done some small scale events and projects with WFSU Public Media before, but Camp TV strengthened that partnership and took it to the next level. One very important benefit to virtual programming is the ability to reach those that are not in your immediate vicinity. WFSU and PBS already have a strong following and membership base, as well as a reputation for quality educational programming. Partnering with them  enabled FPAN to reach children across the country, which obviously we are not able to do with in-person programming. Furthermore, because of grant funding obtained by WFSU, there was no additional cost for either WFSU or FPAN, besides the time investment associated with production of these videos. The series received 1.2 million gross impressions. A gross impression is a metric used in television  to determine how many opportunities there were for a program to be viewed. The program aired 4,128 times on 121 stations, in 17 of the top 30 markets. As previously mentioned, this reach would not have been possible without virtual programming or our partnership with WFSU. Partnerships like this, along with the success of this and other virtual programs, have led FPAN to continue some virtual programming even as we start to do in-person events.

Although we are a Florida-based organization, and prioritize programming that emphasizes the protection of our state’s cultural resources, we realize the benefit of reaching a broader audience that crosses state lines and even international boundaries. Virtual programming is a simple and effective way to reach a broader audience without ever leaving the state. Partnerships with organizations that have a large following and strong reputation for quality programming, such as local PBS stations, help to spread our message farther than we may be able to do alone, thus leading to a broader appreciation for archaeological resources everywhere.

 

Windover Archaeological Site: Preservation in a Florida Peat Pond

 

Steve Vanderjagt, the backhoe
operator that first discovered
Windover. (photo courtesy of 
FSU Digital Archives)

We can't wrap up our month on plants and archaeology without talking about Windover! We are of the opinion that it is one of the most fascinating sites in Florida and that is partially because of the plant remains found there. Windover was discovered in 1982 at a construction site in Brevard County, Florida. A backhoe operator unintentionally discovered human remains, which were later identified as part of a prehistoric cemetery dating to over 7,000 years ago. The preservation  was unprecedented due to the environmental conditions at the site. The deceased had been buried in a  mucky pond, using handwoven fabric and wooden stakes to keep them in place. This mucky pond created an anaerobic environment, with very little bacteria to degrade the fragile remains-both human and plant.

If you are familiar with Windover, then you are familiar with the fact that human brain matter and other very unique finds were discovered. And while we agree that those finds are amazing, we are going to concentrate on the plant remains today. The same environmental conditions that lead to excellent human remain preservation also allowed for great preservation of plant remains. 

The wooden stakes and the fabric used to secure the deceased at the bottom of the pond are both plant material. In fact, the handwoven fabric was made of palm fiber and are the oldest surviving textiles in the New World. Eighty-seven fragments were recovered from the site. They were extremely fragile and required special care while being transported to the lab for very specialized and delicate processing and analysis. 

Palm fiber handwoven fabric from Windover. 
(Photo courtesy of FSU Digital Archives)

When we think of early agriculture, we assume that early people were growing plants mainly for food,but Windover provided evidence that products of agriculture also served other purposes. A bottle gourd container was recovered from the site. This would have been a light and durable container for food and liquid. This particular example is the earliest known example of a bottle gourd north of Mexico! Plants that were both gathered and cultuivated could also be used for medicinal purposes.

 Life was hard for these prehistoric people and many of those buried in this ancient cemetery died young. Almost half of the deceased were under 18, and most don't appear to have lived past 40. Their teeth show sign of wear from both grit in their diet and the use of their teeth as tools. There was evidence of broken bones, abscesses, and illness. The large number of seeds found in the stomach region of several of the burials may represent one of the earliest known examples of medicinal plant use. 

Imagine, all of this found at one site in Florida and completely by accident! Not only is this absolutely phenomenal from a scientific perspective (not to mention some cool conversation starters at cocktail parties!), but it also is a prime example of why there are laws in place that protect archaeological sites. Florida is constantly under development and that is why there are permits and processes to ensure sites like Windover have a chance to be both documented and preserved when appropriate. This is also why there are laws in place that protect human remains. Archaeologists that work in Cultural Resource Management play a vital role in ensuring that Florida's archaeological heritage is properly documented.

Spring Has Sprung! What Plants Can Tell Us About the Past

 When you think of archaeology, plants may not be the most immediate thing that comes to mind, but occasionally, under the right conditions, plant remains are found at archaeological sites. Archaeology is full of sub-disciplines, which makes sense when you think about it. There is so much to learn about the past that no one archaeologist can possibly learn about or know it all. One of those sub-disciplines is archaeobotany.

 Archaeologists that study archaeobotany are interested in learning more about how people of the past interacted with plants. Think about what a huge role plants have in our modern life. The same, or similar, was true in the past as well. People ate plants, grew plants, use plant material to construct shelters and tools, and lived among various plants growing wild. Plant remains can also tell us about past environments, thus providing clues to what life was like for people in the past. 

Plant remains from the Lake Monroe Outlet Midden
(photo courtesy of the Florida Museum of  Natural 
History, University of Florida)

Plant remains are organic, fragile, and usually (but not always) small. They don't always preserve well at archaeological sites. It takes special environmental conditions for them to preserve and archaeologists have to take special care to recover these fragile remains on the occasions they are found at an archaeological site. Most of the time archaeologists only find a small sampling of the remains of the past. They only find the things that preserve well, such as stone and ceramics. But as we know, people are much more complex, and finding plant remains is a treat for archaeologists and a chance to gain a more thorough understanding of our past! Sometimes plant remains are small, like pollen (can you imagine!?), and other times they are large, like a dugout canoe. No matter their size, plant remains provide unique opportunities for archaeologists. 

Take a moment to look around you and make note of all the objects made from plants. Then think about how many of those objects would still be around 500 to 1,000 years from now. Probably not many. Now imagine someone in the future trying to piece together your daily life without having all those plant-based objects available to study. They probably would only be able to learn a fraction of what your daily life was like. That is why archaeobotany is so valuable to the study of the past. So this month, as plants are blooming and it is starting to feel like spring, we want to take a moment to talk about plants in an archaeological context. We hope you will join us on this journey. From learning how archaeologists recover plant remains to what they can tell us, it is sure to be enlightening!

Florida Archaeology Month Recommended Reading: Grit-Tempered

(photo courtesy of 
Amazon Books)

Grit-Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeastern United States, edited by Nancy White, Lynne Sullivan, and Rochelle Marrinan, has become a favorite of many FPAN staffers. This book brings together archaeology and women's history in a great volume that is full of fascinating stories about fascinating women. So, what better book to discuss in March during Florida Archaeology Month and Women's History Month?

Many non-professionals with an interest in archaeology are overwhelmed with some books that are overly technical or academically dry. Grit-Tempered is not that type of book! This book is about the archaeologists, not necessarily the archaeology. And furthermore, it is one of the few volumes dedicated solely to female archaeologists. Many archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike are familiar with many of the male characters that have shaped Florida and Southeastern Archaeology. Many have heard names like Ripley Bullen, who had a long tenure at the Florida Museum of Natural History. But how many of us are familiar with Adelaide Bullen, his wife? Adelaide, in partnership with Ripley, had a career that spanned  over 50 years. She received her graduate degree in cultural and physical anthropology from Harvard in 1948. In the 1970s she established her own publishing company, Kendall Books. Grit-Tempered has an entire chapter on Adelaide, providing a unique opportunity to learn about a woman who was the "other half" of a very influential archaeology husband and wife duo. 

And of course, we would be remiss if we did not mention Hester Davis, a public archaeology legend!

Hester Davis (Photo courtesy
of The Archaeological 
Conservancy)

Long before organizations like FPAN were in existence, Hester Davis was promoting public archaeology. She was one of the first to speak out publicly about the ethical and public issues, combining research and advocacy for archaeology. In the 1960s, she advocated for a formal archaeological program for the state of Arkansas and worked alongside non-archaeologists. In 1967 the Arkansas Archaeological Survey was created and Hester was appointed State Archaeologist. Hester Davis was instrumental in helping to create FPAN and is a Director emeritus on our board. Hester passed away in 2014. Dr. Nancy White, another fierce public archaeology legend in her own right, is author of an outstanding chapter on Hester Davis. 

There are so many amazing women in Southeastern and Florida Archaeology that we cannot list them all. If you want to learn more, and trust us, you do, read Grit-Tempered. Not only does it have some phenomenal biographical sketches, it also discusses the history of women in archaeology and the struggles that they faced. Not only does it touch on gender in archaeology, but also race. One of the most enlightening chapters is a discussion on the white and African American women working at a site in Georgia during The New Deal (1937-1940). Overall, Grit-Tempered is a wonderful overview of women in Southeastern archaeology, written by women who helped pave the way for many younger archaeologists in the field currently. It is fascinating to see the evolution of a profession that has gone from unacceptable for women to one that is largely made up of women. Much work still needs to be done, but it is inspiring to see how far we have come. 

The Trowel Tribune - March 11, 2021

Plain text version: https://fpannorthcentral.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-trowel-tribune-march-11-2021-plain.html

COVID-19 Self-Isolating Archaeology Reading List

These are definitely unique and trying times for a lot of us. As archaeologists, we know that epidemics are nothing new, but it is sure new to most of us and it isn't something you ever want or can get used to. I am sure many of us are frantically trying to find things to occupy our time or our little ones. So, in light of all this, we are compiling a list of archaeology reading. We will add books suitable for adults and children. That being said, obviously it is not the most appropriate time to book it to the library (great pun, right?), but most libraries now use Libby or Overdrive, which provide ready access to many books. You can also always find them for purchase online if you so choose.

Sidebar: If you are not also familiar with Kanopy, check that out if your library offers it. It is a free streaming TV service that offers various courses, documentaries, movies and more! And yes, last time I checked there were some really interesting archaeology and culture documentaries!

Archaeology is a great way to engage children because it is full of adventure! It is also multidisciplinary, so it is a great way to teach a variety of subjects. Of course, we have a ton of free lesson plans that parents can download from our website and you can also follow us on Facebook to get other resources. Below we have shared some of our favorite children's books about archaeology.

Children's Books:

Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke

America's REAL First Thanksgiving by Robin Gioia

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill

The Timucua Indians: A Native American Detective Story by Kelley G. Weitzel

Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay

Shipwreck by Claire Aston and Peter Dennis

The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology by Jack Posner

We are all stuck at home, so this is a great time to dedicate a few moments a day to learning something new! In that spirit we have  provided some select books for adults as well. We would like this blog post to be dynamic and serve as a virtual book club of sorts. So if you do read one of the books on either of these lists, let us know what you think in the comments section! And feel free to comment with books that you recommend even if they are not on this list (there are a ton of books out there on archaeology, this list is just the tip of the ice burg!). We have tried to keep it Florida-centric (with a few goodies that aren't necessarily Florida, but are a great read), but if there is something else that interests you, let us know!

Adult Books:

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (It is a long read, but it is really good and yes, somewhat timely considering our current situation)

We Come for Good: Archaeology and Tribal Historic Preservation at the Seminole Tribe of Florida by Paul Backhouse, Brent Weisman, and Mary Rosebrough

Archaeology of Domestic Landscapes of the Enslaved in the Caribbean by James A. Dell and Elizabeth C. Clay

Underground: A Human History of the World Beneath Our Feet by Will Hunt

Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past by Sarah Parcak

Grit Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeast United States edited by Nancy White, Lynn Sullivan, and Rochelle Marrinan

Submerged History: Underwater Archaeology in Florida by Roger C. Smith

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald

The Rosewood Massacre: An Archaeology and History of Intersectional Violence by Edward Gonzales-Tennant

Dogs: Archaeology Beyond Domestication by Brandi Bethke and Amanda Burtt

Archaeology of Colonial Pensacola by Judith Bense

Iconography and Wetsite Archaeology of Florida's Watery Realms by Ryan Wheeler and Joanna Ostapkowcz

Water from Stone by Jason O'Donoughue

These books are listed in no particular order, so pick one that strikes your fancy and let us know how it is! We are all in this together, and although we have had to cancel all of our public events, this is our way of remaining in touch and a resource for you and your children. We are still here to offer our services, just in a different format!