Community Archaeology

Over July 13th to 17th 2015, Fishergate Fulford and Heslington Local History Society carried out an electrical resistance survey at the Sir John J Hunt Memorial Cottage Homes in Fulford, York. The project was undertaken as part of the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology 2015 and was entirely volunteer based.

While the results are somewhat broken up by the large number of buildings, pathways and garden elements, there are a number of geophysical anomalies across the site that probably relate to underlying archaeological features. There is clear evidence of agricultural use of the land in the form of ploughing, as well as suggestions of ridge and furrow. Other clear anomalies include a probable bank and ditch near the western end of the site and several modern services, as well as a number of high and low resistance anomalies that may be of archaeological interest.

There are no plans for further archaeological investigation at the site. However, the results of this survey may help to call further attention to Fulford’s archaeological significance and potential.

Abstract. Our paper presents the case study of a common framework that has been developed for the management of heritage resources in a peripheral and impoverished area of rural Asturias (Spain). The article further explores the potential of conceiving heritage as a common good for enhancement, preservation and public outreach purposes, considering the current crisis state of public institutions in the whole West due to the prevalence of neoliberal governmentality frameworks. Our research argues that the creation of a brand that equates the region of Asturias with a somehow pristine natural environment untouched by humans, and the public management frameworks of cultural heritage, undermine the immanent relation between communities and their heritage and renders ineffectively any attempt to achieve rural  sustainable development. We affirm that the consideration of heritage as a commons enables researchers, institutions and local communities to establish a more democratic and functional framework for the management, enhancement and preservation of heritage elements and facilitates the creation of democratic frameworks of decision making that foster sustainable development at a local scale.

K e y w o r d s:  heritage commons, rural sustainable development, cultural heritage, cultural resource management

Resumen: se presenta el proyecto La Ponte-Ecomuséu, para la puesta en valor, difusión, investigación y conservación del patrimonio cultural del municipio de Santo Adriano (Asturias-España). Se trata de una iniciativa comunitaria (La Ponte), que se ha constituido como ecomuseo, integrada por profesionales de las ciencias del patrimonio, amateurs, voluntarios y vecinos. Los objetivos del ecomuseo son: diseñar un "prototipo" de modelo de gestión comunitaria del patrimonio, coordinado por la propia ciudadanía y autogestionado. Poner en valor, difundir e investigar una parte de nuestro patrimonio cultural que a día de hoy permanece en un mal estado de conservación o es desconocido por la mayoría de la población. Llegar a acuerdos para que los diferentes titulares del patrimonio cultural faciliten el acceso público a los bienes que detentan. Por último, crear oportunidades de desarrollo económico, social y cultural en el medio rural dentro de este sector. Todas estas razones nos llevan a definir La Ponte-Ecomuséu como una "empresa social del conocimiento", que a partir de la gestión integral los recursos patrimoniales busca generar actividad económica, desarrollo, transferencia e innovación de "base social". En cuanto a los resultados, se han alcanzado importantes acuerdos con diferentes administraciones e instituciones para integrar elementos dentro del proyecto de ecomuseo (Administración, Iglesia y vecinos), se han recibido miles de visitas, se ha creado un puesto de trabajo y se han incorporado socios/as, voluntarios/as y colaboradores/as. El ecomuseo dispone actualmente de una infraestructura propia, con local, equipamientos, librería, pequeña biblioteca, etc. Su gobierno recae en una asamblea de socios/as y colaboradores/as desde donde se coordinan los diferentes grupos de trabajo: investigación, educación, conservación, socialización, etc. Su naturaleza civil y comunitaria hace del proyecto una iniciativa que no responde a ningún interés institucional ni a una demanda administrativa. En este sentido nuestra experiencia supone una innovación que marca un punto de inflexión en el ámbito territorial del Principado de Asturias y abre un importante debate sobre los derechos de uso y gestión del patrimonio cultural y por ende sobre sus fundamentos jurídicos: ¿debe continuar siendo un bien "público" (gestionado y gobernado por la Administración) o debe transformarse en un bien "común" (gestionado y gobernado por las comunidades locales)? El Patrimonio puede jugar un papel decisivo en nuestro presente como factor de desarrollo, de participación y de empoderamiento de las organizaciones civiles, especialmente en el medio rural, pero para ello necesita ser redefinido.

This paper investigates the use of 3D immersive virtual environments and 3D prints for interaction with past material culture over traditional observation without manipulation. Our work is motivated by studies in heritage, museum, and cognitive sciences indicating the importance of object manipulation for understanding present and ancient artifacts. While virtual immersive environments and 3D prints have started to be incorporated in heritage research and museum displays as a way to provide improved manipulation experiences, little is known about how these new technologies affect the perception of our past. This paper provides first results obtained with three experiments designed to investigate the benefits and tradeoffs in using these technologies. Our results indicate that traditional museum displays limit the experience with past material culture, and reveal how our sample of participants favor tactile and immersive 3D virtual experiences with artifacts over visual non-manipulative experiences with authentic objects.

In this article, we present examples from four research projects in India that were influenced by the values and ethics of decolonized and participatory research, and shaped by engendered perspectives. Each project built on earlier experiences that forced us to critically examine the ways we engaged with participants, crafted our field identities, and formed relationships. Using insights from linguistic anthropology and attending to intersectional inequalities and the construction of epistemic authority, we showcase how conducting an ethnography of communication and employing tactics of intersubjectivity influenced archaeological outcomes. We argue that close attention to context of communication, identity expression, and intersectional inequality enhances intersubjectivity, a necessary ingredient for successful participatory archaeology projects.

The building today known as " Old Main " succumbed to fire on the unfortunate morning of March 10, 1969. At 83 years old, Old Main was one of the first buildings of Alma College, serving a variety of purposes. In part to learn the history of Alma as well as archaeological theory and methods, we carried out a third season of survey and excavation at the site. This report is authored by the students of the 2018 spring term s-course, ANT 215/315: Michigan Archaeological Fieldwork, and compiled by their instructor, Dr. Kristin Landau. The below reviews the long history of Old Main—1886 to present—our research questions, methods, results, and interpretations.

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 16 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Cambridgeshire village of Toft carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three weekends, more than 600 residents of the village of Toft and the local area took part in the excavations in 16 different locations throughout the present village. The results provided new evidence for the development of the southern part of the village, near to the church and alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards.
Parts of the area appears to have intermittently and lightly used by humans in the prehistoric period, with possible indications of a small settlement of Neolithic date beside the stream. Pottery of Roman date clearly clustered just beyond the south-eastern limits of the present settlement show a settlement to have been present here, and there is some indication of some sort of presence in the same area sometime between the 5th and 9th centuries. The present village seems to have been founded in the late Anglo-Saxon period, with settlement clearly present in the same stream-side location as the Romano-British settlement. This continued and expanded in the high medieval period, when the settlement appears to have extended northwards, but experienced sever contraction in the late medieval period, when the stream-side area of settlement was entirely abandoned. When the settlement began to recover, possibly rather falteringly, in the post medieval period, its focus appears to have shifted north towards the Comberton Road, with the stream-side settlement remaining permanently deserted. The project involved hundreds of members of the local community, and provided many new perspectives on the past development of this Cambridgeshire village

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 23 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Bedfordshire village of Shillington carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three days, more than 300 residents of the village of Shillington and the local area took part in the excavations in 23 different locations throughout the present village.
The results provided new evidence for the development of the area now occupied by the village, which mostly lies alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards. The landscape was used by humans in the prehistoric period, apparently favouring the area nearer the small brook running west of the prominent hill which dominates the land around the parish. One test pit near this stream produced convincing evidence for undisturbed settlement remains in the immediate vicinity. Small quantities of pottery of Roman date came from five different sites, two of them away from the Brookside area hinting at a pattern of settlement or agricultural land use moving beyond the lower lying zones. No evidence was found for any activity dating to the period between the 5th – 9th centuries AD, but Saxo-Norman pottery of 10th – 11th century date was found in two distinct concentrations, suggesting more than one hamlet present, possibly part of a nucleated pattern of settlement, at this time. The high medieval period saw settlement at these sites grow and that at three other ‘ends’ appear, indicating a pattern of mixed dispersed and nucleated settlement. This growth ceases in the late medieval period, with Shillington particularly badly affected in this period of widespread demographic and settlement contraction compared to many settlements in the eastern region. In the post-medieval period, however, the test pit data indicates that Shillington gradually recovered, with former dispersed settlements mostly reoccupied, although it did not achieve its pre-14th century levels and some of the medieval ‘ends’ remained uninhabited until the 19th century.