Managing Archaeological Investigations

"Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration."

In a snapshot of 21st century archaeological resource management as a global enterprise, these 25 contributors show the range of activities, issues, and solutions undertaken by contemporary managers of heritage sites around the world. They show how the linkages between global archaeology and funding organizations, national policies, practices, and ideologies, and local populations and their cultural and economic interests foster complexity of the issues at all levels. Case materials from five continents introduce common themes of archaeologist relations with descendant groups, public outreach, national/local relationships, and data and site preservation. Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress.

Focusing on the principles and practice of management today, and covering contract and field archaeology, heritage management, marketing, law and information technology, this is a collection of outstanding papers by diverse experts.

In this guide, archaeologist Dianne Fitzpatrick sees archaeological collections management as a means of integrating achievable good-practice strategies into research designs and site management plans from the outset.

The last decade has witnessed increased interest in establishing partnerships between professional practitioners in public interpretation and educational institutions to excavate and preserve the past. These developments have occurred amidst a realization that community-based partnerships are the most effective mechanism for long-term success. With international contributions, this volume addresses these latest trends and provides case studies of successful partnerships.

A wide variety of organizations are both creating and retaining digital data from archaeological projects. While current methods for preservation and access to data vary widely, nearly all of these organizations agree that careful management of digital archaeological resources is an important aspect of responsible archaeological stewardship. This guide provides information on the best way to create, manage, and document digital data files produced during the course of an archaeological project and aims to improve the practice of depositing and preserving digital information safely within an archive for future use. It is structured in three main parts: Digital Archiving - looks at the fundamentals of digital preservation and covers general preservation themes within the context of archaeological investigations, research, and resource management, with an overview of digital archiving practice and guidance; The Project Lifecycle - looks at common project lifecycle elements such as file naming, metadata creation, and copyright and covers general, broad themes that should be considered at the outset of a project; Basic Components - looks at selected technique and file type-specific issues together with archive structuring and deposit. This section covers common file types that are frequently present in archaeological archives, irrespective of a project's primary technique or focus.