OUR WORK
Project Archaeology
Project Archaeology is a cultural heritage education program that uses archaeological inquiry
to do the following:
Foster understanding of diverse cultures and our common humanity;
Enhance social studies and science education; and
Strengthen citizenship education to help preserve our cultural and archaeological legacy.
The primary beneficiaries of this work are teachers and their students, mainly in upper elementary and middle school grades. Educators also use Project Archaeology materials and methods in non formal settings, such as museums and visitor centers at heritage sites.
What follows is a brief description of Project Archaeology. For more, see www.projectarchaeology.org.
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
Project Archaeology was launched in 1990 in the Utah State Office of USDI-Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as a national stewardship education program. The objective was to address the threats of looting and vandalism of archaeological sites, as well as their being “loved to death” by simply curious visitors unaware of their potential impact.
Over three decades of development and evolution since its founding, Project Archaeology has grown into a national network of dozens of partner organizations and individuals working together to advance the reach of the program across the nation.
The program now operates as a broad partnership of Southern Utah University; the Project Archaeology Leadership Team; the Institute for Heritage Education (IHE); the BLM in western states; and a national network of teachers, nonformal educators, archaeologists, descendant community educators, and state programs. In 2022, IHE began serving as the program’s national nonprofit partner.
Teacher workshop participants and staff in a museum gallery. The curriculum featured in the workshop – Project Archaeology’s Investigating a Roman Villa – was created in conjunction with the pictured exhibit.
METHODS
Project Archaeology operates nationally as a provider of high-quality, inquiry-based education materials and of professional development for educators that models the use of the materials in the classroom and other venues, such as museums and interpretive centers at heritage sites. Interdisciplinary in nature, archaeology offers an excellent vehicle for seamlessly integrating science, history, geography, math, language arts, and visual arts.
Each umbrella curriculum (e.g., Investigating Shelter and Investigating Rock Art) teaches the basics of historical and scientific inquiry. Supplemental investigations of specific archaeological sites allow students to investigate past cultures using authentic data, including artifacts, maps, and oral histories. The supplements make it possible to customize the larger curricula to states and/or specific localities. Workshops prepare teachers to implement the inquiry-based curricula in their classrooms.
Through archaeological inquiry, students make the connection between protecting the archaeological record and honoring the living descendants of those who left traces of their lives behind. Classroom teachers appreciate the high-quality professional development that Project Archaeology provides and often report that these workshops are the best that they have ever attended.
A rock art supplementary curriculum based on a Tennessee River valley site in Alabama.
Middle school students design a mock exhibit as a final performance of understanding for the Investigating Nutrition curriculum.
Teachers work their way along a cliff base to reach the Painted Bluff pictograph site.
Preparing for a Project Archaeology workshop in Florida.
Flyer for a workshop in Las Vegas, organized by IHE and funded by the Bureau of Land Management’s Nevada State Office.
DESCENDANT COMMUNITIES
Every curriculum and workshop include the voices of descendants of the peoples represented in the archaeological sites under study. Both teachers and students value exposure to these descendants – for example, Tribal elders and educators – and the expanded cultural perspectives they provide.
Because the materials examine specific archaeological and historic sites such as the ancient homes of contemporary tribes or the cabins of enslaved Africans, they provide ways for underserved students to connect with their own history through scientific and historical inquiry. Underserved students can see their ancestors and themselves in these materials.
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Investigating a Plains Tipi
The late Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was a writer, anthropologist, historian, leader of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe, and the last Indigenous war chief of the Great Plains. As a World War II veteran, he served as a U.S. Army scout and received the Bronze Star and the French Légion d'honneur Chevalier medal for his service. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Dr. Medicine Crow contributed substantially to the Plains Tipi curriculum, including an oral history handed down by his ancestors of the migration of his people to the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin
Mrs. Bartley-Wallace, who introduces the investigation, is a descendant of enslaved people who lived at Kingsley Plantation, Florida, the location of the cabin site featured in the Tabby Cabin curriculum. She learned of this ancestral connection by accident: her cousin had visited the site of the plantation (part of the National Park Service’s Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve) and saw a historic photograph of a woman he thought he recognized from an old family photo.
Mrs. Bartley-Wallace followed up on the discovery and found out that it was their ancestor known as Great Aunt Easter, who had been born into slavery in the 1820s and lived on the plantation. Mrs. Bartley-Wallace was fascinated to learn about her long-ago relative, and believing it was important for her family to learn about their connection to the past, she organized a family reunion at Kingsley Plantation.
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Investigating the Tinsley Historic Farmhouse
A descendant of the Tinsley family, homesteaders in Montana in the mid to late 1800s, Ms. Thompson introduces students to the investigation. She grew up hearing stories from her grandmother of her great-great-grandparents’ odyssey from Missouri to Montana during the Civil War and their lives on the Montana homestead where they settled and lived for many years.
Their home has been moved and rebuilt at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, where it is featured today in a living history exhibit.