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Meeting Notes of the Archaeological Heritage Management Committee
Held at the US/ICOMOS Annual Conference
April 19, 2002, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Archaeological Heritage Management Committee met during the 2002
US/ICOMOS annual conference, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 19 April 2002,
at noon. The meeting adjourned about 1:45 p.m. Approximately 20 people
attended the meeting (see the attached list).
A report on activities related to the goals set as the working program for
the Archaeological Heritage Management Committee for the period from
September, 2002 through September, 2003 was distributed to meeting attendees
(this report is attached to this email message). The Chair discussed some of
the contents of the report briefly. Given the short time available for the
meeting, however, the focus of the discussion was limited to several topics.
These topics are presented below.
AHMC Emphasis
The emphasis set out in the committee goals has been on organizing the
resources of the Archaeological Heritage Management Committee, and then
deploying them to the cause of enhancing archaeological site management,
especially at sites that are in the process of developing site management
capabilities. The notes on activities related to committee goals describe
efforts to attract new committee members, and to forge alliances with other
professional associations (notably, the Society for American Archaeology and
Archaeological Institute of America) in order to better accomplish this. The
Chair suggested that the area in which US/ICOMOS AHMC might be best
positioned to make the greatest contribution might be in monitoring. This is
because resource preservationists in the US have developed experience in
monitoring techniques and systems, and that US preservationists also have
experience in the technologies that might be very useful in monitoring
(e.g., remote sensing, and technologies capable of detecting subtle material
changes).
Thus, it was suggested that the US/ICOMS AHMC develop protocols and
standards for monitoring, and the development be accomplished by 1)
participating in the production of monitoring systems for World Heritage
Sites, and 2) training personnel to use the monitoring instruments
recommended in the monitoring systems, as well as training management to
incorporate the results of monitoring in management operations.
Possible Monitoring Sites
According to this scheme, the sites for which monitoring systems would be
produced might be of two sorts:
1) Sites included in the Cultural Landscape Analysis Initiative. Funding for
the development of monitoring systems would have to come from grant
applications prepared by members of the Archaeological heritage Management
Committee. A subcommittee (Grants and Support) has been formed to write
grant proposals and contact potential grantors. The Chair has asked for
volunteers to work on this committee. (NB: volunteers are here again asked
to contact the Chair.) The Cultural Landscape Analysis Initiative has been
or is active at several sites which would benefit from a full-blown
monitoring program:
a) Cape Coast, Ghana
b) Angkor Borei, Cambodia
c) Plain of Jars, Laos
d) Petra, Jordan
2) World Heritage Sites located in the United States. Gustavo Araoz,
Executive Director for US/ICOMOS, is exploring the possibility that AHMC
would work with these sites to develop monitoring systems. Possible sites
include Cahokia and Taos.
The Chair, AHM, has volunteered to co-Chair the US/ICOMOS Development
Committee, in order to coordinate and facilitate funding for these AHMC
initiatives. US/ICOMOS as a whole would benefit by being able to offer
participatory work to members, and a nominal administrative fee would help
to support administrative activities required for other US/ICOMOS programs
and projects. The Chair is also discussing contributions by the AHMC to an
upcoming US/ICOMOS newsletter that will deal with monitoring.
Possible Revision of Charter for the Protection and Management of the
Archaeological Heritage
The Chair, ICAHM (Brian Egloff) has raised the question of whether or not
the ICOMOS Charter for the Protection and Management of the Archaeological
Heritage would benefit from revision. Members were asked for their input to
this. It can be supplied to the Chair, US/ICOMOS Archaeological Heritage
Management Committee, who will review and summarize comments and pass them
along to Brian, along with the full text of all comments received.
Current ICAHM Issues and Activities
Ellen Lee, Secretary of ICAHM, gave an update on this.
Future Meetings
Given the accelerated activities envisioned for AHMC, the Chair suggests
that a half-day be set aside for the AHMC meeting, either immediately
before or after the next US/ICOMOS annual meeting. |
