Here again climate controlled cases and rooms are optimal to prevent corrosion damage to the artifact. Preservation can be a laborious process but when properly done artifacts ranging from pottery to dinosaur bones to writings on ancient scrolls can be kept for the benefit of future generations. Email ID bryairmarketing pahwa. The Importance of Artifact Preservation Archaeological discoveries let we as a species connect with our history: both our recent and our ancient past.
Get In Touch. Please refrain from touching, leaning, standing, or climbing on any structures, no matter how solid they look. Poop near cultural sites is disrespectful to Indigenous cultures that hold this landscape sacred. When hiking and camping, please use portable waste bags or a camp toilet. Teach children to respect these places. Please make sure to leash pets and keep them away from the site.
Assessing the values of a site with the participation of interested parties is the important first step. Aesthetic, historic, scientific, religious, symbolic, educational, economic, and ecological values all need to be considered.
At the same time, we need to recognize that values may not be immutable. All values, including economic ones, are diminished by the deterioration of a site. In addition, the relative importance of some values may shift over time as a society changes. Often it is a site's economic value that receives the greatest attention.
But when a government's tourism authority works independently of its antiquities conservation department, the revenue a site produces may not go toward its protection.
In many instances, a site is enjoyed by visitors from places other than the country that owns it, is managed by an agency that is underfunded and inadequately staffed, and is of benefit to business interests with little understanding of its fragility and of the need for its conservation. Tourism and conservation should be natural partners rather than antagonists. Tourism can actually support conservation while still generating income, but quantitative economic analysis is needed for a convincing case to be made for this.
A holistic approach to the conservation of sites must also confront the fundamental conflict between excavation and preservation. That a buried resource exists today, having survived for perhaps millennia, should make it self-evident that the buried environment is a stable one. That excavation exposes the remains to deterioration should be equally self-evident. While archaeology has boomed in the latter half of the 20th century, the protection of sites has not kept pace.
Conservation has never had the cachet of archaeological discovery. Often an unwanted handmaiden of archaeology, conservation began to demand its role in site protection just at the time when funding for archaeology became more competitive.
It is the first expense in fieldwork to be cut, because it is the one least likely to provide the benefits that archaeologists seek—namely, discovery and publication. From the standpoint of conservation, the argument is not against excavation although more limited and less invasive excavation is desirable , but rather for practices that ensure that sites are conserved and protected. Cultural-resource authorities need to mandate, through legislation, a standard code of ethical practice to compel the conservation of archaeological finds and sites.
For example, it should be required that sites that will not to be opened to visitors be either maintained or reburied. If there is no funding in a field archaeologist's budget for a comprehensive conservation plan—which should include the hiring of an experienced, on-site conservator—no excavation permit should be granted.
In the past, archaeologists have dug "blind" and dug and dug to uncover artifacts and structures. New tools that allow for more precise, controlled excavation will, hopefully, limit the extent of excavation.
Among the new techniques are ground-penetrating radar, resistivity and magnetometry, seismic methods, and remote methods, such as multispectral scanning from aircraft. Minimally destructive methods, such as core sampling for chemical analysis and micro-artifacts, have been used to determine ancient settlement patterns.
These techniques provide archaeologists with instruments of precision that should precede and guide the use of the spade and trowel, allowing more of a site to remain undisturbed.
Conducting an inventory of archaeological resources, expanding our knowledge of site deterioration, prioritizing values, and integrating conservation into archaeology are all important elements of site preservation.
Equally important is imbuing the thinking behind site preservation with a holistic philosophy. To do so means refraining from viewing the problems of archaeological sites entirely through the prism of reductionism. Conservation sits astride the arts and sciences. In recent decades, the contributions of science to the preservation of cultural heritage have been significant, transforming conservation from skills- or crafts-based work into a discipline.
Only slowly has the realization come that science cannot provide all the answers, nor can it ensure the ultimate survival of any but a small fraction of our heritage. Science is only a tool, and a technological one at that. In the service of conservation, it must be balanced by the arts and humanities. Once you have all of your evidence together, you're ready to fill out the application and file it with your state's historic preservation office.
The process varies widely among states, so make sure you've included everything required. The site also may be inspected by a state historic preservation office professional to verify the claims in your application.
If your application is missing necessary information or documentation, it may result in a delay or even rejection of your application. Some states charge a fee to file an application, typically a few hundred dollars. Receive your certificate of registration. If your property meets the requirements of your state's historic preservation office, it will be registered as an archaeological preservation site. Once the registration is in place, you can begin plans to excavate the site.
The designation may come with tax benefits depending on your state's property tax laws. Registration means the site falls under state or federal criminal laws, which make it a felony to loot or disturb an archaeological site. Both before and after your application is approved, avoid doing anything to disturb the artifacts located at the site.
Part 2. Gain familiarity with the general location. To get a good understanding of the types of measures that may be necessary to secure the site, you need to know what possible threats exist, or if the site has a history of destruction or looting. If you live on the property where the archaeological site is located, you probably already have a good idea of how secure the area is.
However, if your home isn't located on the same property, you should consider spending several hours there both during the day and at night to determine what measures would be helpful in securing the site from looting and destruction. Keep in mind that in can take months, if not years, to develop a sound excavation plan and raise the funds necessary to begin. In the meantime, your top priority must be keeping the site secure and intact.
Let neighbors know about the existence of the archaeological site and the need to keep it secure. They may be able to help. At the very least, they can alert you to suspicious activity. Build a fence around the site. If the site can be fenced without disturbing any artifacts, it can help to keep looters off the property as well as simple trespassers who just want to look but might inadvertently damage or destroy the site.
Check the boundaries of the property and make sure the fence doesn't encompass land beyond the boundaries recorded in the deed. You may need to have a property surveyor come out and mark the property line so you know where you can place a fence. Provided the site isn't located in a residential area where it might disturb neighbors, flood lights also can provide a measure of protection. Lights can stay on all night or be triggered by motion detecting sensors. Take measures to protect the surface.
If the area in which the site is located is prone to erosion or is suffering damage due to the elements that might threaten artifacts of archaeological significance, you might want to consider the use of tarps or other means to keep the area intact until it can be properly excavated.
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