PEABODY HIGHLIGHTS

Society for American Archaeology Teaching Award

In August 2020, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) announced its newest education award, the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology Award for Archaeology and Education. The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology Award for Archaeology and Education recognizes the excellence of individuals or institutions in using archaeological methods, theory, and/or data to enliven, enrich, and enhance other disciplines, and to foster the community of archaeology education practitioners. The Peabody Award will spotlight these contributions and promote teaching ideas, exercises, activities, and methods across the educational spectrum, from K-12 through higher education and public education. Diving with a Purpose received the inaugural award at the April annual meeting of the society.

Virtual Practicum

In spring 2021 Ryan Wheeler mentored Oberlin College student Annabel Dobbyn in a virtual practicum. Annabel used online auction data to track the buying and selling of shell gorgets, a distinctive artifact from the southeastern United States. Together, they developed a database with hundreds of shell gorgets sold online, identifying the primary auction houses involved in these sales, a fair number of fakes, and price trends. We were surprised to learn that most gorgets sold online were unknown in the archaeological literature. Regional trends were interesting as well, including a large number of gorgets from West Virginia, where few had been reported. One of the most interesting observations was that some gorgets were offered for sale over and over by different auction houses, often with very different descriptions and provenance data.

Peabody Highlights Continued

New England Museums Association Repatriation Workshop

At the November 2020 annual meeting of the New England Museums Association, the Peabody Institute and the Tomaquag Museum co-sponsored the workshop NAGPRA

at 30: Reflecting on the Past, Looking to

the Future. Session participants were able to discuss all aspects of NAGPRA with tribal, museum, and National Park Service facilitators in small, informal groups, from basic questions to work on institutional repatriation goals.

Facilitators included Ryan Wheeler, director, Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, MA; Nekole Alligood, Delaware Nation, Independent Consultant, OK; Jaime Arsenault, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe; David Goldstein, National Park Service, Region-1 Tribal and Cultural Affairs Liaison; Rae Gould, Nipmuc Nation and Associate Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown University; Katie Kirakosian, Archaeologist, Educator, and Board Member, Tomaquag Museum; Krystiana L. Krupa, Program Officer, NAGPRA Office, University of Illinois; Melanie O’Brien, Manager, National NAGPRA Program, National Park Service, DC; Lorén M. Spears, Narragansett, Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum, RI (NEMA Board); Marla Taylor, Curator of Collections, Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, CT; Jayne-Leigh Thomas, Director of the Office of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Indiana University; Jackie Veninger-Robert, NAGPRA Coordinator, University of Connecticut.

Archaeology Centers Coalition

This year the Peabody Institute joined the Archaeology Centers Coalition. In response to urgent calls to address systemic racism in all spheres of institutional life, a group of archaeology centers based in the United States have come together to identify avenues for concrete change. Since July, center directors and representatives have been meeting via Zoom to consider ways to move archaeology forward towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The initiative emerged out of conversations that began in the wake of the murder of George Floyd between the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), the Indigenous Archaeology Collective (IAC), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, SAPIENS, and the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS). In our search for effective strategies, it quickly became clear that archaeology centers have a fundamental role to play as key institutional loci of undergraduate recruitment, graduate student training, and faculty development. The Archaeology Centers Coalition includes representatives from CIAMS, the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley, the Archaeological Research Center at UC Santa Cruz, the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at UMass, Boston, the Columbia Center for Archaeology, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, the George Washington University Capitol Archaeological Institute, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University, the Peabody Institute of Archaeology at Phillips Academy Andover, the Stanford University Archaeology Center, the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at UC San Diego, the University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies, and the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Ramson Lomatewama Stained Glass Commission

Sarah Driscoll, instructor in english, introduced us to talented poet, glass artist, and educator Ramson Lomatewama of Hopi’s Third Mesa. Ramson is the first and only fulltime Hopi glassblower, as well as a traditional katsina doll carver, jeweler, published poet, and consultant. He is also an educator on several levels. Early in his career, he was a middle school and high school teacher, and for many years, served as adjunct faculty at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. His work is featured in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture’s exhibition Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass. Ramson made several online presentation’s to Sarah’s students that also were open to the public–see the Peabody YouTube page for recordings. In the spring the Peabody Institute commissioned Ramson to create a stained glass panel for our building’s entry transom window. We anticipate installation next year.