Archaeological Discussion Group (ADG) Meeting, Outreach & Initiatives-AIC Annual Meeting, Friday, May 14, 2010

The Archaeological Discussion Group is a sub-group of the Objects Specialty Group (OSG) for those who are interested in or work with archaeological materials. Though the group has been around for a while meeting at each annual conference, the two new chairs, Claudia Chemello and Susanne Grieve, are working to make the group more visible and have more of a presence in AIC and the archaeological community. The ADG meeting at this year’s conference set out to describe Claudia and Susanne’s vision for the group and different projects and initiatives they’d like to get off the ground.

Some of the goals they envisioned for the group were to create a web presence for information on the group and archaeological conservation, to be more visible in archaeological conferences and liaise with archaeologists, and to create outreach projects such as providing resources on the web or other educational initiatives. As a staff member of a graduate conservation program and the chair of the OSG website committee, I was particularly interested in the creation of a web presence for outreach to both the public and other professionals that work with archaeological materials. The first step would be to create an ADG webpage, which would be part of the OSG website. Once the page is up, Claudia and Susanne had several ideas for content, partly based on what they would like to see on the site and also from the responses to a survey they sent out to ADG members.

Some of these suggestions included:

Having information on what is an archaeological conservator, what training is needed and available for this and perhaps have some profiles of members so that archaeologists and the public can get a better idea of what they do

Having educational and outreach information that can be downloadable such as creating a downloadable brochure on archaeological conservation, having course material or other educational information for schools and museums

Using it as a resource for those members who can’t attend the AIC conference by posting meeting minutes and other information

Posting fieldwork opportunities for members that are not field schools or internships. Since these opportunities are often spread by word of mouth, some conservators who wanted to work in the field were having trouble finding non-student opportunities and this could help remedy that.

Listing of archaeological conservators who work in the field as a resource for archaeologists who are looking for conservators for their site

It seems like ADG’s co-chairs have a lot of energy and great ideas for the group in both completing projects initiated by previous chairs and starting new ones. Keep an eye out for ADG on the OSG website and for these new initiatives. And if you’re interested in participating in ADG, you can contact the co-chairs Claudia Chemello or Susanne Grieve for more information.