Linking Archaeological Perspectives into Integrity and Significance Evaluation of Historic Urban Landscapes
Ref.: 18
Área temática:
01 Integridad física de los paisajes urbanos históricos
Fecha de recepción:
15/11/2008
AUTORES (* Autor principal)
CASSELL, Mark S.
* (Estados Unidos de América)
-
Territory Heritage Resource Consulting
ABSTRACT
The development of perspectives on historic urban landscapes has only occasionally made reference to archaeological perspectives as a
contributing disciplinary element in discussions. While current discourse emphasis on architecture is understandable, it is here suggested
that archaeology can appropriately be involved more fully in ongoing development of historic urban landscape perspectives due to the
unique set of skills, perspectives, and experience of its practitioners, especially regarding statements of and rationale for integrity and
significance evaluation.
Contrary to popular belief (and occasionally professional belief), archaeology is not solely an underground
endeavor. At its core, archaeology focuses upon arrays of material culture items in their combined and cumulative social (people), spatial
(place), and temporal (history) contexts, regardless of the underground (currently invisible) or on-ground (currently visible) location of the
material culture array. Consequently, material culture arrays ranging in scale from an excavated ancient hearth to U.S. national highway
system development are appropriately within the realm of archaeological research. These observations bear upon two conceptual and
pragmatic aspects of archaeological inquiry useful to historic urban landscape discussions, because these landscapes represent a variety
of material culture array commonly considered in archaeological research.
First, landscapes represent dynamic and dialectical
social processes. Like any material landscape, historic urban landscapes embody past(s), present(s), and future(s). They contain both
underground and on-ground resources, and these currently invisible and visible elements each contain their own past, present, and future
vis-à-vis landscape creation, use, alteration, perception, etc. across space and through time. When appropriate, archaeological
investigations regularly address this sort of dynamic, and archaeological perspectives can be especially worthwhile when considering
resources at the scale of historic urban landscapes.
Second, American historic preservation efforts developed in earnest since the
1960s involve U.S. federal and state cultural resource management regulations, which require evaluation of the historical significance of
resources being addressed. Cultural resource significance criteria concern events contributing to local, regional, state, or national history;
lives of important persons; distinctive and distinguishable individual or cumulative formal characteristics, masterworks, and artistic values;
and potential for future yield of important historical information. In significance evaluation of a resource, cultural resource management
archaeologists must examine the integrity of the resource in seven categories, including integrity of location, design, setting, materials,
workmanship, feeling, and association. Thus, appropriately trained and experienced archaeologists have substantial background in and
working knowledge for understanding integrity and significance on many scales, including that of historic urban landscapes.
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