NCPTT

Prospection in Depth 2009, a course in archaeological geophysics, will be hosted from August 4-8, 2009 in partnership with the Presidio Trust at the site of El Presidio de San Francisco, in California. Register for this course online.

When organizing the Remote Site Surveillance meeting held last year, in August of 2008, one of the things I hoped to do was spark discussion about the administrative sustainability of surveillance/monitoring programs…

As part of our Remote Site Surveillance event in August of 2008, which I’ve mentioned in the prior two blog posts, we are working to enhance the joint U.S. Forest Service-Louisiana Army National Guard’s “Site Vulnerability Assessment Model.”

Back in Blog 2, “Turning the Wheel…,” I was tracing the strange but true link between methamphetamines and antiquities theft. Turns out I’m not the only person with this on their mind.

NCPTT’s David W. Morgan and Jason Church presented preliminary results of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of copper at the joint Louisiana Archaeological Society and Mississippi Archaeological Association meeting held from February 27-March 1, 2009 in Natchez, Miss.

Recent research reveals bacteria may be the biggest ally in the fight to preserve ancient artifacts from erosion and deterioration.

Katrina, 9-11, and “other challenges mean the preservation of our historic resources…requires innovative and proactive approaches during the coming decades” (Preserve America p5). That, I think, is where our remote archaeological site surveillance event comes into its own, especially when you consider how clearly antiquities trade, narcotics trafficking, and terrorism are becoming linked.

In 2006 the White House launched Preserve America. Parallel to this, on a much tinier scale, was an event on the use of surveillance equipment for remote archaeological site surveillance. In its own humble fashion this little cog actually helps turn the enormous Preserve America wheel.

The Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) will hold its annual conference entitled “The Ties That Divide: Trade, Conflict & Borders” from January 6-11, 2009 in Toronto, ON, Canada.

Annually NCPTT hosts “Prospection in Depth,” an integrated, holistic professional development workshop fusing GIS, GPS, and geophysical prospection.

Dr. Judy Bense, Chair of the Preservation Technology and Training board at NCPTT, has been recommended to serve as the interim President of the University of West Florida.

Anna Johnson, a high-school junior at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, took NCPTT research to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Atlanta, Ga. on May 11-16.

NCPTT will hold its third annual workshop on archeological prospection Sept. 16-20, 2008, in San Francisco.

NCPTT hosted a MayDay Event “Preparing You for the Next Disaster” in Natchitoches, La.

The Presidio Trust and NCPTT have agreed to jointly promote NCPTT’s “Prospection in Depth 2008,” a workshop that focuses on cutting-edge applications of geographic information systems and geophysical technologies for identifying archeological sites and site features.

Approximately 90 people attended a NCPTT-funded webinar on high definition documentation in archeology on Nov. 14 and 15.

NCPTT is now advertising its 2008 summer internship opportunities in architecture and engineering, archeology and collections, heritage education, historic landscapes and materials conservation.

Sunrise on the Cane River
This website chronicles the interwoven archaeological training and research projects conducted during the summer of 2006 at the St. Anne (16NA529) and Whittington (16NA241) plantation sites in Louisiana.*
In June the NCPTT hosted “Prospection [...]

David Morgan of NCPTT has been asked to serve as a liaison between University College London and the Louisiana Division of Archaeology in coordinating an artifact loan for an exhibit.