In this paper, we discuss trees as contemporary landscape features that transcend time. Trees may gain historic significance through a variety of cultural mechanisms. For example, trees may be culturally modified as part of an altered landscape of resource procurement, including maple sugaring and bark harvesting. Trees may bear witness to historic events and tragedies – remaining the only visible marker of the past. Trees may also gain social meaning through their context within a landscape, the oral history and anecdotes surrounding them, and even false historical narratives. We will discuss several examples from Michigan to make a case for why archaeologists should document culturally significant trees, particularly for archaeological districts and traditional cultural landscapes.

This paper examines a locale of Ho-Chunk and Oceti Ŝakowiŋ territory in the late seventeenth century in the area now called western Wisconsin, along the upper Mississippi River. Place-names there reflect the significance of French explorers in settler colonial mindsets of American culture in subsequent centuries and today. At Trempealeau, a French translation of the Ho-Chunk name Hay-nee-ah-cha, “soaking mountain,” refers to a unique landform, a landmark and sacred place for Indigenous people for thousands of years through to the present. Today, archaeological sites there are within “Perrot State Park,” named for an explorer who ostensibly established a trading post over the winter of 1685 to 1686. A re-examination of previous archaeological excavations and a new soil chemistry analysis in consultation with the Ho-Chunk Tribal Historic Preservation Office is presented. Results contrast the relative absence of French objects with the significant yet overlooked continuity of Indigenous Nations at Trempealeau.

First listed in 1982, the designation of the Ringwood Mines superfund site was the formal documentation of the illegal dumping of industrial waste by the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s and 70s. The primary pollutant was paint sludge, a waste product from Ford's manufacturing plant that sluiced out of the factory by the hundreds of gallons every day. Truckloads of sludge were dumped in the shafts of former mines and nearby wooded areas where it leached an array of toxins into the soils, water, flora, and fauna. Those most directly impacted were the Ramapough Lenape residents of Upper Ringwood, whose community sits on top of the superfund site. This paper considers some of the materialities interwoven with this tragedy including such ‘things’ as waste, toxins and disease, representations of poor communities of color, and the capitalist transformation of the globe through pollution.

This paper re-examines the history of a family from the Gin clan through letters and material remains collected in-situ from the rooms of male Chinese migrants who had lived in the Ying On Association compound before the 1968 Tucson Urban Renewal (TUR) project in Arizona. Using contemporary archaeological methods, we bring together documents and artifacts that were separated by TUR researchers, as well as new genealogical research. Most of the letters belonging to Gin Gay Yin and his son, Gin Boon Loon, date to the 1940s-1960s – a tumultuous period in China – and indicate that they actively maintained connections with their wives and children in mainland China and, later, Hong Kong. Dateable objects collected by archaeologists reveal transnational connections in the mid-1940s via medicines purchased from immigrant hometowns. In addition, the consequences of the lack of U.S.-China relations after 1949 is evident by the adoption of uniquely Chinese American ceramics.

According to the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report (2022), between 1819 and 1969, 408 federal Native American boarding schools operated in 37 states. Considering the extensive spatial and temporal scale of these institutions, the amount of archived material culture associated with the schools is disproportionately small. Why? I will explore this question through a case study of an under-archived type of material culture: early 20th century postcards (posted and unposted) featuring images of Native American boarding schools.

This presentation explores the specific challenges contemporary archaeologists face in Portugal, where much of the work conducted on recent chronologies is not officially recognized as archaeology, leading to a form of "outlaw archaeology." This marginalization also seems to happen in other countries where contemporary archaeology is sometimes not accepted and is still far from the mainstream archaeological discourse, and closed to academic debates. Using insights from Portugal and respective connections to broader contexts, we aim to highlight contemporary archaeologists' disparities in recognition and legitimacy in method and theory. We will also discuss the implications of this marginalization for heritage preservation, academic research, and professional practice. We seek to promote a dialogue on the need for broader acceptance and support for contemporary archaeological endeavors, emphasizing the importance of these studies in understanding recent human history and cultural developments.

A significant challenge faced by archaeologists today is the proliferation of pseudoarchaeological conspiracist content across all sorts of media spaces, from television, to books, to digital and social media. Conspiracism creates challenges for archaeologists and communities, whose knowledge and histories are rewritten into mis- and disinformative narratives that can shape interpretations of the past and present. It can also lead to harm to both people and sites through harassment, vandalism, and illegal excavations. Conspiracism is fast-paced and constantly shifting, and it is a challenge for archaeologists to keep ahead of it, but that does not mean all hope is lost. Engagement is necessary and there are a variety of effective and practical methods for responsible engagement with pseudoarchaeology that I will share in this presentation. Because, as Bettina Arnold (2006:179) wrote, “Pseudoarchaeology may always be traveling with us, but we do not have to let it drive the train.”

Contemporary archaeology and speculative fiction merge reality and possibility, allowing one to time travel from living in present inequities to imagining more equitable futures. Combining this with disaster archaeology allows a critical lens on the notion of returning to a past time period, the “back to normal” aspect that most recovery efforts focus on. For so many, “normal” is not an ideal state to return to. As an archaeologist working within these scenarios, I ask: How can contemporary archaeology embrace the tenets of the speculative to defamiliarize us with what normal is? Building on my work from various field sectors, I turn to what I feel is archaeology’s greatest gift, storytelling – using the speculative and building on it through fiction, ethnography, and, more recently, heritage. This approach offers a hopeful and inspiring way to use interpretation to embody a present and imagine a future that dismantles these structural inequities.

This presentation looks at Mardi Gras beads as a representative “artifact” to demonstrate the ways in which historical archaeological methods can be used to document contemporary environmental issues, with a focus towards plastic pollution. An overview of the history and archaeology of Mardi Gras beads will be presented, along with a broader discussion of the ways contemporary archaeology approaches litter. The overall goal is to provide tools and techniques that can be applied to modern litter, especially single-use plastics, and other environmental issues in your own communities and classrooms.

Archaeology conducted for compliance and review comprises the majority of all work conducted in the field within the United States. Unfortunately, the Cultural Resource Management industry has primarily focused on site-level investigation without considering cultural contexts from the perspective of contemporary descendant communities. The result is that traditional cultural places and landscapes are often overlooked as historic resources. In this session we explore the importance of Tribal collaboration for understanding Traditional Cultural Places/Landscapes (TCP/L) and promoting Tribal expertise over archaeological knowledge. TCP/Ls cannot be understood solely through an archaeological lens. Rather, contemporary archaeology should promote TCPs by advocating for Tribal expertise.

20th-century municipal dumps and even informal, community refuse dumps seem to fit ambiguously when we apply our values to sort significant and non-significant archaeological resources. This activity of gathering refuse for landfill or disposal produces a variety of 20th-century sites that it is easy for regulators to exclude from significant heritage: a null heritage that invites discussion of the transparency of certain kinds of contemporary contexts to cultural resource management processes, and the potential to mask some histories. Many other types of archaeological resources with 20th-century associations receive this treatment, in part because they are distinct to modern contexts. Educator Elliot Eisner (1933-2014) used the idea of a “null curriculum” to describe the importance of what is not being taught, the omissions and outright exclusions that merit attention equal to what is included. This paper approaches the exclusions that task how we make a functional heritage of recent archaeological sites.