Boom and Bust Archaeology

Andrew Kacey Thomas

doi:10.21810/strm.v13i1.299

Abstract

As a discourse analysis of historical resource assessment documents and interviews with professional archaeologists, this study aims to inspect and critique the production of value in the Alberta historical resource value (HRV) system. The system of evaluation for historical value creates what can be described as a presence-absence model of archaeological significance that limits the ability for archaeologists to interpret and subjectively determine the historical value of materials. In addition, current systems often rely on a contractual relationship between archaeologists and industry to produce these reports, and rarely incorporate indigenous perspectives of significance. With a focus on the assumptions and functional result of HRIA assessments, we can examine the repercussions of the contemporary archaeological evaluative model within Alberta. A goal of this nascent assessment is to provide the opportunity for evaluation of a system that largely exists below the surface of public interest but has vast implications for future access to shared historical resources.

Highlights

This study aims to inspect and critique the production of value in the Alberta Historical Resource Value (HRV) system based on its predisposition towards physical artefacts and lack of recognition of alternative ways of expressing heritage
To preserve and mitigate any threat to the material heritage of Alberta, the Historical Resources Act calls for a Historical Resource Impact Assessment (HRIA) to be conducted (ACT, 2017)
While archaeological evidence may be considered unbiased to the social and political pressures of the time of collection, the recording of materials and assigning of value clearly creates some contradictions in whose values are represented. This contradiction of colonial and precontact materials is apparent throughout the discourses of value created by these collections of archaeological evidence in the HRIA system and the HRV scale (ACT 2016)

Summary

Introduction

This study aims to inspect and critique the production of value in the Alberta Historical Resource Value (HRV) system based on its predisposition towards physical artefacts and lack of recognition of alternative ways of expressing heritage. Commissioned assessments are primarily the responsibility of industrial developers as a requirement for development in areas suspected of occupation as directed in the Historical Resources Act. Professional Archaeologists are largely contractors of industry paid to determine if sites of development require any additional protection based on the presence of artefacts and their perceived academic significance. Each plays a key role in the production of assessments and driving the determination of value, but Industrial development sets the pace of assessment based on expansion and development within the province This means that without industrial development and expansion relatively few new HRIAs would be needed, tying Professional Archaeology and our heritage resource protections implicitly to the expansion of Alberta’s industrial development

Objectives

Results

Conclusion