Creating a community of prospection practitioners: Contributions of the US National Park Service workshop

Abstract

AbstractAn annual series of lectures and field exercises has provided training in the archaeological application of geophysical, aerial and other remote sensing methods; this week‐long workshop has been coordinated by the US National Park Service (NPS) since 1991. Volunteer instructors have trained nearly 900 attendees at a variety of prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic sites across the United States. This NPS workshop is the longest‐standing training course in archaeological prospection and it is also responsible for training the greatest number within the archaeological community. Participants have benefited from their interactions with the large number of experienced instructors and from field exercises with a diverse array of modern equipment. The course has emphasized practical techniques for archaeologists and the development of research and commercial strategies; it has not trained archaeologists to be geophysicists. Above and beyond its role in training, the NPS workshop has created a community of practitioners, providing myriad opportunities for professional development, mentoring and collaboration, and it has played a major role in the acceptance of geophysics by archaeologists in the United States.