News

NCPTT’s Andrew Ferrell and Kirk Cordell served as guest instructors for the University of Florida’s Preservation Institute: Nantucket. They lectured on the role NCPTT plays in facilitating research and training in innovative technologies for historic preservation.

Particular topics included NCPTT’s grants program, sustainable preservation, preservation trades training, and disaster response and planning for cultural resources.

One of the biggest barriers to the rapid spread of cutting edge, innovative technologies in archeology is cost.  Let’s face it: things that end in “-ometer” or “-oscopy” tend to be pricey.  And if they are really new, or if their utility in some contexts has yet to be proven, the price remains in the stratosphere [...]

Getting archeology onto the silver or flat screen has always been a tricky proposition: you have to entertain, but stick to the facts, all without encouraging site looting. One of the programs that seems to have done it, at least in the U.K., is Time Team. And now it’s coming to the U.S.

As Kris Hurst put it on her About.com blog, Time Team America “brings a Mission Impossible team of professional archaeologists to a different archaeological site in the United States,” where they spend “three days at each site, bringing along a raft of cutting edge remote sensing and geophysical survey techniques.”

Save the Date for IPTW-ITES 2009 from August 25-29, 2009 in Leadville, Colorado. The 13th annual International Preservation Trades Workshop will be held by the Preservation Trades Network in partnership with the Colorado Mountain College Historic Preservation program. Sponsored in part by NCPTT.

If you’re interested in sharing your skills and knowledge as a “hands on” demonstrator at IPTW 2009 submit a demonstration proposal online. Some travel assistance may be available for demonstrators. Contact Rudy Christian at rchristian@ptn.org for details.

This past November the Friends of NCPTT and the National Trust for Historic Preservation convened a small group of experts to discuss historic preservation and environmental sustainability.

After two days of intense discussions, the group developed the core of the Pocantico Proclamation on Sustainability and Historic Preservation. While a good starting point to further discussion on sustainability of the built environment, we ask that you review the Pocantico Proclamation and add your comments. Input from the broader preservation community is critical. We appreciate your participation.

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.

NCPTT will offer a LEED New Construction & Major Renovations Exam Preparation Workshop, May 20-22, 2009. The 3 day workshop will prepare participants to take the LEED–NC 2.2 exam. Registration: $400. Call Sarah Jackson or Andy Ferrell to register. Limited seats available.

Preservation Institute: Nantucket (PI:N) is an interdisciplinary program that exposes participants to the theories and methodologies of international cultural heritage conservation and the research, documentation, and management of current and potential World Heritage sites.

Kirk Cordell and Andrew Ferrell of NCPTT will be guest lecturing at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket.

NCPTT awarded 12 projects, totaling $262,500, for preservation technology and training awards to universities, non-profit organizations, and state agencies.

NCPTT, in cooperation with the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation and the Cane River Creole National Historical Park has finished production of the instructional video “Replacing Trees in Historic Landscapes.”

NCPTT and Hybrid Plastics are partnering to make and use POSS modified polymers in preservation applications. Researchers and preservationists discussed the potential of developing new nanotechnologies for application to preservation problems.

NCPTT is soliciting oral and poster presentations that focus on research and innovation in cemetery conservation and preservation for the NCPTT’s Nationwide Cemetery Preservation Summit to be held in Nashville, Tenn., October 19-21, 2009.

NCPTT and the Presidio Trust will present “Prospection in Depth 2009,” a workshop on geophysical prospection on August 4-8.

NCPTT will hold a half-day course for art conservators and preservationists scheduled for Tuesday, May 19 in Los Angeles. The workshop will be held in conjunction with the American Institute for Conservation Annual meeting.

Christopher Fennell of the University of Illinois recently concluded a study on the use of aerial thermal infrared technology to identify the infrastructural features of archeological sites.

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.”

The NPS Preservation and Skills Training (P.A.S.T) program was hosted by NCPTT and the Cane River Creole National Historical Park in February.

International Preservation Trades Workshop and International Trades Education Symposium this August 25-29, 2009 in Leadville, Colorado.

There are many good resources for more information about cemetery preservation, including books, nonprofit organizations, and Internet sites.

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.