History

Beginning

The Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program began in June 1999. KAS and Indiana’s state Project Archaeology Program jointly sponsored facilitator training for three days at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Jeffersonville, Indiana in June that year. Eight Kentucky educators and four Kentucky archaeologists attended. The Falls of the Ohio State Park and KAS hosted the training. KAS announced the beginning of the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program in the October 1999 issue of Kentucky Teacher, a publication that goes out to every teacher and retired teacher in the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System.

Kentucky’s first Project Archaeology Intrigue of the Past workshop was held a few months later, in February 2000, at Wickliffe Mounds in Ballard County. Western Kentucky Educational Cooperative and Wickliffe Mounds Research Center (at that time a program of Murray State University, but now a state historic park) joined KAS in holding the workshop. Among the eleven participants were Kentucky public elementary, middle, and high school teachers; environmental educators from Mammoth Cave National Park; and a Murray State university professor.

The 2000s

Since that first workshop, the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program has held 16 one- two- or two and a half-day Project Archaeology Intrigue of the Past workshops. Over 175 people have attended workshops held all across Kentucky. Counted among participants are public elementary, middle, and high school teachers; parochial school teachers; Montessori and other private school teachers; museum educators; university professors; and environmental educators. Workshop co-sponsors have been similarly diverse: state and federal agencies, museums, public schools, and universities.

In 2001 and in 2006, the Program trained additional facilitators. Facilitators currently number 13: six professional ancient Native American Era archaeologists, two professional Historic Era archaeologists, and five educators. Three Kentucky facilitators have been trained at the national Project Archaeology Summer Leadership Academy in Bozeman since 2014. Three KAS staff members are currently Project Archaeology curricula facilitators.

In the beginning, the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program planned to offer three Project Archaeology Intrigue of the Past workshops annually – one each in the western, central, and eastern parts of the state. PD credit was available to workshop participants.

This plan changed after 2001, however, because of dwindling funding support and changing teachers’ workshop attendance habits. Beginning in 2002, the State Program offered one summer Project Archaeology Intrigue of the Past workshop each year (usually in late June). From 2002-2006, workshops were held in various venues. From 2009-2011, Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing sponsored Intrigue of the Past workshops in Louisville, and Riverside defrayed registration costs to participants. However, when approached by interested organizations, the State Program partnered with them to hold Project Archaeology Intrigue of the Past workshops.

With dwindling workshop registrations, from 2006 to 2008, the State Project Archaeology Program refocused its energies – from attempting to hold multiple workshops each year to getting the word out about the materials and educational opportunities and assessing the best Kentucky teacher venues for Program materials.

State Program facilitators held Intrigue teaser workshops/presentations at a variety of state teacher conferences. These included the Kentucky Council for the Social Studies, the Kentucky Science Teachers Association, the Kentucky Art Educators Association, the Kentucky Association of Environmental Educators, the Kentucky Library Association/Kentucky School Media Association, and the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.

After this work, the Program identified three organizations that were particularly interested in archaeology content: the Kentucky Council for the Social Studies, the Kentucky Association of Environmental Educators, and the Kentucky Library Association/Kentucky School Media Association.

From the Program’s beginning, KAS personnel had adapted Intrigue lessons for Kentucky. Initially, this was carried out in a piecemeal fashion. But in 2008, KAS made plans to programmatically develop Kentucky-focused content for Kentucky teachers and educators about Kentucky’s ancient Native American era archaeology and historic era archaeology, either by adapting Intrigue lessons, or developing entirely new ones.

Working with KET, in 2009, KAS explored the feasibility of making lessons and content materials about Kentucky archaeology – some of which were also linked to the State Project Archaeology Program – available for easier access through KET’s PBS LearningMedia platform. The result was two PBS LearningMedia learning objects developed to be used as educational extension for the Survey’s award-winning documentary Historic Archaeology: Beneath Kentucky’s Fields and Streets. These lessons include Historic Archaeology at Ashland: Artifacts in a Privy (for grades 6-12) and Historic Archaeology at Camp Nelson: Shedding Light on Undocumented Lives (grades 5-12).

Other noteworthy Program activities and events KAS was a part of in the 2000s are the following:

2001

Project Archaeology teaser workshop/presentations were held at the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference in Louisville, and the Social Studies Mini-Conference in Frankfort. At the Kentucky State Fair, the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program held a twice-daily hands-on activity about ancient Native American Era Kentucky cave art.

2002

Project Archaeology’s Intrigue of the Past structured a 5th grade archaeology unit at a Lexington elementary school. The unit’s educational effectiveness and its impact on students’ historical thinking was evaluated by Survey personnel and faculty at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction as part of a formal evaluation of the Survey’s archaeology education programs (read about the results of this research here).

2004

In the KAS booth at a local heritage festival in Renfro Valley, staff offered hands-on Intrigue lessons to visitors. KAS reached an agreement with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet that Project Archaeology materials could be considered a mitigation option for federally-funded archaeology mitigation projects.

2005

Various educational programs used Project Archaeology content and Kentucky-adapted Intrigue of the Past lessons: Kentucky Historical Society distance-learning program; Kentucky History Center Summer Institute; Livingston Central High School archaeology course; University of Kentucky Introduction to Archaeology Course. The first Kentucky Transportation Cabinet-sponsored Project Archaeology education project began.

2006

The State Program and KAS hosted the annual Project Archaeology State Network Coordinators meeting at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Living Archaeology Weekend and Lexington Montessori used Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program content and adapted Intrigue of the Past lessons.

2007

Kentucky’s State Project Archaeology Program offered a fieldwork opportunity in June in Louisville at Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing to anyone who had previously attended a Kentucky Intrigue of the Past workshop.

2008

Various educational programs used Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program content and Kentucky-adapted Intrigue of the Past lessons: Berea College Archaeology course; Lexington Community Montessori archaeology unit; and Kentucky Arts Council Summer Art Academy.

2009

Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program content and Kentucky-adapted Intrigue of the Past lessons formed the core of the “Hidden Histories” program at Raven Run, developed by KAS for the Lexington Parks Department.

The 2010s

A September 2010 article in the Kentucky Teacher was a fitting beginning to the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program’s second decade. The article described the Program’s workshops and educational materials, and KAS’ involvement in the Program.

Dwindling general funding support for Kentucky’s State Project Archaeology Program during this decade spelled changes and challenges for the Program. But it also provided opportunities.

Funding came more often from mitigation projects for the development of educational materials. Changing teacher behavior with respect to workshop attendance meant that the Program offered formal workshops only when organizations requested one. Increasing instructor expectations to be able to access lessons and content online and via websites required new approaches to content delivery.

In the first three years of this decade (2010-2013), KAS held four Intrigue of the Past workshops across the state.

In 2009, national Project Archaeology introduced its new flagship curriculum – Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter. Years in the making and reflecting best practice, its development involved formal field testing and evaluation, and many partners. The Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program was one of the state programs involved the development of this curriculum.

The Kentucky Program decided to support the new Project Archaeology curriculum. It directed its efforts toward developing two Kentucky-focused case studies. One on an ancient Native American Kentucky shelter and the other on a more modern Kentucky shelter. This mirrored the previous practice of offering themed Intrigue of the Past workshops that focused either on Kentucky’s Native peoples/sites or on Kentucky’s historic peoples/sites. These case studies would be funded by educational outreach monies linked to archaeological site mitigation funds.

Work on “Investigating a Shotgun House” (Case Study Number 12) began in 2011. It was prepared as part of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s public education stipulations in the mitigation plans for the Newtown Pike Extension Project’s adverse impacts to significant archaeological sites and buildings in the Davis Bottom community.

The unit was completed in 2016 after rigorous field testing, evaluation, review, classroom piloting, and revision. With its completion, the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program brought Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter to Kentucky’s teachers.

Work on the second Kentucky Investigating Shelter case study – “Investigating A Fort Ancient Bentpole House” – began in 2017. Its preparation is part of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s public education materials development stipulations in the mitigation plans for the U.S. Route 25 Realignment Project and was part of the mitigation of the adverse impacts to the Kentuckiana (15Sc183) site in Scott County, Kentucky.

In August 2017, the national Project Archaeology office rolled out “Investigating a Shotgun House” to a national audience. Read the August 2017 Project Archaeology newsletter about that roll-out here.

In late 2019, KAS passed administration of the Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program on to the Kentucky Heritage Council. KHC staff member and Project
Archaeology Leadership Academy graduate Karen Stevens took over the reins as Kentucky’s State Coordinator from out-going State Coordinator Gwynn Henderson.

Other noteworthy Program activities and events KAS was a part of in the 2010s are the following:

June 2014

KAS held a week-long teachers’ academy – Making History Local: An Inquiry-based
Approach – in Somerset, Kentucky. Fourteen elementary and middle school social studies teachers and three archaeology/anthropology educators attended. They provided feedback on a working draft of “Investigating a Shotgun House.”

2014-2015 School Year

Four Academy teachers conducted a formal, in-class piloting and evaluation of a revised draft of “Investigating a Shotgun House.” See a video documenting the process here.

The 2020s

KAS is currently a Kentucky State Project Archaeology Program participant. Three KAS staff members are facilitators for the Program. Work continues on “Investigating A Fort Ancient Bent-pole House.” Once a draft is in-hand, funding will be sought for field testing, evaluation, review, classroom piloting, and draft revision, following the “Investigating a Shotgun House” development model. Collaboration with federally recognized Shawnee tribes makes the development of this shelter unit particularly rewarding.

In January 2020, KAS began working with the Louisiana Division of Archaeology in the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. Their project goal is to extend the reach of “Investigating a Shotgun House” to underserved learners – specifically, the blind and visually impaired. Read about this collaborative project on the Project Archaeology blog.