| FROM THE U.S.
The Society for American Archaeology’s
(SAA) Government Affairs Program, managed
by lawyer and WAC4 attendee Donald Craib,
publishes an detailed monthly update on
matters of relevance to archaeologists and
heritage professionals that are being considered
by the U.S. government in Washington D.C..
The URL is http://www.saa.org/Government/.
Recent editions of the update include the
following items which should be of interest
to WAC members. Note that the original
text is copyright and is only paraphrased
here to draw the attention of readers to
the issues in question. Readers are
referred to the SAA website for details.
NAGPRA Review Committee. In
mid-1999, the U.S. National Park Service
published a notice seeking comments on the
NAGPRA Review Committee’s Draft Principles
of Agreement Regarding the Disposition of
Culturally Unidentifiable Human Remains.
The SAA’s submission recognized the legitimacy
of Native American interests in the disposition
of their ancestors’ remains as well as the
legitimacy of scientific interest in studying
those remains. The SAA noted that
“We believe that conflicting claims concerning
the proper treatment and disposition of
particular human remains must be resolved
on a case-by-case basis through consideration
of the scientific importance of the material,
the cultural religious values of the interested
individuals or groups, and the strength
of their relationship to the remains in
question”. See http://www.saa.org/Government/Lobby/nagpraltr.html.
Amendments to the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act Bill
HR 2643 (proposed by Representative. Hastings,
Republican, Washington State) seeks to repeal
NAGPRA’s ownership provisions based on aboriginal
lands and allows limited scientific study
under certain conditions and specific time
periods. A similar bill received a
hearing in an earlier Congress, but action
is unlikely until several issues have been
resolved in the Kennewick Man litigation.
The SAA supports the legislation.
Senate Indian Affairs Committee oversight
hearing on the implementation of the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act In April 1999, SAA president
Keith Kintigh testified before the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee regarding an oversight
hearing on the implementation of NAGPRA
(http://www.saa.org/Government/Lobby/sciatestimony/html).
He considered four main questions in his
testimony:
·
maintaining NAGPRA coordination functions
within the U.S. National Parks Service’s
Archaeology and Ethnography Program;
·
problems with compliance by federal agencies;
·
extensions for museums that are making efforts
to complete their inventories in good-faith;
and
·
problems with the implementation of the
Act’s definition of cultural affiliation.
SAA met with staff of members on the Committee
prior to the hearing and the Committee has
taken no action by since the hearing.
The Hague Convention for the Protection
of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict In January 1999, the
U.S. President submitted the Hague Convention
for the Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict to the Senate
for consideration and ratification (http://www.icomos.org/hague).
The Treaty was completed in 1954 and guides
the protection of archaeological sites,
monuments, artefacts, and collections in
wartime. While the U.S.s was involed
in drafting the Treaty, it has not been
submitted to the US Senate before for ratification.
The SAA was told by staff from Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and were told that the
Treaty is unlikely to receive attention
in the current Congress.
Cultural Property Reform Act
Introduced by Senator. Moynihan (Democrat,
New York), this bill seeks to change the
Convention on Cultural Property Implementation
Act passed by the Congress in 1983.
The Act allows the United States to implement
the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means
of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit
Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership
of Cultural Property. In May 2000,
the Senate Finance Committee invited public
comment on the legislation. The SAA
submitted a letter in June which was endorsed
by the Society for Historical Archaeology,
the National Conference of State Historic
Preservation Officers, Preservation Action,
the American Cultural Resources Association,
and U.S-ICOMOS (see http://www.saa.org/Government/indix.html).
The SAA opposes the bill because it would
have deleterious consequences for U.S. efforts
to protect its own cultural heritage and
to maintain its international leadership
role in such matters. The bill benefits
a few individuals who illicitly trade in
illegally-exported antiquities. The
SAA urged the Finance Committee to reject
the bill.
PREHISTORIA 2000 – bilingual
announcement
Revue de l’Union Internationale des Sciences
Préhistoriques
et Protohistoriques
Journal of the International Union of Prehistoric
and Protohistoric Sciences
A la fin de cette année. Le premier numéro
d’une nouvelle revue, qui portera comme
titre ‘Prehistoria 2000’
apparaîtra. Cette nouvelle périodique sera
publiée par l’UISPP, ou bien l’Union Internationale
des Sciences Pre- et Protohistoriques. Le
but de cette revue sera en première lieu
d’encourager un échange constant d’informations
entre spécialistes, ceci en diffusant des
connaissances scientifiques les plus larges
possible et en provoquant des discussions
entre les différents chercheurs du monde
entier.
Le premier numéro de la nouvelle revue
a été prévu pour l’an 2001, et sera diffusée
durant le XIVe congrès de l’UISPP qui aura
lieu du 2-8 septembre 2001 à Liège (Belgique).
De ce moment-là “ Prehistoria 2000 ”
apparâitra annuellement. Toutefois, pour
le fin de l’an 2000 est déja prévu un ‘numéro
zéro’, une version plus au moins sommaire
de la revue final qui fonctionera comme
numéro spécimen.
En ce moment les préparations pour ce numéro-pilot
sont en cours. Il est pour cette première
publication que nous sommes encore à
la recherche d’articles scientifiques et
des comptes-rendus, ayant un rapport avec
les sciences Pré- et Protohistoriques.
Nous sommes également intéressées dans des
informations sur des projets de fouilles
et des recherches ayant à peine commencées,
ou des annonces des congrès, expositions
et toutes autres événements qui auraient
lieu dans le proche avenir. Aussi des références
sur des publications récémment apparues
qui ont un rapport avec les sciences pré-
et protohistoires seraient très utile pour
notre rubrique bibliographique.
La date de clôture de rédaction pour le
premier numéro de Prehistoria 2000
a été fixée sur le 17 juillet 2000, en ce
qui concerne les communications scientifiques.
Toutes les annonces de caractère informatives
par contre devraient être soumises avant
le 3 juillet pour être inclus dans le premier
numéro. Bien sûr, cet avis assez court pris
en considération, des articles pour le numéro
suivant seront également acceptés. Pour
des plus amples informations, n’hésitez
pas à nous contacter.
English
At the end this year the first issue of
a new archaeological journal called Prehistoria
2000 will appear. The journal will be
published by the UISPP, better known as
the International Union for Pre- and Protohistoric
Sciences. The main goal of this new
periodical will be to encourage a continuous
exchange of knowledge between specialists
around the world. In order to achieve
this, a wide range of scientific information
will be supplied and discussions between
various scholars will be hosted.
The actual publication of the new journal
has been projected for the year 2001, when
its first issue will be distributed during
the XIVth UISPP Congress, being held in
Liège (Belgium) from 2-8 September of that
year. From then on Prehistoria
2000 is intended to appear on a yearly
basis. A special issue, however, consisting
of a more summary version of the journal
than will normally be produced, is planned
to appear at the end of this year.
At the moment, the preparations for this
so-called ‘pilot-issue’ are underway.
For this issue we are still looking
for scientific articles as well as book
reviews, covering the fields of the Pre-
and Protohistoric Sciences. Also,
we are very much interested in all kinds
of information considering recently-started
excavations and research-projects, or announcements
of congresses, exhibitions and so on that
will take place in the near future.
Furthermore, all information on new publications
considering the fields of Pre- and Protohistory
would be very useful for our bibliography.
The deadline for contributions to be included
in the first issue of Prehistoria 2000
was July 2000. All announcements of
events taking place, as well as bibliographical
data had to be submitted before the 3rd
of that month to be included. Of course,
because of the rather short notice, papers
to be included in later issues are welcome
as well. For any further information feel
free to mail, fax, email or call us.
Sandra Verhulst
Tel: +39/543.404405
Fax: +39/543.404314
E-mail: s.verhulst@abaco-mac.it
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World
Archaeological Bulletin