To me Public Archaeology is a type of archaeological work. Public archaeology is when archaeologists communicate and work with the public when they are working on projects. Another part of public archaeology is that the archaeologists are making data and their interpretations on that data known to the public. So, to me I think that Public Archaeology is a way to keep the public informed and interested in the type of work that archaeologists do. Like for example, information about projects can be more easily found and understood by people that are not part of the archaeological field. Our project aligns with my definition of Public Archaeology because it deals with being in contact and giving information to the public. In this class, there is a blog to keep people aware of some of the things that we are doing in the cemetery. It also helps that one of the main goals of this project is to make the information know to the public by having a website about the grave and their locations so that the people might be able to find relatives. This part of the project isn’t very worked on in this semester, but it is one of the end goals and it also might be worked on more in the next semester. The lines of investigating that I am interested in pursuing are professionalism and ethics. One of the main problem in public archaeology is that there aren’t many fulltime archaeologists that are working on it they might work on a project that involves the public but then they go back to their own research that doesn’t deal with the public by either communicating or sharing data. With not that many people working on it there isn’t much information and research into what it is and how to go about putting in into motion. The part of this that deals with ethics is worth investigating because it is a way to make sure that everyone understands each other’s point of view and so that the researchers don’t end up insulting or going against the wishes of the people. Some information that archaeology brings to light might not be well received by the people that it is from and other so it is something that must be addresses by the archaeologist and the people .
