A city archeologist. Someone pass Knute the memo about the city's (and state's) budget "problem".

So Knute, you're saying "Let's be Rome." If someone digging a hole there happens to run across some ancient Roman latrine bucket, everything comes to a grinding halt.

"Historic preservation" for many is really just a more genteel form of obstructionism. The main objection some people have to anything being built in Seattle is simply that it's new, and does not fit their fetishized fantasy of what Seattle is.

Seattle has been described as a thrid-rate city in a first-rate location. That seems to work for the majority of people who live in Seattle, many of whom will be living somewhere else in 18 months anyway...

While I don't share orino's snarkiness, the point is well-taken: this approach to history can easily turn into civic solipsism and artifact nostalgia ("I touched Yesler's lumber!")--hence the jokes about pith helmets are appropriate--a vestige of the British imperial past that should be forgotten not remembered. And I'm still not sure why we want to unearth the recent past--will we understand something about the white invasion that we didn't really know?

I suspect the issue here is really about trying to find and/or develop an identity based on the city, and, again, I'm not sure why you need to do that. Is the function of a city to bestow an identity on me or a mechanism to ensure I can create and foster my own?

A number of points.

First, everyone is aware of Seattle's current budget situation and no one is suggesting the only solution is to hire more people. Addressing the issues raised could involve tweaking regulations, or possible oversight by existing entities (like the Landmarks Board) or volunteers.

Much archaeology, assessment, and mitigation is already taking place in connection with the two state mega-projects (Viaduct replacement and 520 expansion). The money is going to be spent, in fact is already being spent, to adhere to federal and state laws. Does Seattle want a seat at the table to determine archaeological priorities? Do we want to encourage a culture of taking history seriously? Can we design studies that tell us what we want to know?

Contrary to popular image, historical archaeology is not so much about artifacts (Yesler's chamber pot, Doc Maynard's whiskey jug), but about data recovery. As Seattle archaeologist Robert Weaver points out, Seattle's massive terraforming (landfill, regrades etc.) preserved much older material. In other words, Seattle has a lot of undisturbed archaeological material protected by layers of fill.

Second, much of what is to be recovered is data, information. The archaeology of Western boomtowns (and we were one) has enlightened us on the ethnic and racial make-up of pioneer populations, what they ate, their health concerns, etc. The early neighborhoods in what is now SoDo contain industrial, ethnic, maritime, and other information about some of Seattle's earliest neighborhoods and who lived in them. From founding to Gold Rush, there's a lot of great information down there, as learned already from testing on the Viaduct replacement, the Starbucks headquarters project, etc. It could really fill in the picture of our first half century. Weaver's work in Sandpoint, Idaho is a great example of what can be learned.

http://www.uidaho.edu/class/researchandcreativeworks/featuredprojects/sandpointarcheologicalproject

And no one is proposing that this work slow or stop projects. In fact, the biggest fiascos have occurred when not enough preliminary archaeological work was done adequately. It can be much more expensive to monitor a site and stop construction when a find is made than to systematically recover data in stages before work is done. In other words, done right and phased properly, archaeology can keep projects going and prevent costly delays.

Bravo.

It took 6 tries at my password to get it right. Thanks for bringing me back.

I was thinking about the ship found at the World Trade Center site not too long ago. Archeology is compatible with major construction projects. It's just as interesting to think about how fate can bring together the oddest strands of history.

Archeology while digging tunnels might include the archeology of digging tunnels. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific Railroad (aka the Milwaukee Road), was said to have dug the first 200 feet of its tunnel from Union Station (4th and Jackson) to the Cascade neighborhood (now known by another name, which is promoted by the same outfit that has Vulcanized Union Station). In fact this used to grate on us Milwaukee Road employees working at Milwaukee Stacy Street Yard (next to the Sears building which now has some bizarre sea creature on top, said to be associated with a competitor of mine which I think calls themselves Charbucks, or something like that) because in anticipation of the completion of the tunnel, the Milwaukee had built trackage on Terry Avenue N. and thereabouts, which was eventually rented out to the Great Northern Railway out of Balmer Yard (hence Job 76, the Terry Avenue job when I worked at Balmer for the B.N. after the Milw folded), and paid more attention to the maintenance of that track for the G.N. than our own decrepit road (see my website, Milwaukee Road Coast Division). Had the Milwaukee tunnel actually been built, one wonders if today it would be a bicycle tunnel like the Milwaukee's formidable 2.25 mile long Tunnel 50 at Snoqualmie Pass, the best rail route over the Cascades. The Milwaukee Road was correct in building over Snoqualmie Pass, but ultimately passed on building underneath Seattle, Washington. Did the Company know something that others ignore at their peril?

John Crosby
Fremont

Archeology, like the environment, has become a tool for those seeking to stop the world in stasis. No-growthers. NIMBYs.

We should not allow the present and the future to be slaves to the past. We should not allow those squeaky wheels , no matter the valiant banner they wave, to bankrupt our public institutions as they seek their particular agenda.

BlueLight: The whole thrust of our presentation was that urban development and new construction create *opportunities* for archaeology, and that the city should be more proactive about making the most of ground disturbances that can teach us something. If you think about public projects and cost overruns, archaeology and historic preservation are rarely the cause. Bad ideas, over-optimism, faulty revenue models, technical breakdowns, poor planning, political infighting, and violating the law do way more to "bankrupt our public institutions" and undermine confidence than archaeology.

never argue with Republicans Knute, people might not know the difference.

One reason to do urban archaeology is that the written record of a city (not just the histories, but the old maps and directories, municipal paper trails, and sundry ephemera) contain a history that is incomplete at best, and often misleading and biased as well. Trash does not lie as well as the written word, and is often the only way to learn about places and people that were not written about.

Another is that the past you can get at goes well beyond "from founding to the Gold Rush." By the time Yesler set up his mill, people had been hanging around for millennia. Contrary to conventional wisdom, development has not completely erased traces of the first people.

Finally, there are already examples of archaeological work aligned to local values, such as the Lake Union Survey, an attempt to identify and document the underwater archaeology of Seattle's urban lake. This is a cooperative effort involving volunteers from the Center for Wooden Boats, Burke Museum, the local diving community, private firms, and state and federal agencies. (For the government-averse among you, this is not an exercise in regulatory compliance, no grants have been made, nor has there been more than a few hours of government time spent on this.) http://cwb.org/node/1036

so; what was found beneath the viaduct? what happens to all the artifacts found [if any]. I would love to at least see photos and documentation of the digs that the city pays for. Wasnt there a dig on the duwamish a few yrs ago where the rail was going in? even the west point documentation that is availble at the burkes site is terribly under representative. I want to see a 2 hour long video portrait of the dig and a photo of every artifact while its coming out of the ground.