University of Alaska Museum of the North

A well-preserved, low-diversity assemblage of fossil echinoderms from the early Middle Volgian in the Slottsmøya Member (Agardhfjellet Formation) has been discovered at Janusfjellet, Sassenfjorden area, central Spitsbergen. Five species are recognised: the isocrinid Chariocrinus sp., the pedinoid Hemipedina sp., the forcipulate asteroid Asteriidae sp., the ophiacanthid Ophiacanthidae sp. and the ophiurid Ophiurinae sp. A depositional environment model reconciling autecologic, taphonomic and sedimentary evidence is presented. The Janusfjellet Lagerstätte was formed by a single, rapid burial event during a storm, entombing together autochthonous asteroids and ophiurids, and allochthonous crinoids and echinoidson a dysoxic muddy sea-floor. Comparable echinoderm material from the Boreal Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous is scarce, outdated and usually poorly described and illustrated. The scarcity of reported occurrences probably results from a collector bias for rare complete specimens and doesnot reflect the true echinoderm composition of Mesozoic high-latitude communities.

The Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Slottsmøya Member of the Agardhfjellet Formation in central Spitsbergen has yielded two new species of asteroids and two species of ophiuroids, one of which is described as new. Polarasterias janusensis Rousseau & Gale gen. et sp. nov. is a forcipulatid neoasteroid with elongated arms, small disc and very broad ambulacral grooves with narrow adambulacrals. Savignaster septemtrionalis Rousseau & Gale sp. nov. is a pterasterid with well-developed interradial chevrons. The Spitsbergen specimens are the fi rst described articulated material of Savignaster and reveal the overall arrangement of the ambulacral groove ossicles. Ophiogaleus sp. is an ophiacanthid with relatively long jaws and lateral arm plates, with a coarsely reticulate outer surface. Here again, we report the fi rst articulated skeletons of this genus, providing unprecedented insights into the disc morphology. Ophioculina hoybergia Rousseau & Thuy gen. et sp. nov. is an ophiopyrgid with a well-developed arm comb and tentacle pores reduced to within-plate perforations starting at median arm segments. These new fi nds are important additions to the asterozoan fossil record with regard to their good degree of articulation and the high latitudinal position of the localities. They signifi cantly add to the set of exhaustively known fossil asterozoan taxa which play a key role in the phylogenetic analysis and reconstruction of evolutionary history.

This report presents a general approach to conducting an assessment of Aboriginal cultural heritage at a regional scale (2006). The field of cultural heritage regional assessment is still in its infancy in Australia. The Department of Environment and Conservation NSW is currently developing a range of tools for Aboriginal heritage regional assessment in NSW. While we expect this field to evolve rapidly over the next few years we also acknowledge the need, at this point in time, to provide our clients with an illustrative approach to regional assessments. As an illustrative model, the present document embodies many of the principles we believe should inform regional assessments. We offer it not as a prescriptive template for such assessments but as a general approach that, with the benefit of feedback from our clients, we look forward to developing and refining in the years ahead.

... A Model and Case Study from South-western Australia David Guilfoyle, Bill Bennell, Wayne Webb, Vernice Gillies, and Jennifer Strickland ... Vernice Gillies Menang, Custodian and chairperson of the Albany Heritage Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation. ...

This paper explores the challenges and positive outcomes of collaborative heritage management programs that maintain a focus on customary protocols and community priorities. A holistic approach to cultural heritage management has developed over time in the Esperance region of Western Australia, which situates the local Traditional Owner community at the center of heritage management. The established structure fosters a community-based approach to project development and implementation and has led to the successful completion of a number of large-scale conservation and management projects within a wide-ranging research and community development program. In establishing this structure, the program provides a mechanism for engagement and collaboration with a range of external academic and government programs, while maintaining control in how these external parties operate and with an emphasis on dissolving mainstream power relations. We examine the successes and ongoing challenges in a critical reflection of this program and its implications for the broader field of community-based cultural heritage management. The paper reviews the program with specific reference to the role of archaeology, including the demand by communities and Traditional Owners for participatory, community-oriented archaeologists.

... were probably contemporaries during the Chaco era as well as during the preceding Pueblo I period" (Till and Hurst 2002: 8). The community center of Red Knobs, for example, is located on the ruins of a large Pueblo I village (Allison 2004), and the ... 128 DAVID R. GUILFOYLE ...

For Indigenous archaeology, an important measure of ‘success’ within any project is the level of control and ownership embedded with the local Traditional Owner community. If control/ownership is tokenistic, short-term, or undeveloped, archaeological research outcomes remain limited by default – in the understanding that Indigenous heritage management is linked to community identity and wellbeing, and requires delivery under customary practice/protocols. Any level of archaeological research – whether community, research or commercial – requires systems to ensure Traditional Owners are in control of all facets of project development, implementation, and reporting, at the level and context that they demand. This paper outlines the results of a community heritage management project centred on a property bordering Lake Pleasant View, at Many Peaks, southwestern Western Australia (Figure 1). The focus here is on the role of archaeology and archaeologists in the design and implementation of the project as led and guided by the local Traditional Owners.

This paper examines how place-based participatory mapping in a commercial context creates a framework for negotiated outcomes in the protection and management of cultural heritage. The analysis presents a critical reflection on two case studies from southwest Western Australia, with particular focus on how the work was undertaken in a commercial context, and the contrasting outcomes between the case studies. The approach directly addresses many of the limitations of compliance-based (or commercial) heritage management, with greater scope to integrate traditional owner values and knowledge. The negotiation of archaeological and Aboriginal values, regulatory frameworks and the aspirations of proponents can pose a range of ethical, theoretical, methodological and practical challenges. These challenges are best met by further development of participatory approaches via practical application and a commitment by consulting archaeologists to work beyond compliance, towards best practice solutions through negotiated outcomes.

This paper explores a collaborative program focused on identifying the role of archaeology in heritage education and management delivered under cultural leadership. The method of delivery and teaching is reflexive and adaptive, via on-ground conservation projects that have tangible social outcomes focused on empowering Alaskan Native youth. A case study from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska examines how action-oriented education, via conservation, is critical to the development of a more socially relevant archaeology. At the same time, the program ensures the archaeological process links with the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the incorporation of local cultural structures for practical landscape management.
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Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska.

Museums of natural and cultural history in the 21st century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska.

Abstract: This paper describes a co-operative project undertaken by the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) in Fairbanks, the Simon Paneak Memorial Museum in Anaktuvuk Pass, and the community of Anaktuvuk Pass. The aim is to re-cover a Nunamiut kayak (qayaq) in the UAMN collection. Here, I describe the history of the kayak and that of the current project, the individuals involved, and the project goals. As a collections manager, I also consider some of the ethical issues of “fixing” ethnographic museum objects.

Museum collections house millions of objects and associated data records that document biological and cultural diversity. In recent decades, digitization efforts have greatly increased accessibility to these data, thereby revolutionizing interdisciplinary studies in evolutionary biology, biogeography, epidemiology, cultural change, and human-mediated environmental impacts. Curators and collection managers can make museum data as accessible as possible to scientists and learners by using a collection management system. However, selecting a system can be a challenging task. Here, we describe Arctos, a community solution for managing and accessing collections data for research and education. Specific goals are to: (1) Describe the core elements of Arctos for a broad audience with respect to the biodiversity informatics principles that enable high quality research; (2) Highlight the unique aspects of Arctos; (3) Illustrate Arctos as a model for supporting and enhancing the Digital Extended Specimen; and (4) Emphasize the role of the Arctos community for improving data discovery and enabling cross-disciplinary, integrative studies within a sustainable governance model. In addition to detailing Arctos as both a community of museum professionals and a collection database platform, we discuss how Arctos achieves its richly annotated data by creating a web of knowledge with deep connections between catalog records and derived or associated data. We also highlight the value of Arctos as an educational resource. Finally, we present a financial model of fiscal sponsorship by a non-profit organization, implemented in 2022, to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of Arctos. We attribute Arctos' longevity of nearly three decades to its core development principles of standardization, flexibility, interdisciplinarity, and connectivity within a nimble development model for addressing novel needs and information types in response to changing technology, workflows, ethical considerations, and regulations. .