Archaeology And Misconceptions

The topic of archaeology programs in museums and the role that popular culture plays in the public’s misconceptions is not easily covered in a limited timeframe nor a single document. The author considers this thesis a possible introduction to a much larger study. There is always more that can be learned, more comparisons made, and new programs evaluated. With an unlimited timeframe, the ability and funds to travel, and perhaps surveying assistance, more programs and museum educators could be surveyed for comparison. A deeper analysis of the “Anthropologists in the Making” summer camp could also be done, looking at the camp throughout multiple years.

Should the resources be available, the author suggests undertaking an evaluation of archaeology camps and programs in museums across the country. This would provide a wider data set and allow for comparisons to be made. This might also eliminate any possible quirks that are attributed solely to the campers and counselors of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Although there are only a few museums that are devoted entirely to archaeology, almost every major encyclopedic museum has some form of archaeological collection. With an archaeological collection, a focus on scientific discovery, or on human cultures there comes the opportunity to present an archaeology-based museum program. This means that archaeology programs can be found in a number of museums across the United States, ranging from one-time events to fully fledged summer camps. Increasing the number of museum educators who participated in the online survey would also provide a more populated and possibly diverse set of responses. A major change that the author suggests is personally interviewing subjects instead of handing out surveys that they complete themselves. The author had originally hoped to interview the campers at the Penn Museum but soon realized that the scheduling of the camp and the author’s lack of outside surveying assistance made it impossible to personally go through the survey with each of the fifty-eight campers. The reason behind wanting to conduct personal interviews was that it would allow for confusing questions to be explained and for follow-up questions to be asked. As the author went through the responses of the campers and even some of the museum educators, it became clear that certain questions were unclear to readers and would have benefitted from rewording or simple clarification. Pretesting the surveys with the audience group that will be evaluated would help to polish up the questions and identify any that were confusing or could be misinterpreted. For the sake of comparison, the questions asked at the end of “Dig Week” should have been exactly the same as those asked at the beginning. Instead the questions used to judge knowledge of what an artefact …show more content…
The persistent presence of archaeology in popular culture continues to be a matter of importance for museum educators interested in offering archaeology programs. Continuous and future research on the presence and impact of misconceptions and the ways in which museum educators can address them is a necessary study, especially as new generations of participants perhaps encounter new and different prevailing misconceptions about archaeology stemming from popular culture. The author hopes that eventually popular culture will represent archaeologists accurately, but until then it may fall to the educators of archaeology programs to address and counteract these