莎林·波特

美国国家公园管理局(National Park Service)致力于保护古迹，向公众介绍古迹，并与其他国家交流相关教育信息。莎林·波特(Charlene Porter)是本期《美国电子期刊》(eJournalUSA)执行编辑。

壮阔的自然景观是美国国家公园的标志，但在国家公园管理的近3400万英亩景区内，还有数千座史前遗址。这些古迹讲述着早在欧洲定居者宣告发现新大陆和在这里建国以前，居住在这片土地上的人的生活。

与大自然创造的壮阔景观和美国开国先贤起草建国文献的历史遗址一样，美国印第安部落祖先的各种遗物和建筑也得到国家公园管理局的珍视和保护。

美国国会于1906年通过保留文化遗址的国家政策。这也就是说，这项《古物法》(The Antiquities Act)诞生在关于成立国家公园管理局以便将公园、纪念地等统一管理的1916年的国会立法之前。国家公园管理局首席考古学家麦克马纳蒙(Francis P. McManamon)指出，《古物法》以法律形式明确了这一观念，即"古文物资源和历史遗址必须受到保护，不得为满足经济利益、个人欲望、以及在那里的其它建造需要所用。"

导致这项立法的原因出现在法律通过前的大约二十年，即定居者向美国西南部迁移的时期。当时，有着数百年历史的美国印第安人土坯房和印第安人村落在那一地区星罗棋布。有些人视这些建筑为早期文明的宝贵文物，但也有些人视它们为可用或可买卖的材料来源。

在二十世纪初，人们对殖民者或联邦政府与北美原住印第安人之间的多次战争记忆犹新，美国印第安人屡遭歧视。麦克马纳蒙在接受《美国电子期刊》采访时说，在这样的背景下通过了《古物法》是一个惊人的巧合。麦克马纳蒙说："在作出保护这些古文物和遗址的努力的同时，这些文物的创造者的后代却被刻意地剥夺了这些文化遗产。"当时，将部落族群赶出他们传统的居住地和把印第安人的历史从学校教育中去除是政府的普遍政策。

国家公园中的古迹

今天，在国家公园管理局管理的纪念地和公园中，有大约70000个古迹。麦克马纳蒙估计，有待发现的遗迹还有几万，甚至数十万。保护有着几百年、几千年历史的遗址本身便富有挑战性，而国家公园管理局同时还必须牢记让公众参观、了解和珍惜这些遗址的使命。

麦克马纳蒙说，以崖壁洞居和印第安村落的结构为例，"我们需要给一些岩石或砖墙加固"，保护原有结构不因参观而受到损坏。为保护遗存的原始建筑，专业人员必须研制出与原来使用的材料相似的土黏泥和石膏板。

世界很多地方从事遗址、建筑和雕塑保护工作的专业人员都面临这种挑战。2007年，阿富汗的一个古文物主管人员小组访问了美国，考察美国国家公园管理局如何管理古迹和历史公园遗址。这使麦克马纳蒙和他在国家公园管理局从事考古工作的同事蔡尔兹(Terry Childs)和利特尔(Barbara Little)加深了对这个行业共同面临的问题的认识。如同美国一样，阿富汗的遗址和宝贵的历史建筑有些是用沙石、花岗石或重黏土材料建成的。麦克马纳蒙说，阿富汗的管理人员非常希望探讨与选择加固材料相关的材料科学技术。麦克马纳蒙希望，信息交流将帮助阿富汗的主管人员避免美国过去犯过的一些错误。他说："我们正在把在二十世纪初期加固遗址时采用的不适宜的黏土换掉，改用较软的土黏泥，以保护原来的土砖石。"他说："这是阿富汗的同行与我们的实地工作人员共同学习和共同感兴趣的领域之一。"

社区教育

这些来自阿富汗的管理人员参观了首都华盛顿的一些遗址，并到国家公园管理局在美国西南部的一些保护区进行了八个星期的培训──培训由美国国务院文化传统中心(Cultural Heritage Center)赞助。作为支持阿富汗文化保护的努力之一，2007年的培训项目还在建立社区关系和公共教育方面提供了咨询。

国家公园管理局的近400个公园、纪念碑/馆和遗址分布在美国各地的各种社区所在地。公园管理人员从多年的经验中认识到，在公园和社区领袖之间建立密切合作是公园景点管理的一个重要方面。

教育是这种合作关系中的另一方面。与所在社区密切配合，让学校学生和其他有关团体到公园景点参观学习也是公园管理的例行政策。麦克马纳蒙说，这些做法给阿富汗来访者带来"启迪"。

麦克马纳蒙说："他们在参观期间，碰到了一批批由学校组织前来参观的学生，学生们在公园管理员带领下，边参观边聆听图马卡科里(Tumacacori，十七世纪末期建于亚利桑那州的西班牙教会)的历史。他们认为这是绝好的做法。"一位阿富汗访问者希望在巴米扬山谷(Bamiyan Valley)也引入类似的教育项目。虽然塔利班在2001年捣毁了那里的两座大佛，但巴米扬山谷仍然是国际公认的文化遗址，继续是阿富汗北方丝绸之路上的一座里程碑的见证。

麦克马纳蒙说，从阿富汗到亚利桑那，历史遗址是让每一代人了解过去的生活和文化的重要途径。如果青少年有机会亲身到那些遗址、建筑去，接触来自过去生活和事件的实物，他们将"对历史有更加丰富的了解和认识"。

Guardians of the Ancients

By Charlene Porter

The National Park Service works to preserve ancient monuments, present them to the public, and share knowledge of these activities with other nations.

Charlene Porter is managing editor of this edition of eJournalUSA.

Magnificent natural landscapes are the hallmark of the United States’ national parks, but thousands of prehistoric sites are also part of the system’s almost 34 million hectares, reminders of the lives of people who occupied the land long before European settlers proclaimed the discovery of a New World and founded a nation.

The National Park Service values ancient artifacts and architecture created by the ancestors of today’s Native American tribes just as greatly as the sweeping vistas created by nature and the historic sites where America’s Founding Fathers crafted a plan to make a colony a nation.

The U.S. Congress enacted a national policy to preserve archeological sites for the future in 1906. In fact, the Antiquities Act, as it is called, predates the 1916 law that consolidated the management of parks, monuments, and other sites under the National Park Service (NPS). The Antiquities Act made into law the idea that “those archeological resources and historic sites were to be protected, and they were not to be exploited for monetary gain, or personal whim, or because something else had to be built where they existed,” according to Francis P. McManamon, NPS chief archeologist.

The impetus for passing this law began building a couple decades before its enactment, as settlers began moving into the U.S. Southwest. Adobe buildings and pueblos built by American Indians hundreds of years earlier dotted the landscape. These structures were viewed as great artifacts of earlier civilizations by some, but as quarries of usable or saleable materials by others.

In the early 20th century, memory of the Indian Wars between the colonial or federal government and the indigenous people of North America was very fresh, and American Indians routinely suffered discrimination. The coincidence of these facts with the passage of the Antiquities Act is “striking,” McManamon said in an interview with eJournal USA.

“At the same time there were efforts to preserve these ancient monuments and ruins, the descendants of the people who created them were being systematically stripped of the remnants of that culture,” McManamon said. Government polices to move tribal groups off traditional lands and to purge Indian heritage from children’s schooling were common during that time.

Archeology in the Parks

Today, the National Park Service has recorded about 70,000 archeological sites in the monument and park areas it manages, and McManamon estimates there are tens, even hundreds, of thousands more discrete sites waiting to be discovered. The preservation of sites hundreds or thousands of years old is challenging in its own right, but NPS must also remain mindful of its mission to allow the public to see, understand, and appreciate the sites.

In the case of cliff-dweller villages and pueblo structures, McManamon said that “we have to stabilize some of the stone or adobe brick walls so the original fabric doesn’t get damaged” as visitors tour the sites. In order to do that, preservationists have to develop mortars that are earth-based, similar to the materials the builders originally used, and surface plasters to protect the original building adobe remains.

That challenge is shared by architectural conservators working on monuments, buildings, and statues in many places. McManamon, and his NPS archeological colleagues Terry Childs and Barbara Little, gained new insight on the shared problems of his profession in 2007 when a group of Afghan monument directors visited the United States to observe NPS practices in the management of archeological and historic parks and sites.

Like many monuments and historical treasures of the United States, monuments in Afghanistan might be made of sandstone, granite, or adobe. McManamon said the Afghan monument caretakers were eager to discuss techniques of material sciences involved in choosing the proper substance to use in stabilizing monuments.

The NPS chief archeologist also hopes that the exchange of information will help Afghanistan’s monument directors avoid some of the mistakes made in the United States over the years. “We are pulling out inappropriate mortar used for some of the early stabilization projects in the early twentieth century. We are replacing it with earth-based mortars that are softer and help to preserve the original adobe bricks and stone,” McManamon said. “That’s an area where our colleagues from Afghanistan were on the same plane of learning and interest with some of our field crews.”

Community Education

The Afghans visited sites in Washington and spent eight weeks at NPS units in the Southwest in a training program sponsored by the Cultural Heritage Center within the U.S. Department of State. As part of an effort to support cultural preservation in Afghanistan, the 2007 training program also counseled the visitors in community relations and public education.

With its almost 400 NPS parks, monuments, and sites located in vastly different communities across the United States, NPS officials have learned through the years that building close and cooperative relations between park and community officials is an important component of site management.

Education is another element of this relationship, and it is also standard policy for park officials to work closely with their communities to bring schoolchildren and other interested groups into their facilities. That was “kind of a revelation” for the Afghan visitors, McManamon said.

“They thought it was just terrific that while they were visiting, school groups came out on field trips and had a ranger-led interpretive walk around the courtyards at Tumacácori [a Spanish mission site in Arizona founded in the late 17th century], ” McManamon said. One Afghan visitor hoped to introduce similar education programs in the Bamiyan Valley. Though the Taliban destroyed two enormous Buddha statues there in 2001, the Bamiyan Valley remains an internationally recognized cultural site with still-extant evidence of its role as a landmark on the Silk Road in northern Afghanistan.

Historic sites from Afghanistan to Arizona are a critical tool in creating an understanding of past lives and cultures in every successive generation, McManamon said. If youngsters are given a first-person experience with the actual places, buildings and artifacts of lives and events gone by, they will “get a much richer understanding and appreciation” of the past.