Introduction

As a specialty within the sphere of public archaeology and cultural heritage management, the public interpretation of archaeological and cultural sites has come to be recognized as an essential component in the conservation and protection of cultural resources and sites and to foster public stewardship around the world. In the United States, the development of resource protection legislation and cultural resource management (CRM) strategies in the 1960s and 1970s, and the resultant very rapid accumulation of archaeological and historical site information and collected artifacts, led to concerns for inclusiveness and sensitivity to heritage values of multidimensional constituents or ‘stakeholders’ (see Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Legislation).

By the late 1980s, many archaeologists in the United States and elsewhere were addressing the contemporary context of their research as part of a growing practical and ethical awareness. The 1990s saw the emergence of greater energy and funding devoted to the public interface of archaeology as the professional community became aware that intellectual introversion was no longer acceptable and that more attention should be paid to the mechanisms, programs, and standards of public presentation. Among leading professional interpreters, only the programs and presentations that attempted to go beyond rote informational recitation and convey emotional as well as intellectual connections between the lay public and the rapidly expanding body of archaeological knowledge were acceptable. In the face of an increasing public interest and demand for information, archaeologists and their cultural heritage colleagues began to more actively collaborate to devise effective strategies for public presentation and interpretation. Until the 1990s, publications on public presentation and interpretation strategies and standards were rare and largely obscured in isolated accounts and academic grey literature.