Patrick V. Kirch
As I write these remarks, the fall semester at Berkeley is well underway,
and it is clear that the Archaeological Research Facility (ARF) continues
to be active on several fronts. Our faculty associates and affiliated graduate
students returned from field projects around the globe with reports of successful
surveys and excavations, in many cases made possible or enhanced by a series
of grants-in-aid from our new Stahl Endowment Fund. Two major projects,
the U. C. Berkeley Archaeological Field School and Prof. Meg
Conkey's survey for paleolithic sites in southern France, are reported
in more detail elsewhere in this newsletter.
In the area of publications, another monograph in the ARF
Contributions series has been issued, and two more monographs are in
preparation. The latest monograph,
reporting on a 3,000-year-long occupation sequence in the Samoan Islands,
excavated by your Director, brings a new face to our venerable publication
series, with a color cover. We have also expanded and computerized our mailing
and distribution lists for publications, taken out our first advertisement
in a professional journal, and are actively soliciting orders from major
university libraries throughout the country.
Extramural funding for archaeological research through the ARF has also
increased significantly over the past few months. Especially notable are
three major grants from the National Science
Foundation. These include a grant to Prof. Conkey
for her French paleolithic survey, a continuation grant to Prof. Kent Lightfoot for the Fort Ross Project,
and a grant for the renovation of the undergraduate archaeology
teaching laboratory.