This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), whose home office in Pensacola has become the go-to destination for Florida history.
Because of FPAN’s dedication to unearthing the past and preserving human history, they have influenced other archaeology networks across the globe.
“We have had the best staff that we could have ever asked for,” said Mike Thomin, manager of the Destination Archaeology Resource Center. “And the reason why we are one of the most respected public archaeology organizations in the country…it was everybody working towards those same goals.”
FPAN was founded by Dr. Judy Bense in 2004 to preserve cultural heritage in Florida and protect important historical sites.
“She’s been doing public archaeology in Pensacola since 1984, right, with the Hawkshaw site,” said Thomin. “That’s one reason why FPAN was actually created in 2004. If you read the original creation document, it talks about trying to stem the rapid deterioration of the loss of our resources from things like looting.”
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“It was a dream of hers, and she initiated it and started it and kind of gave everybody the latitude to let it grow in any direction that it needed to go,” said Dr. Della Scott-Ireton, associate director of FPAN. “It’s been really amazing to me to watch how FPAN has grown, the different initiatives that we’ve been able to take, the workshops we’ve developed. Just seeing how far we’ve come in the last twenty years; I’m really excited to see where we go in the next twenty and even longer.”
A blueprint
FPAN’s structure has served as a blueprint for other public archaeology networks like OKPAN, Oklahoma Public Archaeology Network.
Locally, it has been instrumental in reshaping how the public looks at the profession.
“I think that the greatest impact that we’ve had on people is just making them aware about what archaeology is,” said Thomin, “That you don’t have to go to exotic locations thousands of miles away to find really cool, interesting, important archaeological resources that we have right here in our backyard.”
Protecting and preserving shared human history and cultural heritage is at the heart of FPAN’s goals. Community engagement has been the most effective method of achieving that goal.
“People understand within the profession of archaeology how important it actually is to work with local communities, to get that buy-in,” said Thomin. “To make sure that our local state legislators and members of the House and Senate, or any local government, understand why these resources are important.”
Community pride is also a driving force behind promoting history.
“We have one of the oldest Spanish settlements in the continental United States right here, and we’re able to prove that because of archaeology,” said Thomin. “That gives communities pride. The evolution of it (public archaeology) has been more towards looking at what local communities think is important versus what we maybe think is important.”
Protecting the past
No public effort goes without its challenges, and the ones faced by FPAN include both human and environmental. The effects of climate change have threatened cultural heritage across the state, and FPAN works daily to educate the public on how to help preserve historic sites.
“The situation we’re dealing with, with more intense hurricanes, with storm surge, with erosion…can be incredibly damaging to sites,” said Thomin. “We’ve documented that. We’re documenting it right now on the Apalachicola area.”
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FPAN also faces challenges from human development and growth.
“Whether they're cemeteries or 2,000-year-old Indigenous shell midden sites. We can learn about what the environment was like 2,000 years ago by looking at the shells, by seeing the things they were eating, by examining the tiny little pollen samples that are still there and preserved,” explained Thomin. “Development can cause problems with that.”
“We are facing a lot of challenges, and we have to keep our foot on the pedal if we’re going to meet them,” Thomin continued. “I think that that’s important to be able to show people, like, what sorts of damage can happen from these different events.”
Get involved
FPAN’s work is a blend of professional archaeologists, students, and even the public. For nearly a decade, the Heritage Monitoring Scouts program has trained individuals on how to document and care for cultural and historical sites. The program is open to the public.
“We train citizen scientists to help us monitor archaeological sites that are threatened by sea level rise and storm surges and erosion and human impacts,” said Thomin.
Other citizen scientist programs offered by FPAN include CRPT (Cemetery Resource Protection Training), which focuses on the preservation and documentation of cemeteries across the state. There is also HADS (Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar), intended to explain the advantages of preserving shipwrecks and other submerged cultural resources.
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“I think that that’s another reason why it’s really important that we exist,” said Thomin. “That not only do we try to get people, make them aware of these issues, but also how they can actually get involved. There’s a lot of things that people can do.”
While much of FPAN’s work is about preserving the past, the organization stays looking ahead.
“We are always evolving; we are always changing,” said Thomin. “And that’s only possible because we have luckily been able to attract some of the best public archaeologists in the country to come to this organization because we are so unique, there’s nothing like us.”
Thomin quotes Freeman Tilden, the father of heritage interpretation, to sum up the principles of FPAN’s 20-year story.
“Through interpretation – understanding. Through understanding – appreciation. And through appreciation – protection.”
