These efforts of Jennifer F. McKinnon and Jason Raupp, maritime archeologists, coincide with the 340th anniversary of the islands’ first contact with the Europeans.
McKinnon conducted an excavation at Paupau Beach in December last year and helped the staff of the Historical Preservation Office create its own maritime archeology training program.
This time, she and Raupp will collect data and develop archeological site profiles that can be used to document Spanish cultural heritage sites in the CNMI.
These include cultural contact sites, mission sites, landing sites, fort and defense sites and conflict sites.
While completing the database, McKinnon and Raupp will develop a “thematic assessment research framework that will help evaluate the significance” of Spain’s cultural heritage in the Northern Marianas.
Although she and Raupp are initially looking at two sites, McKinnon said there are many places in the islands where cultural remains can be found.
They are looking for ceramics, shipwrecks, burial sites and other centuries-old structures.
These, McKinnon said, will tell the new generation what kind of influence the Spanish had on the indigenous people and how the indigenous people were able to preserve their own culture.
The thematic assessment framework can be used by HPO to make efficient and effective decisions regarding management and conservation.
It can also be used in future researches to “capture the complexity and meaning of human interaction and experience during culture contact events.”
Such framework can be used by the public to “understand the islands’ interesting and complex history and the unique interaction that occurred when two cultures made contact for the first time.”
McKinnon’s project proposal stated that to date, no comprehensive archeological survey of Spanish cultural heritage sites in the CNMI has been conducted.
Since she moved to Australia in 2006, McKinnon, who is originally from Florida, extended her research interests to Spanish colonial sites in the Pacific and established last year a working relationship with HPO.
Together with HPO, McKinnon is also developing a local maritime archeology training program for local divers and the public.
