After a 12-year run downtown, the annual Archaeology Roadshow will move its 2025 educational and interactive showcase across the river to East Portland on May 31st, taking over the grassy field in Gateway Discovery Park at 10520 NE Halsey Street. Historians, members from universities, Tribes, government agencies, museums, and nonprofit cultural organizations will operate booths at this free event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., sharing presentations and answering questions from inquisitive attendees. People can drop in anytime during the four-hour un-ticketed event. However, some presentations occur at specific times, including an open welcome song and prayer performed by Sam Robinson of the Chinook Indian Nation.
This year’s Portland show features exhibits and hands-on activities demonstrating how arts and crafts reflect the human experience through the items people make and the traditions passed down through generations.
Virginia Butler, with the Archaeology Roadshow, explained that the name is an homage to the PBS series Antiques Roadshow, which has people bring items for expert evaluation. Students working on the inaugural Portland event wanted people to make the connection to the TV show because the Archaeology Roadshow similarly allows attendees to bring up to three objects for expert examination, and those people will attempt to determine the object’s age and possible function. Unlike the TV show, volunteers at this event do not offer appraisal but help people connect to the history contained within those objects. Presentations cover the whole of human existence in the region, and organizers try not to put date limits on what constitutes archaeology. “Science can tell us people have probably been in this area for over 15,000 years. But the Indigenous perspective suggests you can’t really put a time on it because some of their origin stories say they’ve been here forever,” said Butler. “There will be perspectives from tribes from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Chinook Indian Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and the Klamath Tribes. Their presence will provide those perspectives that go back to ancient times but continue today—since all of these people are part of our world, and they are continuing to educate their people and others about ongoing traditions. Then, we move to more Euro-American settlements with their arrival in the early 19th century. We have several historical societies present. We also have multiple museums and cultural organizations that tell the story of more recent migrations and ongoing immigrant stories. The Portland Chinatown Museum will host a [calligraphy] exhibit, and The Japanese American Museum will host an exhibit,” explained Butler.
The Archaeology Roadshow embraces all phases of human settlement in the region and tries to present people with an experience that entertains and informs visitors about that shared history through activities and face-to-face engagement. Participants can throw an atlatl—a throwing spear—at a target as people have done for thousands of years to take down game. The Hellenic-American Cultural Center & Museum intends to perform a dance representing the Greek American experience in Oregon and SW Washington. Gresham Historical Society will present a musical-focused exhibit that explores the music history in Gresham titled Dance Halls to Divas, Gresham’s Musical Heritage. They will have some instruments at their booth for people to practice and explore their musical expressions. The Rocky Butte Preservation Society will showcase stone masons and metal workers’ craftmanship used while creating the viewing area on top of an ancient cinder cone.
Although people from universities, nonprofits, government agencies, and cultural organizations will staff most of the booths, Butler explained that several private companies in town carry out projects related to archaeology and history, supporting legal policy structures that help preserve and protect the past. One company sharing the exhibit Art and Craft of Mourning and Remembrance, an archaeology of memorialization, will look at the human experience engaged by memorializing people’s passing and how that occurs across the human experience. “So it’s not specific to the region. That’s one of the things that we hope visitors will get from this. There are important specific things that happened in our area, but it’s also important to know that we share a lot of common ground, at some scales, with how we approach the passing of loved ones, how we approach creating containers to store food, and make pottery. These things bring us together and are distinctive across our cultures,” said Butler.
The Archaeology Roadshow began in 2012 out of the Portland State University’s desire to expose students to public outreach practices in a campus event. The yearly event grew beyond Portland in 2017 when the roadshow opened in Harney County, with shows in Burns and Hines featuring specific regional exhibitors and historical societies. Post-pandemic, they have continued to expand into places like the Dalles and Bend. Growing beyond the Portland Metro area gave event organizers more opportunities to work with U.S. Government agencies that operate in those areas. “Federal agencies have carried out a lot of cultural resources work supporting archaeology and cultural preservation as part of their own mandates. You have to have a timber sale with the U.S. Forest Service. The consequence of that is you may potentially disturb archaeology and local history. And ahead of those big timber sales, you document what those impacts might be and then try to mitigate them ahead of the potential disturbance or destruction. So all of our federal agencies have mandates to protect and support archaeology,” explained Butler. “Organizations like the National Park Service will often attend more than one event. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be in Portland, they’ll be in Bend, and they’ll probably be in Harney County.”
Butler noted that the Archaeology Roadshow is more than an informative event. It is a valuable tool in connecting organizations and municipalities to understand the importance of historical preservation as communities grow. “This kind of work is really about relationships. The Archaeology Roadshow builds relationships at different levels between the organizations doing this work. Every time you start digging in the ground, you might open up and identify some archaeology. There’s a lot of effort to ensure that we don’t lose historical knowledge as we go forth with development.” The organizing group wants to convey the ethics and legal aspects of artifact collecting in context to its importance to people and not just as a regulation. “We want to emphasize that when you simply dig into what may seem to be an archaeological site and remove objects, you’re losing the context. We lose our ability to understand broader meanings of what those artifacts mean relative to each other. We’re also harming descendant communities that might have special connections to those places. So we convey some of the ethics and the legal aspects of collecting,” said Butler.
Overall, the roadshow project intends to expand people’s understanding of archaeology, a practice often formed through movies and school field trips. “I think most people think that archaeology is exciting; there’s an adventure and an explorer level to it. The Indiana Jones image is about finding things, and a lot of people think archaeology is a treasure hunt. I hope people come and realize it’s so much more than that. Archaeology is everywhere. History is happening everywhere. We are so much richer if we understand it, and we feel much more connected to a place if we understand its history,” said Butler. “People will walk in with one concept of archaeology, and then it’s going to get a lot bigger because of the cultural connections.”
Virginia Butler and the other event organizers hope moving to East Portland after more than a decade will open this event to more organizations and residents who do not always have an opportunity to engage with history in a hands-on and dynamic environment. Within the over thirty-five pop-up exhibits, guests will find people demonstrating skills such as weaving cloth or fibers, tool making, and building baskets, with the option for visitors to participate. Anyone interested in history will also find booths filled with people offering a museum’s worth of information, Including Montavilla News contributor Patricia Sanders, who will join Paul Leistner from Mt. Tabor in sharing neighborhood history. Gateway Discovery Park is a fully accessible facility, and the event staff will have translators for Russian, Cantonese, and Spanish speakers available throughout the event so more people can participate in this community-enriching event. The event is free and open to the public thanks to financial support from East Portland Action Plan, Portland State University, and other sponsors.
