The online archaeology exhibit, “Highway to the Past: The Archaeology of the Central Artery Project,” was created by “an intern from Northeastern University.” Though it would be preferable to know the name of this intern, the website was part of an archaeological project conducted by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which lends it some legitimacy. That is, assuming the intern was actually working for the Commission. Knowing the author of a site can give the viewer an idea of the perspective the author is presenting a topic from, and may suggest possible biases. It can also help the reader decide whether or not the author can be trusted as an expert on their subject.  Here, it is a bit ambiguous.

This exhibit does a good job clearly and concisely explaining the context of the archaeological finds and what the objects are. There are also many pictures of the sites, the excavation process, and the artifacts. Only one of the sites in the archaeological project (which was done over a large area before the construction of a major highway in Boston) was described as a Native American site. Interestingly, unlike the other sites, which were fairly precisely dated (from the 1600s to 1900s), this site was given no date—not even an estimate. Perhaps we are expected to assume the site is from pre-Colombian times? Not including even a general date sort of puts the Native American site in a timeless space, which is both weird and inaccurate. Also, there is no mention of any Native Americans in any of the other sites, as if they did not and do not exist in more recent times, alongside the colonizers and their descendants. The website also does not provide much analysis for the reader as to the meanings of the artifacts. On the Native American site page, they merely provide a list of artifacts and encourage the reader to guess “what kind of activities” the Native Americans carried out there. There is no mention of which specific tribe or group might have used the site, which, along with not giving a time period, doesn’t help contest the image many people have of all Native American groups being basically the same. There is no use of any line of evidence besides the artifacts presented for people to guess what went on at the site.

Overall, the site is a pretty intuitive experience, and a good, if simple, use of the Internet as a medium for presenting archaeology. It uses a map of the general area of the sites as the basis for navigation, so that each page takes you to a new archaeological site. The overall purpose of the site seemed to be to educate the general public about how archaeology can uncover interesting windows into the past, even while progress is being made in the present (with the construction of the new highway). As might be expected with a large, urban governmental construction project, there is no evidence that any local people or descendants of the sites excavated were involved in any of the process.