Anne Arundel County has a very active archaeology program and community working to unearth important and forgotten history. The Lost Towns Project received a Heritage Fund grant to help share their work in two short documentary-style videos.
Award-Winning Project: The Lost Town Project videos produced by Arudel TV were recently recognized with 2018 Telly Awards for documentary productions about local history.
Lost Towns Project is a non-profit organization fueled by archaeologist and scholars with a mission to: promote, facilitate, and enable the preservation, discovery, academic study, appreciation, and stewardship of public and privately-owned cultural resources, historic structures, and archaeological sites in Anne Arundel County, the State of Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region by supporting the technical, scholarly, and intellectual work of academics, professionals, and students, in activities related to the mission.
In 2017, the Lost Towns Project received a grant from the Heritage Fund to develop two short documentary-style videos about the connection between historic preservation and archaeology and to help them share their important work to a wide audience.
Representatives from the Lost Town Project worked with official video production team of Anne Arundel County to make the videos and they are available on the Arundel TV YouTube channel. The completed videos will supplement the many presentations given by Lost Towns to students and schools, organizations, and community groups all over the state.
Race Against Time: Maryland Archaeology and the Quest to Recover History
The first video, “Race Against Time: Maryland Archaeology and the Quest to Recover History,” showcases the work of archaeologists in both locally in Anne Arundel County and statewide to preserve archeological sites from rising waters and coastal erosion. The video not only discusses the risk present to sites along the water, it also shows the opportunities to raise awareness about the issue of climate change and the still uncovered history of the area.
Maryland Archaeology: Unearthing Forgotten History
The second video, “Maryland Archaeology: Unearthing Forgotten History,” shows how archaeological work helps grow understanding of history and leads to discovering new stories. The video takes viewers into to an archeological site and lab and explains the process of the work of archaeology. Both videos end with suggestions of how to get involved.
ABOUT THE HERITAGE FUND
The Heritage Fund, a cooperative effort of Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust, provides direct assistance for the protection of historical and cultural resources and promotes innovative demonstration projects that can be successfully replicated to meet Maryland’s historic preservation needs. The Fund is intended to serve the needs of tangible cultural resources in Maryland. Historic sites, buildings, districts, objects, and archaeological resources are all eligible for funding.