Extraterrestrial Archaeology?
An interview with Dr. William Doleman
On 22 November 2002, the SCI FI
Channel aired a two-hour documentary that depicted archaeologists
investigating the purported 1947 crash site of an extraterrestrial
spacecraft in New Mexico. Archaeological excavations were carried
out by a University of New Mexico team headed by Dr. William
Doleman and under contract with the SCI FI Channel. Although
in this case the client (the SCI FI Channel) and the subject
(extraterrestrial visitors) are both unusual, archaeology under
contract is by far the most common form of archaeological work
in the United States and in many parts of the world today. The
shift in emphasis over the past three decades from purely research-oriented
to contract archaeology has greatly expanded financial support
for archaeological work, but has also highlighted issues about
information-sharing and ethical standards. In this interview,
recorded on 26 November 2002, Rick Pettigrew of TAC explores
with Bill Doleman how this project came about, what his team
found and how it has been portrayed, and how it illustrates
the practice of contract archaeology today.
The
Interview:
To hear the interview, click
on the bandwidth for your player below.
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Bill Doleman
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About Dr. Doleman:
William H. Doleman
(B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) was born in 1948 in La Paz, Bolivia, to
Edgar and Dorothy Doleman. His father was a career officer in
the US Army and young Bill lived in Hawaii, Germany, and several
US states during his youth. Following graduation from St. Johns
College in Santa Fe, NM, he worked as a bartender and restaurant
manager for five years, but had thoughts of becoming a writer.
While researching an article on excavations under the floor
of a local museum for the Santa Fe New Mexican, he "fell into"
a career as an archaeologist at the Museum of New Mexico, where
he worked in cultural resource management until 1981. In 1977
he began graduate studies in archaeology at the University of
New Mexico, and in 1981 he moved to Albuquerque to complete
his M.A. in 1982. In the same year he began work as a Project
Director for UNM's Office of Contract Archeology (OCA), where
he has directed numerous cultural resource management projects,
including archaeological survey, testing, and excavation projects
throughout New Mexico. Bill and his wife today share a small
house with their two dogs, a cat, and a four-foot iguana. In
1995 Dr. Doleman received his Ph.D. from UNM, with his dissertation
based on a series of OCA projects. In 2000, he became a Principal
Investigator for OCA. Dr. Doleman's research specialties include
environmental analysis, prehistoric hunter-gatherers, the application
of geological methods to archaeology, computer data base design,
and statistical analysis.
The Web links below
are selected websites for exploring this and related subjects.
These include sites that we regard as informative, reliable and
enjoyable.
American
Cultural Resources Association
Office of Contract
Archeology, University of New Mexico
SCI FI Channel
UFO page
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