{"id":358,"date":"2019-04-07T20:04:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T00:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=358"},"modified":"2019-04-15T14:55:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T18:55:30","slug":"meet-vic-mastone-director-and-chief-archaeologist-for-the-massachusetts-board-of-underwater-archaeological-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"Meet Vic Mastone, Director and Chief Archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Emily Mathay<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Vic and two field school students at the Ada K Damon shipwreck in Ipswich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victor T. Mastone (he insists you call him \u2018Vic\u2019) is an expert on shipwrecks. As Director and Chief Archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources<\/a> (BUAR), he\u2019s the one to call about any project involving water: \u201cThe ocean, the intertidal, every river, lake, pond, stream, puddle\u2026basically if it\u2019s got standing water in it, I have regulatory jurisdiction. And the state owns the resource if it\u2019s cultural.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vic\u2019s Boston office is an explosion of paperwork, with clippings of archaeology-themed comics from the Sunday papers and photos of family and friends on the walls. As I walk in, my eye is drawn to a poster of Albert Einstein tacked onto a cabinet door that reads: \u201cIf you can\u2019t explain it simply, you don\u2019t understand it well enough.\u201d Vic started out as an engineering student before transferring to University of Massachusetts Boston to get undergraduate degrees in both history and anthropology and <\/span><\/span>\u200breceived\u00a0both\u00a0an MA in anthropology (archaeology) and\u00a0<\/span>an MBA in arts administration from SUNY Binghamton<\/span>, while also working on archaeology projects inland and along the coast of the Northeast. (\u201cI didn\u2019t get to go to all the fun places like Alaska or Morocco.\u201d) While in his MBA program, he interned at the Peabody Museum of Salem (now the Peabody Essex). Through this work, he became connected with the BUAR, who hired him in 1987 as their first staff archaeologist and appointed him Director in the early 90s.<\/p>\n

The job of chief archaeologist is part regulatory and part public engagement. A self-described \u201cpolicy-wonk,\u201d Vic spends much of his time working with permit holders, evaluating projects for environmental or statutory compliance issues, conducting research, and giving technical advice to other agencies or members of the public. All-told, he reviews about 1,000 projects a year. As engaging as he finds this regulatory work, he calls outreach his \u201csalvation\u201d \u2014 sharing his love of shipwrecks and underwater archaeology with the public helps recharge him for the work that needs to be done in front of a computer.<\/p>\n

Vic divides his outreach into two categories: intentional and spontaneous. Intentional outreach involves answering reference questions, responding to calls from people who have found odd things on beaches, writing articles<\/a>, tutoring with the Nautical Archaeology Society, conducting summer programs with local schools and community groups, giving public talks<\/a>, and various other education programs<\/a>. Spontaneous outreach occurs when he\u2019s been summoned to a particular site and interacts with random passer-by while he takes measurements and notes on the shipwreck: \u201dI\u2019ll tell them the story \u2014 what we\u2019re doing, what we\u2019re seeing\u2026providing real-time interpretation. To me, everyone is a student.\u201d<\/p>\n

As in other cultural heritage institutions, work in the government sector \"\"requires a proactive approach to internal advocacy. For example, Vic works to ensure that policies and regulations cover cultural heritage sites, explaining to lawmakers why such sites are important to Massachusetts history. He also forms partnerships with and performs grant reviews for federal agencies and serves on various boards and committees. Because he is a department of one, inreach is critical to maintaining his position, so he makes himself an indispensable regulator, collaborator, and resource for other agencies. This is where Vic\u2019s practicality shines \u2014 he prioritizes requests from both his and other government departments, triaging what\u2019s important and responding quickly and efficiently. He also phrases his responses in ways that relate to their projects. One example he gave was a shipwreck that was in the way of some expensive machinery. Vic\u2019s argument was that the machine would need to be replaced once it rammed its way through the wreck, which would cost much more than simply avoiding the wreck in the first place.<\/p>\n

Vic is retiring soon. He hopes that through his outreach efforts, people developed a deeper appreciation of cultural resources. It\u2019s not about saving everything \u2014 Vic doesn\u2019t mind people climbing all over the wrecks, since this helps disabuse them of the notion that these artifacts are \u201csacred.\u201d Instead, outreach is about encouraging people to take a second look, rather than being dismissive of strange things found on the beach. He hopes that in the end, we can all see that \u201cthese things have worth, and that it\u2019s important to us as human beings\u2026the past is important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emily Mathay Victor T. Mastone (he insists you call him \u2018Vic\u2019) is an expert on shipwrecks. As Director and Chief Archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR), he\u2019s the one to call about any project involving water: \u201cThe ocean, the intertidal, every river, lake, pond, stream, puddle\u2026basically if it\u2019s got standing … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Meet Vic Mastone, Director and Chief Archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}