Looking forward, not backward: Archaeology and the future of the past.

The destruction of archaeological sites is reaching crisis proportions. At the same time, a chasm exists between the disciplines of academic archaeology and archaeological conservation. Archaeological ethics are basically little changed from the early twentieth century, and cultural resource management activity is based on the some premise-that digging is the best conservation. Archaeology places the highest value on original discoveries rather than activities such as conservation, which further compounds the problem. This paper argues for fundamental changes in archaeological value systems, for better training in ethics at the graduate level, and for changes in the ways in which archaeologists are trained, beginning with a sustained dialogue between academic archaeologists and the conservation community, so that what remains of the archives of the past is the first priority. Originally a keynote address, this is a general statement about the current state of archaeology, designed as a basis for discussions and actions that bring together archaeology and conservation into a common discipline.