Interior of pithouse memorial

Sturken’s analysis of the Vietnam Memorial presents a persuasive argument on commemoration of cultural memory, or as she explains it, the combination of the sanctioned historical narrative and the personal experiences that happened within that event. These two key parts of cultural memory are vital when the memorial is erected during the lifetimes of the people it memorializes—but what happens when personal experiences are lost to time and the sanctioned narrative is all that remains?

I am thinking not about newly constructed memorials, but rather about archaeological sites that, through a process of excavation, construction (or reconstruction) are made into memorials of a person, a group of people, or entire cultures. These sites may even become memorials of the discoverers or archaelogists themselves.

Pit houses excavated in 1950

This past summer, I visited Mesa Verde National Park for the second time in my life. As I walked among the weather-worn ruins of a people and culture totally unknown to me, I read plaques that explained what life must have been like—based primarily on the collection of artifacts. All around me were “memorials” commemorating lives of people whose names and lives are lost to history. But one site struck me as being more “memorialized” than the others—an excavated pit house protected from the elements. Along the trail of one of the sites, I was surprised to see a white metal building through the trees and even more surprised that it was covering an excavated pit house. The large shelter had retracting metal windows to keep the excavation safe from the elements. A waist-high white fence-railing surrounded the pit house, protecting it from visitors who might trip or misstep. The paved trail extended around the perimeter and there were several interpretive signs throughout the “room.”

While the space was created to preserve the pit house while showcasing it to visitors, the visual and architectural choices made memorialize the pit house and lead visitors to reflect on the people that lived there, rather than just the construction of the buildings. The sanctioned narrative appears throughout on the interpretive signs, and personal memory is attempted through quotes from neighboring tribes.

What makes this type of memorial so unique is that it is created out of the physically preserved memory of a people whose records exist only through the oral history passed to their descendants and the objects they possessed and created. Their participation in the memorial is limited, and the only narrative that exists in that space is the sanctioned one.