Environmental Data
can provide the background data such as climate, soils, ancient flora and fauna that suggest the range of resources that could be exploited at a site
Studying Subsistence
requires a multidisciplinary approach to the reconstruction of ancient lifeways.
Classes of data used study subsistence
Environmental Data
Animal Remains (Faunal Remains)
Plant Remains (Floral or Botanical Remains)
Human Bones
Ancient Feces (Coprolites)
Artifacts
Rock Art
site catchment analysis
A method of reconstructing the economy of a site by studying the resources that are available within a reasonable distance, generally 1-2 hours' walking time from the site. The catchment area is defined by drawing a circle around the site; the radius has
zooarchaeology or faunal analysis
The study of animal bones recovered from archaeological sites
Taphonomy
the study of the processes that operate on animal and other organic remains from the time they die until they are unearthed by archaeologists. In paleontology, it refers specifically to the processes that occur during fossilization, that is the "transitio
Archaeologist study taphonomic processes in order to
determine how plant and animal (including human) remains accumulate and differentially preserve within archaeological sites
Sorting and Identification: Animal remains recovered from archaeological sites
are usually fragmentary, the result of butchering, cooking, and other processes.
The fragmentary bones found on a site
do not give an accurate count of the number of animals killed by the inhabitants. The recovered bones have been subjected to many natural and human taphonomic processes. The bones of some small animals, for example, may not even survive in the archaeologi
Jaw bones and teeth and articular surfaces of long bones
are usually the easiest to identify
A synoptic collection
organizes animal bones by element (e.g. femurs, ulna, etc.) rather than by species and allows researchers to compare multiple species at once.
Comparing Bone Assemblages
measures of taxonomic abundance help zooarchaeologists to make estimates of the relative abundance of different species.
Number of Identified Specimens (NISP)
is the total number of individual specimens (bones) that could be identified to a particular taxon.
Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)
is the smallest number of individuals which could account for all of the elements present of a particular species. As an example, if presented with a fully-fused left tibia, a right femur and a right humerus, the MNI could be said to be 1, as all the elem
Game Animals
Faunal lists gives insight into hunting practices and typically suggests what species dominated a particular subsistence strategy. This may be result of simple economic necessity, convenience, or a matter of cultural preference.
Taboos
may explain why hunters concentrated on certain species and apparently ignored others
In the Ehler site example
beaver had an NISP of 15 and a MNI of 2. Pretty low considering that beaver was still highly valued for its fur and as a meat source. However, the local beaver were considered sacred animals because the dams they built help keep the water levels in the Li
Seasonal Occupation
of a site may be indicated by the faunal remains recovered. Bird bones, example, are good seasonal indicators since many species of migratory birds are only present in a given area at a given time of the year. Knowledge of both plant and animal ecology is
Domestic animals are
one of the "big picture" questions that faunal analysis can help archaeologists answer is the origin and spread of domesticated animals around the world. Comparisons of faunal assemblages from different sites through time allows archaeologists to see the
In general, domestication results in
smaller, more docile animals that are easier for humans to manage and control. Of course they are also bred for specific products and/or uses and all of these changes have corresponding effects of the skeletal remains of these animals.
Sex, Age, and Slaughter Patterns
may also be detected in a faunal assemblage. Teeth, remember, are good indicators of age and thus can tell archaeologist how old they were when they were killed. Can provide the ratio of young to old animals in an assemblage. This may say something about
Butchery
The killing, cutting up, and consumption of animals leaves behind the fragmentary bones found in the archaeological record.
Close examination of bones may reveal butchery techniques, such as
whether large animals were brought to the site whole or already partially butchered, evidenced by the lack of some skeletal elements. Marks on the bones might indicate which cuts of meat were being targeted and may suggest the types of tools used to butch
One of the most famous butchery sites
is the Olsen-Chubbock site in Colorado, which yielded evidence of a slaughtered bison herd. The hunters camped at the kill site, cleaning the animals and perhaps drying some of the meat for later consumption. The stone tools used to butcher the animals we
Plant Remains
Foods that were collected or cultivated are very difficult to find in the archaeological record. Seeds and other floral remains do not survive well unless they are carbonized (charred in a fire) or preserved in very dry (arid) or wet environments
Carbonized and Unburned Seeds
are often found as residue in cooking pots, in midden deposits and in the ashes of hearths. Thousands of seeds have been recovered from the extremely dry conditions of the desert west of North America and the Peruvian coast.
flotation
One technique that has been used to recover seeds and other carbonized remains (e.g. nutshell, fruit pits, vegetable rinds, wood charcoal, etc.)
Flotation Recovery
uses water (and sometimes chemicals) to free seeds and other carbonized remains from their soil matrix. Flotation devices range from the very simple to technologically sophisticated, but the process is basically the same.
Light fraction
as the water is agitated the lighter carbonized materials float to the top, washed over a sluiceway, and captured by a very fine mesh screen
Phytoliths
are minute particles of silica from plant cells that are produced from hydrated silica dissolved in groundwater absorbed through a plant's roots.
Plant Phytolith Analysis
The plants run the water through their cells, and the silica is deposited, depending on the species of plant, between the cells, within the cell walls, or even sometimes completely infilling the cells themselves. Essentially, the silica deposits can creat
One of the benefits of opal phytolith research is that
unlike pollen which is produced by the living plant for the purposes of being carried far away by the wind, phytoliths are generally deposited in the soil where the plant decays.
The most well-known use of phytolith research
is identifying ancient agricultural fields.
Birds, Fish, and Mollusks
birds remains can be sensitive indicators of seasonality. Fish and fishing have been important to many societies, especially in post-Pleistocene times as people began to specialize in different and distinctive subsistence strategies. Likewise, shellfish w
shell middens
large piles of shells
Rock Art
can be a great source for information on all kinds of economic and social activities. Upper Paleolithic cave art in SW France and Stone Age rock art in southern Africa have provided visual evidence for the kinds of game animals and subsistence activities
Ancient Diet
The goal of the archaeology of subsistence is to reconstruct the actual diet of ancient people. What were the staples of a society? More meat or more collected plants? Did diets change seasonally and if so how? What technologies were used?
Nutrition
the ability of a diet to maintain a healthy body in a given environment
Sources of Data on Diet and Nutrition
include human skeletal remains, which can provide data on malnutrition and other heath conditions that result from a poor diet. The introduction of maize as a dietary staple, for example, appears to have led to an increase in dental diseases, such as dent
stable carbon isotope analysis
examines the ratio between stable carbon isotopes in skeletal remains. Because carbon isotopes are passed along the food chain the ratios can tell what kinds of plants and animals were likely eaten.
coprolites
ancient feces), which is often preserved in dry, arid conditions such as in caves in the western US or along the Peruvian coast. Microscopic analysis of coprolites can show evidence of diet and disease. Seeds, phyolithis, and pollen, for example, can be f
Analogy
is a process of reasoning that assumes that if objects share some similar attributes, then they will share other similarities as well. Also, it is central to archaeological research. It involves inferring that the relationships among various material trac
Simple functional analogies
are typically the most secure.
direct historical approach
the archaeological technique of working backward in time from historic sites of known age into earlier times - a technique for developing analogies
The relationship between the past and present (two parts)
The past is dead and can only be known through the present.
Accurate knowledge of the past is essential to understanding the present.
three interlocking approaches used by archaeologists to explore the relationship between past and present
Ethnoarchaeology, Middle Range Theory, and Experimental Archaeology
Ethnoarchaeology
the study of living societies to aid in understanding and interpreting the archaeological record.
is a form of "living archaeology."
provides archaeologists with observations of dynamic processes in the modern world.
Middle Range Theory
methods, theories, and ideas from the present that can be applied to any time period and anywhere in the world to explain what we have discovered, excavated, or analyzed from the past.
refers to the body of theory that archaeologists use to develop method
Experimental Archaeology
controlled, modern experiments with ancient technologies and material culture that can serve as a basis for interpreting the past.
Example of Ethnoarchaeology
archaeologist John Yellen lived with hunter-gatherer groups in Africa and then returned to abandoned camp sites to record and map the scatters of artifacts left behind at the camps. He mapped the locations of huts, hearths, bone refuse, and manufacturing
Middle Range Theory - begins with three assumptions
The archaeological record is a static contemporary phenomenon�static information preserved in structured (or patterned) arrangements of matter (artifacts, features, etc.).
The contents of the archaeological record are a complex system created by long-dead
One the first modern examples of experimental archaeology involved the
capture and subsequent observations of Ishi, thought to be one of the last Yahi (a Native American group is California).
Don Crabtree was one of the first experimental archaeologists to
use flintknapping to work out through experimentation some of the ways that Paleo-Indians had made fluted projectile points such as the beautiful Folsom points found on the Great Plains and elsewhere. He found at least 11 methods for reproducing the "flut
Criteria for Experimental Archaeology
Must use raw materials that would have been available locally for the time and place you are studying.
The methods used must conform with the society's technological abilities.
Other examples of experimental archaeology include the famous Kon Tiki expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl.
He tried to prove that Polynesia had been settled by ancient Peruvians, who sailed rafts thousands of miles over open ocean to do so. Using rafts like those available to ancient Peruvians, he was able to demonstrate that these rafts could have made the vo
Butser Hill, England is an ambitious and long-term experimental archaeology project studying
all aspects of daily life during the Iron Age ca. 300 B.C. In addition to reconstructing Iron Age houses, the archaeologists are also using Iron Age technologies to grow wheat, raise livestock, and store wheat in subterranean storage pits.
Settlement Archaeology
the study of changing human settlement patterns as part of the analysis of adaptive interactions between people and their natural and cultural environments.
Settlement Patterns
are the layout and distribution of human settlements across the landscape. They are the result of human relationships and decisions about where to place houses, settlements, religious structures, etc. based on practical (environmental), cultural, social,
Human Settlement Patterns are
not randomly distributed across the landscape. There are complex (though practical to those involved) cultural, social, and even personal factors involved in the placement of settlements (e.g. trade routes, water sources, food resources, defense/protectio
Buildings, houses, and activity areas
are the minimal units of archaeological settlement analysis.
Communities
are the arrangement of houses, buildings, and activity areas within a single settlement. A community is defined as a maximal group of people who normally reside in face-to-face association.
Distribution of Communities
refers to the density and distribution of communities across the landscape. Often determined by environmental factors, population (carrying capacity), technological level, sociopolitical complexity, as well as other social and religious constraints.
Activity Areas
the smallest spatial unit studied by archaeologists."places within a site where people conducted specific activities," usually identified by clusters of artifacts and/or features that suggest the activity carried out at that location. (Pottery Kilns)
Households
are homes, dwellings, or residences where people lived. can be represented in the archaeological record by structural remains (such as foundations and postmolds/post holes) as well as by artifacts and features that delineate activity areas�tool making, cr
Household unit
the activities of individual households
the objective of household archaeology is
to try to define the entire household unit.
Piece-plotting
a classic application of the law of association and often involved in household archaeology
all excavation done by trowel, no shovels
Two basic strategies for point provenience excavation
Map and Pull procedure
In situ procedure
Map and Pull Procedure
artifacts are mapped and pulled as they are found
In Situ Procedure
individual artifacts are pedestaled and left in situ on the floor of the level until entire has been completed before being mapped and bagged.
This is the most painstaking and time consuming excavation method excavation method
It provides a visual impress
Communities (2)
are the arrangement of houses and activity areas within a single settlement; a group of individuals and households who normally reside in face-to-face association.
a good example of the archaeology of a community is the work of Dr. Brian Hayden
at the Keatley Creek site in British Columbia. Hayden has excavated over 115 house depressions representing large Native American semi-subterranean winter houses.
House counts - Estimating community size
the number of households present at a site at a given time. This method depends upon having some idea of the number of people per household (probably determined by ethnographic analogy.
Other methods of estimating community size include
estimating the rates at which people accumulate refuse middens or densities of ceramic sherds over long periods of time to calculate population sizes, but these methods have serious limitations.
Studying large communities
presents special challenges to archaeologists. In addition to environmental and subsistence factors, ancient cities were often sited and laid out according to other complex factors such as religious authority, sociopolitical organization, and status diffe
The archaeology of landscape
Landscapes are very different from settlement patterns. Landscapes are both created by and help to create human societies. From a landscape perspective, the environment is not a neutral background or external to be adapted to, it is an active agent that h
Interpretation of William Paca's Garden
Leone saw the structure of the garden as symbolically communicating the mastery of Paca (and men like him) over nature�from order and symmetry (civilization) to chaos and wilderness (savagery).
Such mastery justified (legitimated) Paca's (and men like him
Many archaeologists studying landscapes do so in terms of three dimensions
The physical characteristics and properties of a landscape.
The historical transformations of that landscape over time.
People's physical and symbolic relationships with their environment.
Groups: Ancient Social Organization
Humans live in societies with varying degrees of social organization that radically affect their lifeways. So reconstructing ancient social organization is of vital importance to archaeologists.
There are two important aspects of past social organization to consider.
The size or scale of the society
How it was organized
Stages of Social Organization
Archaeologists use general conceptual schemes of human cultural evolution such as the one developed by anthropologist Elman Service in his classic volume Primitive Social Organization.
Pre-State Societies
are small-scale and based on the community, band or village. Service's band-tribe-chiefdom scheme falls under this broad category.
Bands
are autonomous and self-sufficient groups usually consisting of only a few families. They are egalitarian. Leadership is allocated to those with experience and certain personal qualities rather than political power
Tribes
are also egalitarian , but have a greater level of social and cultural complexity. Have kin-based mechanisms to accommodate more sedentary living, to redistribute food and other goods, and to organize some communal services. Public opinion plays a major r
Chiefdoms
are societies headed by individuals unusual ritual, political, or entrepreneurial skills. Society is still kin-based, but is more hierarchical, with power concentrated in the hands of powerful kin leaders. They tend to have higher population densities tha
State-Organized Societies
operate on a large scale, with centralized social and political organization, class stratification, and intensive agriculture. States are governed by a full-fledged ruling class, supported by a hierarchical secular and religious bureaucracy, at least a ru
Social Ranking
refers to social distinctions (inequalities) between individuals, communities, and other units of society. Social inequality has been a feature of some human societies since the appearance of the first farming communities some 10,000 years ago and had bee
the Khmer temple at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Perhaps one of the most spectacular examples of such material expressions of power and social ranking (in this case divinely given power)
Rank and Death
-the material evidence of social ranking can be obvious such as gold hoards buried with individuals.
-As we have seen human burials are an important source for archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. They also provide information about social organization a
Gender is a
cultural construct
Gender roles are the
culturally prescribed behaviors deemed appropriate for each gender
engendered archaeology
has moved beyond just studying women in the past (though that was an important correction to the largely androcentric perspective of much archaeology (prehistoric and historic) before the feminist critiques of anthropology and archaeology in the 1960s and
Today, an engendered archaeology examines the
ways that men and women interact to create and maintain society.
Gender Relations
the ways in which gender intersects with all aspects of human social life
Ethnicity and Inequality
While much archaeological research continues to focus on culture history and the cultural ecology approach of processual archaeology, more and more archaeologists are turning to "post-processual" concerns with gender (as we have just seen), ethnicity, and
Artifacts, Social Inequality, and Resistance
From a post-processual perspective artifacts are not merely passive reflections of past human behaviors, they played an active role in how people "negotiated their social positions and resisted the submergence of their own culture
The archaeology of enslaved Africans and African Americans has
provided material evidence of cultural persistence and resistance to oppression and racism
archaeologist Larry Zimmerman�a leader in
to use archaeology to find evidence of the escape route.
Metal detector surveys of both routes were conducted. Lead pistol balls and rifle bullets indicated that the Cheyenne version of events was more accurate.
Exchange and Trade
refers to the mechanisms by which people and cultures bought and sold, gave or bartered goods and commodities. Over the past 500 years or more human societies around the globe have become part of a web of economic interconnectedness. This modern world eco
Exchange and Trade always involves two elements
the things (goods, commodities, etc.) being exchanged
the people doing the exchanging
Exotics
objects that are not local to the host society. Examples can include lithic material, pottery, copper, gold and other precious metals, and marine shells.
X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
is the emission of characteristic "secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been excited by bombarding with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. The phenomenon is widely used for elemental analysis and chemical analysis, particularly in th
Gift Exchange
is a form of internal exchange common among societies that are relatively self-supporting. It is designed primarily to reinforce social relationships between people and groups. Gifts serve as gestures that place obligations on both parties.
Gift exchange is typically characterized as a form
of reciprocity - "the mutual exchange of goods between two individuals or groups.
Redistribution
is the allocation of goods or objects from one person (or group) evenly throughout a society.
- typically controlled by a chief, religious leader, or some form of management organization.
Markets
are both physical places and particular styles of exchange.
Market Exchange is often
often done in places set aside for such transactions and market exchange is typically (but not always) regulated in order to establish relatively stable prices for staple commodities. Markets are generally associated with more complex societies. There are
Sourcing
refers to efforts to trace the original source (point of origin) of important trade materials using modern scientific technology such as the pXRF that we saw earlier.
Sourcing studies are sometimes referred to as
characterization studies
Sourcing of
obsidian is in fact now a major specialty in archaeology. Obsidian was a major trade item in North America, Mesoamerica, the Mediterranean, and southeast Asia, just to mention a few places. Obsidian is an ideal material for sourcing or characterization st
Otzi the iceman wore
a leather belt, loin cloth, fur leggings, an outer animal skin coat, an outer cape made of twisted grass, a bearskin cap and bear/deerskin shoes filled with grass
Bioarchaeology and �tzi the Ice Man
the study of human remains found on archaeological sites, has also provided a great deal of information about �tzi.
He was about 47 years old.
He was about 5 feet 2 inches tall.
His DNA showed his genetic makeup to be similar to that of late Europeans.
Hi
bioarchaeology has been able to discern that Otzi
died a violent death. A dagger wound on his hand suggests he was in a close-quarters fight. DNA evidence shows the fight may have been with as many as four people. He was shot in the left shoulder by an arrow, the stone arrowhead was buried deep in his bo
Bioarchaeology
is one of the specialized subfields of archaeology (like zooarchaeology) that contributes to archaeology's goal of understanding the people of the past. While controversial and fraught with ethical considerations, there can be no doubt that "the bones of
Sex and Age
are basic categories of information that can be obtained from human skeletal remains. For example, gender (Sex) can usually (accurate 95% of the time) be determined by looking at the pelvis. Likewise, age can be determined by examination of the skull.
other indicators of age include looking
at the overall condition of the bones, older people for example, are more likely to show evidence of arthritis. Teeth are also excellent indicators of age.
Other basic information that can be determined by looking at human remains includes
height, nutrition, diseases and chronic health conditions, and sometimes cause of death.
Bioarchaeology - Violence
Often the human skeleton provides a physical record of injuries suffered by people of the past.
paleopathology.
The study of these injuries and other medical conditions visible on human skeletal remains
One particularly vivid example of violence comes from
the human remains excavated from a mass grave associated with the medieval Battle of Towson in A.D. 1455. The grave contained at least 38 individuals, many displaying evidence of a violent death.
trepanation
drilling holes in the skull on live patients to let demons out. first practiced by the Egyptians
Cannibalism
there does appear to be some evidence for the practice in the archaeological record going back at least 75,000 years ago. Evidence from a Neanderthal site in Croatia revealed human bones that had been split open to exact the marrow as was done for the bon
Forensic Archaeology
combines high-tech medical science with the meticulous, slow-moving techniques of scientific archaeological excavation. There are even a few programs where archaeologists are training police officers in the basic methods of field archaeology; stratigraphi
Forensic archaeologists have been called in
to help in human rights and war crimes investigations.
The objective of exhuming mass graves is to provide
evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The intent to destroy a particular group has to be demonstrated in order to prosecute these cases. Forensic investigation focuses on collecting data to reconstruct events in question.
Disaster Archaeology example
Richard Gould of Brown University, who has formed a disaster response team called Forensic Archaeology Recovery (FAR) who work to recover human remains from the sites such as the World Trade Center after 9/11.
Genetics and DNA
most of our genetic information is contained on the 46 chromosomes inside the nuclei of each cell in our bodies. This DNA degrades quickly once a person dies and the body begins to decompose.
Mt(DNA) is
present outside the cell nuclei and is preserved in thousands of copies in each cell. It is inherited through the female line and is passed from mothers to offspring virtually unaltered except for genetic mutations. It changes at a steady rate and can be
The first ancient DNA sequences
were recovered in 1985 from the skin of a Predynastic Egyptian of about 4000 B.C.
Recent Example of DNA
skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid."
The genetic analysis shows that the individual's mitochondrial DNA is Neanderthal. Since this DNA is transmitted fro
Cosmos
a view of the world and the universe.
Common elements in cosmologies -1
1) the cosmos was multilayered with the world of living humans, the heavens or upperworld, and an underworld.
Common elements in cosmologies - 2
2) the various cosmic layers are linked by a vertical axis or axis mundi (axis of the world), often symbolized by a tree or pole. It held up the heavens and joined the living and spiritual worlds at a mythic center, a sacred place�often a cave, mountain o
Common elements in cosmologies - 3
3) the material (living) world and spiritual world formed a continuum, with no boundaries between them. The "environment" was also a "landscape of memory" where natural phenomena also had spiritual associations. Ancestors were often intermediaries between
Common elements in cosmologies - 4
4) individuals with unusual supernatural powers, shamans, had the ability to pass between the material and spirit worlds. Often done in altered states of consciousness and done through ritual and performance.
Common elements in cosmologies - 5
5) human life was governed by the cycles of seasons were identified by movements of heavenly bodies signaling the times for planting, growth, and harvesting - these were tied to notions of fertility, procreation, life, and death...a cyclical view of time
Cognitive Archaeology
sometimes referred to as the archaeology of the mind, cognitive archaeology attempts to use the material remains of the archaeological record to study ancient human cognition, especially in terms of religion, belief, and expression
Cognitive archaeology can be divided into two broad areas of concern
The cognitive facilities of early hominins and Archaic humans, the relationships between toolmaking and cognitive ability, the origins of language, and social contexts of early human behavior.
The cognitive aspects of modern human cultures over the past 4
Cognitive Archaeology - attempts to make mainstream (read processual) archaeology
more holistic
Iconography
the "analysis of the way ancient people represented religious, political, ideological, or cosmological objects or concepts in their art," can offer another source of data for cognitive archaeologists.
Ethnographic Analogy and Rock Art
the late Ice Age rock and cave paintings of southwestern France and northern Spain dating between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago often depict long-extinct game animals, but they are clearly more than just art for art's sake. Still, the meanings of the painti
The archaeology of death
the symbolism of death and burial is an important source of information on ancient religious beliefs as well as social ranking.
Grave Gods
sometimes referred to as burial or grave furniture) are the regalia and artifacts deposited with the deceased and they often offer clues about ancient mortuary practices and the religious beliefs associated with them
Artifacts: the importance of context
Sometimes the meaning and ritual behind some symbolically-laden artifacts may remain unknown, perhaps unknowable, but the context of the artifact clearly indicate their symbolic and ritual importance.
Ideology
a "body of doctrine, myth, and symbolism associated with a social movement, an institution, class, or group of individuals often with reference to some political or cultural plan, along with the strategies for putting the doctrine into operation.
Sacred Places
are among humanity's greatest achievements. They are material places that mirror a society's spiritual world and they are common to all societies, including the West. They make the ideologies of the ruling class seem natural, inevitable, and unchanging. T
Example of a sacred place
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England.
Another example of a sacred place
Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement in the Mississippian culture which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the Southeastern United States, beginning more than 500 years before European contact
Astroarchaeology
is the study of ancient astronomical observances. The movement of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies played an important role in many ancient societies. Astroarchaeology (also called archaeoastronomy) can be an important source of information about
Stonehenge
tracks the passage of the seasons and certain stones in the circle marked the midsummer sunrise and winter solstice, the latter signaling that the days would begin lengthening and "the certainty that the cycle of the seasons would begin anew.
Cultural Resource Management
is the "application of management skills to preserve important parts of our cultural heritage, both historic and prehistoric, for the benefit of the public today and in the future
Cultural Resources
are the human-made and natural features associated with human activity. They are "those parts of the physical environment - natural and built - that have cultural value of some kind to some sociocultural group
CRM is not
salvage archaeology" conducted one step ahead of the bulldozers, but rather should be built into the planning stages of federal undertakings.
Cultural resource legislation is not
the only protective tool available to archaeologists. Working with property owners to promote and encourage preservation of archaeological sites on private property is big part of what I do as a Regional Archaeologist.
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
The cornerstone of law of historic preservation
It builds upon and clarifies earlier laws and policies regarding cultural resources
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)
a listing of objects, structures, sites, districts, archaeological resources, Native American/Hawaiian sacred sites, and landscapes that have cultural or design values - established by the national historic preservation act
State Historic Preservation Officers
SHPOs are appointed by the governor of each state and oversee historic preservation and cultural resources management in each state. Some Native American tribes now have their own Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) - created by the national his
Section 106 of the National Historic Act
drives the archaeological component of CRM
Establishes that all federal "undertakings" must take into account how such activities could affect historic properties - any property listed in or eligible for inclusion in the
Federal Undertakings
can be any project involving construction, rehabilitation, repair, demolition, or transfer of federal property (e.g., US military bases)
and are also defined as any activity that used federal monies/loans or requires a federal permit or license.
If any federal undertaking might have an adverse effect on a historic property
it must be determined how that effect can be avoided, minimized, or mitigated.
Most CRM projects are then contracted out to private consulting firms
which determine if and how historic properties will be adversely affected
Records Clerk
- Look at the site files and data banks maintained by the SHPO (or THPO) to see if sites already on or potentially eligible for the NRHP have already been recorded in the project area. May also reveal presence of recorded sites that have not yet been eval
Phase One of Site Management
Archaeological fieldwork becomes necessary when the records check fails to adequately determine that sites eligible (or potentially eligible) for inclusion in the NRHP are not located within the PA
Phase two of site management
Site testing of sites deemed potentially eligible for inclusion in the NRHP. Testing is done to make a determination of eligibility. If the sites tested are not eligible for inclusion in the NRHP, then the Section 106 review process ends here. Site or sit
Criteria for Listing in the National Register of Historic Place
A) Be associated with events significant in the broad pattern of history (e.g., battlefields)
B) Be associated with persons/lives important in history (e.g., Mount Vernon, Monticello)
C) Embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period, method of cons
Phase three of site management
When a site is considered to be eligible for the NRHP under one or more of these criteria, then all parties involved must determine what effect the federal undertaking will have on it. If it is determined that the project will have an adverse effect, then
Mitigation
can involve avoidance, preservation- in-place, or recovering significant information about the site through intensive field investigations (data recovery).
Mitigation (data recovery) usually results in
a large amount of archaeological data. This work is usually the last that will ever take place at the site. Therefore, the analysis and preparation of the technical report takes a great deal of time and effort.
Once the report is complete the federal unde
CRM, for the most part, involves
gathering and assessing archaeological data under very specific and defined circumstances. Many CRM projects are very small-scale, such as cell phone towers and oil-drilling pads.
CRM is thus often considered to be
theory-free and descriptive rather than problem-oriented and scholarly in nature. There is perhaps some true to this, but there is no reason to segment archaeology into two broad camps with CRM archaeology on one side and academic archaeology on the other
CRM has brought extensive methodological benefits to basic archaeological research
Emphasis on settlement patterns
Sampling procedures
Computer applications
Remote sensing
Major methodological contributions
Geomorphology
Safety
Technology
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
An official term for clothing and other gear that shields or isolates individuals from chemical, physical, and biological hazards.
PPE may be mandated by your employers in order to be in compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (O
OSHA
is a federal organization whose main goal is to protect employees in any work environment
has set a number of standards and regulations that may apply to field archaeologists
Management Challenges
the volume of CRM archaeology means that there are challenges that must be met to insure that we are doing everything we can to properly manage cultural resources and the collections that are derived from CRM project.
Issues of quality
under the law all CRM projects are reviewed by the SHPO's office, they are often understaffed and overworked. There are organizations that try to self-regulate CRM and promote quality control through ethics and guidelines for archaeological research
American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA)
has been the trade association supporting and promoting the common interests of cultural resource management (CRM) firms of all sizes, types and specialties
The issue of site records
the voluminous number of CRM reports and other site records (e.g. site forms, artifact catalogs, etc.) need to be carefully managed. It is already the case that these records are called the "gray literature" precisely because it is often difficult to acce
The issue of curation
Archaeological materials are kept for future study and new methods of analysis that are not available today. This requires space and lots of it.
Curation
is the management, storage, and conservation of artifacts and other data collected during archaeological investigations
The Issue of Publication and Dissemination
Many CRM reports are formulaic and do not add much to our knowledge of the past, but do meet the federal mandates of CRM legislation.
We must do a better job of disseminating the results of CRM projects. Publication in peer-reviewed journals is one way.
T
Public Involvement and Public Archaeology
One of the biggest benefits to have come from CRM is the increased public involvement in archaeology.
It is appropriate because it is ultimately the public that funds CRM archaeology and much academic archaeology as well.
Cultural and adventure tourism is
Public Archaeology
is a way to see that the public is actively involved in and benefits from archaeological inquiries. It is a form of archaeology that is open accessible to the public.
Native Americans and CRM
Native Americans have a long and sometimes contentious relationship with archaeology since the majority of archaeological sites that have been investigated are Native American sites, but the vast majority of archaeologist excavating these sites are of non
With the native americans, most of the tension surrounds
burials, ritual sites and artifacts. As archaeologists began to realize the social significance of their research, they have become more accepting of the concerns that Native Americans have had since the beginnings of archaeology and anthropology in the U
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978
Recognizes and guarantees indigenous North American and Native Hawaiian groups their inherent right to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions
Allows these groups access to sacred sites, allows them to possess and use sacred objects and
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act - NAGPRA, 1990
Requires that Federal agencies inventory human remains and associated funerary objects in their holdings (includes any institution or organization that received Federal funding, or required a Federal permit for an undertaking that resulted in the collecti
Louisiana Unmarked Human Burial Sites Preservation Act - 672. Legislative declaration of intent
all human burial sites shall be accorded equal treatment, protection, and respect for human dignity without reference to ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds, or religious affiliations.
LA - 680. Discovery of unmarked burial sites, human skeletal remains, and burial artifacts
Any person who has reason to believe he or she has discovered an unmarked burial site or received human skeletal remains from an unmarked burial site shall notify the law enforcement agency of the jurisdiction where the site or remains are located within