In previous posts, I talked about how archaeological sites form, and what kinds of things you can find in archaeological sites. I have also talked about recording information from archaeological sites. In this post, I’d like to talk a...

In previous posts, I talked about how archaeological sites form, and what kinds of things you can find in archaeological sites. I have also talked about recording information from archaeological sites. In this post, I’d like to talk a little about a kind of Archaeology called Cultural Resource Management, or “CRM.” I’ll explain what Cultural Resource Management is, and discuss the three phases of archaeological investigation.

What is CRM?

There are two types of archaeology in the United States. The first type is academic archaeology. Academic archaeology is done by academics–usually professors at a university. Each archaeology professor usually has a specialty within archaeology, and they do research on this topic. For example, some professors teach at a university during the school year and go on archaeological digs (called excavations) in the summer.

The second type of archaeology is called CRM, which stands for Cultural Resource Management. CRM archaeologists work (often full-time) for CRM firms. CRM firms offer a variety of archaeological services, all of which help manage cultural resources. This is why the field is called Cultural Resource Management. (I’ll explain what cultural resources are soon.)

But who needs these archaeological services? Well, in the United States, there are laws stating that before you dig up land to build roads or other things, you need to make sure you aren’t destroying important archaeological things in the construction process. So CRM archaeologists are hired to inspect the land before construction starts. If the CRM archaeologists find a significant archaeological site in the area planned for construction, they may be able to excavate the site. Then the archaeologists can record the information about the past and collect the artifacts so they can be stored safely at a museum or somewhere else.

What are Cultural Resources?

The important archaeological things I mentioned earlier are called cultural resources. Cultural Resources are defined by the USDA as “tangible remains of past human activity.” This includes things like prehistoric archaeological sites and historic objects like old buildings. In the United States, natural resources (parts of the environment like soil, water, air, plants, etc.) are protected by laws to keep the use of these resources sustainable. In a similar way, there are laws to protect cultural resources.

So why are cultural resources important? As the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) explains, there are several reasons. First of all, cultural resources give us information about our past–our history. Also, cultural resources can give us scientific data about things like droughts and erosion over thousands of years. And, protecting cultural resources creates jobs and attracts tourists. In addition, cultural resources can give us information that helps us today. For example, we have developed some irrigation techniques based on methods used in prehistoric times. So, the field of Cultural Resource Management exists to make sure these cultural resources are preserved.

How Does CRM Work?

Each state’s process may be a little different, but I’ll give some general information. Each state has a department that handles archaeology stuff, which is called the State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO). People planning a construction project can submit information about the project to the local SHPO. Then, SHPO reviews this information and decides one of three things:

there are no records of archaeological sites in the area planned for construction, and they don’t expect any sites to be found during constructionthere ARE records of archaeological sites in the area planned for construction, and there also may be undiscovered sites in that areathere are no records of archaeological sites in the area planned for construction, but they think there is a high chance that sites exist

So how does SHPO know if there are archaeological sites in the construction project area? All archaeological sites discovered in a state are recorded in a database and sorted by county. You may be wondering how many archaeological sites are in each state. Here’s an example. I live in Spokane County in Washington state (on the West coast, not Washington D.C.). As of October 2020, there were 510 recorded archaeological sites in Spokane County and over 35,000 sites across the state! So SHPO can check the database to see if there are any archaeological sites in the area.

If there are no sites in the area planned for construction, and SHPO doesn’t think any sites will be found during that process, then the construction can begin. But if any archaeological evidence is discovered during construction, the process has to stop and SHPO has to be notified. Then, SHPO will figure out what to do next.

If there ARE archaeological sites, or SHPO expects there will be sites in the construction area, then there needs to be an archaeological investigation. There are three stages of investigation, which are called phases of archaeological investigation–Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III. CRM archaeologists are hired to do these investigations.

Phase I Archaeological Investigations

In a Phase I Archaeological Investigation, CRM archaeologists find and record all the cultural resources in the construction area. The construction area is called the area of potential effect and is abbreviated APE. This phase includes doing background research and fieldwork.

Background Research

Background research involves searching records and documents, as well as interviewing informants. First I’ll talk a little about the records and documents. The archaeologist can access the state’s database of recorded archaeological sites to learn about the sites in the APE. And, there may also be information about sites published in archaeological journals. In addition, there may be information in the “grey literature,” which includes reports made by CRM firms that are not published in journals.

Now I’ll talk a little about interviewing informants. There are other people besides archaeologists who may have information on archaeological sites in the area. This includes amateur archaeologists who have studied the area but never published anything in a journal. This also includes local landowners, who may have found artifacts on their property. And this also includes indigenous groups of people, who may have knowledge about places where their ancestors lived. All of these people need to be contacted and interviewed in order to gather information about possible sites in the APE.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork involves actually going out and looking for archaeological sites in the APE. One fieldwork method is called a pedestrian survey. This is when archaeologists walk around the land in a systematic way, looking for artifacts on the ground. I’ll explain this process in another blog post. Another fieldwork method is called shovel testing. This is when you dig a small amount of dirt and pass it through a screen (a piece of metal mesh) to see if you find any artifacts that were buried in that part of the ground. I’ll explain more about this process in a future blog post. Another fieldwork method is called remote sensing. This is where you use scientific equipment to locate things buried underground, without having to dig. For example, there is something called geomagnetic surveying, where you use a magnetometer to measure the magnetic field in an area. If you see anomalies in the readout, this may indicate there is archaeological evidence in that part of the ground.

What’s Next?

After the background work and fieldwork are completed, the CRM archaeologist writes a report. If there were no archaeological sites found, then archaeological investigations can stop at this point. But if sites were found during Phase I, then you might move on to Phase II.

Phase II Archaeological Investigations

A Phase II Archaeological Investigation tries to find out if the site or sites found during Phase I are significant. If they are significant, then they can be submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a database with information on all the significant historic places in the country.

During a Phase II Investigation, CRM archaeologists find out several things, including:

how big the archaeological site is (the physical boundaries of the site)how old the site is (the dates of the site)the presence of features (non-portable artifacts, like a hearth or storage pit)the types of archaeological remains present (artifact variation)the stratigraphy of the site (layers of dirt)

Here are some possible methods used to complete a Phase II Investigation:

surface collection (picking up artifacts on the surface of the ground)shovel tests (digging up a small amount of dirt and sifting it through mesh to find artifacts that were buried)excavation of test units (digging 1×1 meter square holes layer by layer to find artifacts)

After the Phase II Investigation is complete, the CRM archaeologist creates another report. If the archaeological site found was determined to be not significant, then archaeological investigations can stop. But if the site is found to be significant, then there are two options. First, the area of the significant archaeological site can be avoided during construction. This means the construction plans need to be redesigned so that they do not affect the site. Or, the information from the site can be recorded through data recovery excavations, which means archaeologists will dig up the site and record information. This is Phase III.

Phase III Archaeological Investigations

In a Phase III Archaeological Investigation, CRM archaeologists excavate (“dig”) the significant archaeological site(s) in the APE in order to collect information about the past contained in the site. I’ll describe the actual excavation process in another blog post.

After the Phase III investigations are complete, yet another report is made. This report may include plans to share the results of the excavation with the general public. For example, the information may be published in a scientific journal, someone may give a presentation, or a museum exhibit may be created.

Learn More

Want to learn more about Cultural Resources Management and the phases of archaeological investigation? Check out the “Phases of Archaeology” page from the Job Monkey website.

If you want some advice for getting a job in Cultural Resources Management, then check out this post on Medium: “Getting a Job in Cultural Resource Management: A Step-By-Step Guide.“

If you are interested in Archaeology, check out my Archaeology adult coloring book, which is part of my Anthropology Adult Coloring Book series. You can buy it on Amazon at this link. Want to download a sample page from the Archaeology coloring book? Visit my Shop page here!

Thanks for reading!

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