Assessing Ephemeral Sites: Questions That Count in Cultural Resource Management
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2014
As archaeologists working in cultural resource management we are called upon to assess the potential research value of the resources encountered during survey. An unfortunate reality is that we do not have the luxury of taking the stance that all archaeological sites have potential research value. We judge the merits of these sites against the criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The more material you find at a site the easier it is to assess. This has the potential to bias the sites we investigate towards ‘richer’ sites and as a result sites with lower densities of materials are too often discounted and not properly considered. These ephemeral sites may represent cultural groups or activities that would go undocumented without archaeological investigation. This session is meant to restart a dialogue that emerges periodically within the field and to present strategies for assessing these ephemeral sites in the context of CRM archaeology.
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Complexity Begets Ambiguity: Small Site Archaeology and NRHP Significance (2014)
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If size is what really matters, then every farmstead that has been continually occupied for the past 150 years is eligible for nomination to the NRHP. On the other hand, if NRHP eligibility is keyed to our ability to ask specific questions about specific populations at specific points in time, then the truly significant properties may be those small and ephemeral sites that either failed prematurely or were otherwise abandoned after relatively brief occupation periods. Using examples from the...
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The Disappearing Legacy of the CCC: Spike Camps and missing material culture at Mount Rainier (2014)
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During recent years, the Civilian Conservation Corps has become increasingly present in archaeological studies across the United States. Beginning in the spring of 2011, the National Park Service began a study of the Civilian Conservation Corps and their operations at Mount Rainier National Park from 1933-1941. Their history and the role of the program at Mount Rainier had immense impacts on both the environment and the present day management of federal lands. Extensive testing was done on...
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Herding Brick Bits: Ephemeral Historic Sites in the Chesapeake (2014)
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Most field directors of Phase I archaeological surveys frequently face this dilemma: a handful of nearby shovel test pits have yielded a few brick bits, some charcoal, maybe a stray piece of refined earthenware, perhaps a fragment of bottle glass. Now what? Do you move on and chalk this one up to “field scatter”; Do you hunker down and try to tease more diagnostics out of the ground? Or do you wing it and try to wordsmith it in the report as potentially eligible? Most are reluctant to admit...
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Identifying and Delineating Building Locations on Low-Density Sites Using a Metal Detector (2014)
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Smithsonian citizen scientists have surveyed several 18th and 19th century sites using conventional archaeological methods along with a metal detector as a non-invasive way to explore site structure. The mapped metal detector hits we get are used as a proxy for evidence of buildings and help identify and delineate building locations and in relation to one another.
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Incorporating Ephemeral-ness: Archaeology of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum (2014)
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The Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum (LHBM), situated along the shores of Lake Michigan, is dedicated to Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr., a noted progressive agriculturalist in the early twentieth-century. While discussions of his later life center around his championing of farm reforms in the New Deal and advocating new methods of agricultural production, the LHBM focuses on his childhood in South Haven, Michigan-especially his early views of nature and agriculture found in writings. The Bailey’s, however,...
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Making Do With So Very Little: A Consultant’s Look at Homestead Archaeology in Eastern Alberta (2014)
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Recent consulting research at a number of Euro-Canadian homestead sites in Eastern Alberta has shed light on a number of aspects of these early 20th Century sites, including consumerism, globalization, family life, and perhaps even caching or hoarding behaviours. Unfortunately, only so much can be understood when only a tiny portion of the site can be excavated ahead of proposed developments. Through online and text-based research, however, in addition to astute onsite observations and...
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The Site With the Most Stuff Wins: Assessing Ephemeral Sites for the National Register (2014)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
As archaeologists working in cultural resource management we are called upon to assess the potential research value of the resources encountered during survey. We judge the merits of these sites against the criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The more material you find at a site the easier it is to assess. This has the potential to bias the sites we investigate towards “richer” sites and as a result sites with lower densities of materials are too often...
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Testing Predictive GIS Models and Game Theory: A Case Study of the Simpson Lot, an Antebellum Industrial Homestead Site (2014)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Alternative theories and methodologies hold great potential to assess the prospective research value of ephemeral sites in both academic and CRM contexts. The Simpson Lot of Arcadia Mill is an antebellum industrial site in Northwest Florida that was inhabited by five population groups--’none of which left a particularly discernible material trace. Predictive GIS maps based on the light artifact assemblage are interpreted with a qualitative version of game theory to determine population...