Assessing Ephemeral Sites: Questions That Count in Cultural Resource Management

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.