Guidelines for the Field Collection of Archaeological Materials and Standard Operating Procedures for Curation Department of Defense Archaeological Collections

Summary

We provide a review and synthesis of existing federal and non-federal guidelines for collecting archaeological field data and curating archaeological collections. Based on the review, we found a great deal of variability in existing guidelines, if at all present. Thus, using these variable guidelines, we fashioned Department of Defense (DoD) wide guidelines for collecting archaeological field data and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curating DoD archaeological collections. The review process consisted of interviewing federal archaeologists, State Historic Preservation Offices, state Department of Transportation archaeologists, and technical experts from a sample of universities, museums, and archaeological contractors. Agency or institution based personnel responded to a questionnaire where they were encouraged to provide comments and suggestions toward developing standardized methods.

Interview data were used to construct a proposed two-stage strategy for archaeological fieldwork on DoD installations. The first stage consists of intensive prefieldwork research that comprehensively documents previous land uses. The second stage uses an archaeological fieldwork research design that emphasizes a statistical (probabilistic) sampling framework where estimates on precision and accuracy can be determined.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• USACE (MCX-CMAC) - Other Reports

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Collaborator(s): Department of Agriculture; US Forest Service; Department of Defense; US Air Force; US Army; US Navy and Marine Corps; Department of Energy; Department of Interior; Bureau of Land Maganement; Bureau of Reclamation; National Park Service; U.S Fish and Wildlife Service

Sponsor(s): Legacy Resource Management Program Office Office of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security)

Prepared By(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Submitted To(s): Legacy Resource Management Program Office Office of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security)

Record Identifiers

Legacy Project(s): No. 98-1714

File Information