Recent Archaeology at Fort Necessity National Battlefield: A Cooperative Approach to Cultural Resource Management

Summary

A series of archaeological projects have recently been conducted at Fort Necessity National Battlefield through a Cooperative Agreement between the National Park Service and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. These projects have incorporated geophysical survey, metal detection, systematic shovel testing, and test unit excavation, as well as artifact curation and reporting. Through this partnership, the National Park Service has received an avenue for cost-effective cultural resource management, and has gained new data and new insights for managing and interpreting Fort Necessity and other historic sites located at the park. In return, Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been able to provide new opportunities for its undergraduate and graduate archaeology students to acquire practical field and lab experience beyond the standard field school setting. Indiana University of Pennsylvania has also benefitted by increasing the visibility of its archaeology programs through conference presentations, report publications, and public outreach, and has fostered a relationship with the National Park Service that is conducive for future student research projects at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. This paper summarizes the archaeology projects performed through this Cooperative Agreement, and describes the benefits, opportunities, and challenges presented by this partnership between a Federal agency and State University.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22272