Not Your Average Shovel Test Pit Survey: Archaeology at the WALK Bridge, Norwalk, CT

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation’s rail bridge replacement in Norwalk, CT required a variety of innovative archaeological survey techniques. The heavily developed urban landscape, future construction impacts in the Norwalk River, and constantly evolving engineering plans led to a flexible and thorough archaeological survey, which included terrestrial and underwater testing. Archaeological and Historical Services partnered with scientists and students at the University of Connecticut to conduct the testing and analysis. In addition to determining areas of archaeological sensitivity, the recovered data was further used by UConn students to enhance our understanding of coastal changes in Connecticut. This paper will describe the array of archaeological testing used on the project and how the results were achieved efficiently and cost effectively. This paper will also discuss the importance of agency regulators advocating for the incorporation of scientific archaeological techniques and analyses into cultural resource management surveys and excavations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23103