Improving the D Average: Contextualizing Archaeological Assessments of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Cultural Resource Management (CRM) reports, pre-contact sites are often listed as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), only under Criterion D (data potential), while post-contact sites are routinely listed under all four criteria. As a result, sites representing relatively minor activities of European settler populations may be protected, while sites representing generations of indigenous lives may be less so. Such bias reflects a wider epistemological issue. Connecting sites to persons and events centered in the histories of dominant societies is a linear process of correlating documentary evidence and material culture. In contrast, linking sites associated with historically marginalized peoples and cultures to specific persons and events requires wider contextualization. We present a seven step process that provides a more complete context for all archaeological sites: 1) Identification, 2) Delineation, 3) Description, 4) Contextualization, 5) Interpretation, 6) Evaluation and 7) Management. While research archaeologists routinely use this type of recursive approach, our schema standardizes the process for CRM practitioners with tighter schedules and limited budgets.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36837.0