Plow Zones and Predictability: Sesquinary Context in New England Prehistoric Sites

Archaeologists tend to regard plow zones of sites as having minimal importance for interpretive purposes. The present study describes three prehistoric sites in Massachusetts at which plow zone data—particularly in the lower 5 cm—can be shown to have predicted reliably the undisturbed subsoil contexts beneath. A hypothesis is offered as to what conditions allow maximum predictability of primary contexts from plow zones. It is suggested that archaeologists carefully consider the plowing history of the sites they test, since certain types of plowing will result in less extreme dispersal of subsoil-derived cultural materials. This has obvious implications for cultural resource management studies, as well as for pure research.

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Miki Crespi and the Origin of the National Park Service Ethnography Program

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.26.1.r1416q5893828227 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 7-11

Author(s):

Jerry Rogers

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

Detailed Examination ◽

Cultural Resource Management ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Park Service ◽

History Of

Dr. Muriel (Miki) Crespi made extraordinary contributions to the development of the field of cultural resource management, especially in conceiving, launching, and developing an Ethnography Program in the National Park Service. As Associate Director for Cultural Resources of the Service, I had the pleasure of sharing part of that experience with her. This paper is not a researched history of that experience, but is rather my personal recollection, containing all of the advantages and disadvantages of that perspective. The Ethnography Program has now been around long enough and made enough demonstrable differences in the field of cultural resource management that it ought to be the subject of a thorough administrative history. To the scholar who undertakes that history, I especially recommend a detailed examination of the planning, execution, and follow-up of the First World Conference on Cultural Parks, which I would describe as the seminal event behind the Ethnography Program.

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Epistemology of the Significance Concept

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279772 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 707-719 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Joseph A. Tainter ◽

G. John Lucas

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Historic Preservation ◽

Cultural Resource Management ◽

Current View ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Philosophical Thought ◽

History Of

Although the concept of significance has been widely discussed in cultural resource management, the origin of the idea and the epistemology underlying it have remained unexamined. This paper outlines the history of the significance concept in historic preservation and traces the current view of significance to the empiricist-positivist school of Western philosophical thought. Flaws in the arguments of this school, and in the logic of the significance concept, are raised and discussed. Potential approaches for dealing with aspects of the significance dilemma are proposed.

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Coring and the Identity of Cultural-Resource Environments: A Comment on Stein

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/280978 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 131-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Joseph Schuldenrein

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Cultural Resource Management ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Efficient Manner ◽

Sedimentary Environments ◽

Archaeological Data ◽

History Of ◽

Preservation Conditions ◽

Cost Efficient

Stein (1986) presents a very timely contribution on the history and utility of archaeological site coring that has major implications for the detection and retrieval of subsurface archaeological data. My purpose in this comment is threefold. First, I would extend her history of coring to include three periods instead of two. More importantly, in so doing, I would stress the need to modify Stein's observations to cultural-resource-management (CRM) settings. This would expand the applications of subsurface probing to broader sets of sedimentary environments and site contexts, specifically those where preservation conditions are less than ideal. Finally, I propose a versatile coring strategy that is amenable to both research and applied cultural-resource-management (CRM) situations in a cost-efficient manner.

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Assembling Archaeology

10.1093/oso/9780198784258.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah Cobb ◽

Karina Croucher

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Undergraduate Student ◽

Teaching Practice ◽

Cultural Resource Management ◽

First Century ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Archaeological Practice ◽

Material Turn ◽

The Subject ◽

New Perspective

This book provides a radical rethinking of the relationships between teaching, researching, digging, and practicing as an archaeologist in the twenty-first century. The issues addressed here are global and are applicable wherever archaeology is taught, practiced, and researched. In short, this book is applicable to everyone from academia to cultural resource management (CRM), from heritage professional to undergraduate student. At its heart, it addresses the undervaluation of teaching, demonstrating that this affects the fundamentals of contemporary archaeological practice, and is particularly connected to the lack of diversity in disciplinary demographics. It proposes a solution which is grounded in a theoretical rethinking of our teaching, training, and practice. Drawing upon the insights from archaeology’s current material turn, and particularly Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of assemblages, this volume turns the discipline of archaeology into the subject of investigation, considering the relationships between teaching, practice, and research. It offers a new perspective which prompts a rethinking of our expectations and values with regard to teaching, training, and doing archaeology, and ultimately argues that we are all constantly becoming archaeologists.

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