The Law Archaeology Relies On: Section 106 and Cultural Resource Management

Okay, so I realized that when I wrote my “about me” page, I dropped the phrase “section 106” and kind of left it without really explaining what that meant. This is a reference to an obscure law that is taught in many archaeology classes. However, to non-professionals I might have well have been speaking Klingon. So, for the benefit of everyone else, I’ll explain what section 106 is and why my job and many others completely rely on this small section of a law from the 60’s.

To begin with, section 106 is one of now 4,025 sections in the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. This law was put in the books do just that, preserve history. Particularly, it protects buildings and was the law that established the National Register of Historic Places and the criteria for registration. I know by now you’re thinking something along the lines of “that’s great but what about archaeology?” Well, that came later. The preservation act (NHPA for short) was later amended to include archaeological sites. This is where section 106 comes in. This section requires an archaeological survey any time federal money is used. That means that if you use federal funding for development whether it’s a bridge, pipeline, city hall, school, or public restroom, you must first have an archaeological survey to determine if development will impact anything important. That’s where cultural resource management (CRM) comes in. CRM employs about 98% of archaeologists. Josh Gates and anyone else you see on TV are the lucky few. Depending on how big your construction area is, one or multiple archaeologists are hired for the survey and travel from their hometowns. We stay in hotels while we survey the entire area that will be impacted by development. That does not just include the spot where the building will be, but also includes where the vehicles will park, materials stored, and the site will be accessed. Collectively, we refer to this as the area of potential effect (APE for short).

Survey begins with phase I. Usually this involves a technique called shovel testing. All we’re doing here is finding out if there is something there. We spread out along a straight line with a shovel and quarter inch screen and dig a hole every 15 or so meters (determined by what state we’re in) to try and find something and analyze the stratigraphy (soil layers) of the area. If we do find something, anything not natural, we mark it as positive and dig more tests close by until we don’t find anything for two tests in each cardinal direction. We mark these negative and move on. By the end of the survey, we’ve created a grid of tests with potential sites marked by positive tests. This will show if there are any sites in the area.

If we do find something we think is important, we recommend phase II work to determine if the site is indeed important. A new team hired by a new company (sometimes) comes in and retests the sites and might put in small square test units to try and find something more concrete. What we’re really doing is determining if the site is a property that qualifies for registration on the national register under criterion D which states that sites that "…have yielded or are likely to yield information important to prehistory or history…" qualify for the national register. This can sometimes be tough because we must think about future research possibilities as we determine significance. If our archaeological and historical research determines that the site is significant, we recommend a phase III excavation of the threatened elements of the site.

Phase III is just professional jargon for total excavation. Before phase III, we were trying to preserve as much of the site as we could. (Phase I is only about a 1% sample and phase II is about a 5-15% sample.) When we recommend phase III, the site will likely be destroyed, and it becomes the job of the archaeologists to preserve as much as we can. This is where you see the national geographic style archaeology. We’re digging large units with trowels and screens, pulling up cool stuff or doing sciency paperwork. While planning for work like this, we must keep in mind that the sites are typically slated for development and the construction companies are losing money while we play in the dirt. Therefore, phase III style excavations are as quick as possible without compromising either the artifacts or the features (soil stains or architectural evidence that cannot be removed). Once a site is damaged or excavated it cannot be reconstructed. So, it falls on the archaeological team to build as much of a record for any possible research that might come from a property that likely will be covered in asphalt six months after the archaeologists leave.

As you can see, section 106 is important, not just for archaeologists now, but archaeologists, historians, and researchers in the future. Without the law in place, important sites like graveyards, battlefields, or the local industry of the past could be lost forever. All these things are important in understanding our past mistakes and triumphs. Through the things that are saved by this law, we interpret our identity as American. These independent identities are central to each American since we declared our independence 243 years ago.

The tools of phase I archaeology