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Anth 480

ANTH 480 Local Archaeological Practice

Students perform archaeological and anthropological research relating to local cultural resource management (CRM) and documentation. Students engage with local professional archaeologists and Native American groups working in cultural resource management to learn site research methods, identification and documentation of material culture.  The primary goals of this class are 1) to provide students with an appreciation of the importance of CRM; 2) to provide students with an understanding of the legislation that drives CRM; 3) to expose students to the everyday practices of archaeological practice in a CRM context, and to 4) expose the students to various cultural viewpoints with recovered archaeology. The course is divided into 3 segments. The first presents a background to CRM law and practice (Sections 1-5). The second section focuses on CRM Archaeology- how CRM archaeologists operate in the field, the phases of CRM archaeology, and what happens to the data once the project is over (Sections 6-11). The third section covers preservation, ethics, and specific case studies (Sections 12-15). Field activity includes working with an archaeological collection and review of unpublished literature produced during the CRM process, conducting a record search/review of recorded site information for a particular area. Students write a proposal/brief archaeological research project during Sections 2 and 3. In addition, through a series of exercises, the student explores the connection between archaeological field work and interpretation.