HPC agenda 092398 - Laserfiche WebLink

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' 11 The first of these tasks has as its goal the investigation of any historically recorded road locations , structures or features of the landscape which may have been altered or superceded over the years . This part of the field work might be considered " ground truthing" the results of the historical research . The historically recorded location of entities on any given map or plat may not correspond to current locations . For example , the comparison of a sequence . of historic maps may reveal the history of how the road was originally placed on the landscape and how that placement has changed through the years . Field testing historically recorded entity locations can verify the maps and may provide information about the presence of historic structures , landscapes , or artifact deposits such as trash dumps . This first task can be accomplished by visually inspecting the corridor for suspected locations of historically recorded entities , such as old road beds or above- ground structural remains, inspection of the surfaces of any plowed fields or non-vegetated areas, and by limited below-ground testing consisting of soil probing and shovel -test-pit excavating . It should be stressed that this portion of the project will be very narrowly focused by the results of background research . This is not designed to be a general survey of the St . Mary ' s Corridor aimed at locating all historic cultural sites in the project area . The second field testing task has as its goal the preliminary assessment of the significance of any historic archaeological locations , such as structures or artifact deposits, as may be found during the project. This can be accomplished by limited data recovery operations such as controlled surface collecting, or excavating test pits on sites that have been detected by archival research . The object of this task is to gather information about the cultural . deposit by obtaining a sample of the artifacts , and a description of the context in which they are found. Data recovery efforts implemented with this task are also expected to be very limited as predicated by the narrowly focused research objectives and preliminary nature of the project ' s scope of work . The third part of the field testing program consists of determining the potential for the preservation and further recovery of historic archaeological information from sites within the corridor . This will be accomplished, in part, by assessing the results of the first two tasks . Background research will provide the means of determining the potential for the existence of historically recorded sites within the corridor. Field checking the archival information will provide a means of assessing the accuracy of the historic record, and will yield information about the nnature of site disturbance and artifact preservation . These data, together with settlement models developed as part of the background research, may then be used to make a reasonable estimate of the archaeological resources that lie within the St. Mary ' s Corridor project area. Included in this will be an appraisal of the potential accessibility of these resources for future archaeological field testing. Development of a Research Design The development of a research design for further archaeological work will be based on the results of background research and archaeological field testing . The design should ( 1 ) specify any further archival research necessary to identify historic sites or landscape features within the project area, (2 ) present a comprehensive plan for surveying the project area for historic and prehistoric archaeological resources, (3 ) describe the means whereby the sites will be tested and recorded and the archaeological material analyzed and curated , and (4) indicate how the assessment of the NRHP eligibility of the resources will be conducted in future research . The research design should also present a preliminary plan for integrating the preservation of N