Excavation

If significant cultural resources are found in the project area, excavations may be required. Excavation phases are guided by project-specific plans that describe project goals, research issues, and field methods. With more than 40 years of experience in the Southwest, we construct well-informed research designs that anticipate and avoid complications and delays, allowing us to focus on the key issues involved in your project.

Plans are always reviewed and approved by the client and relevant compliance agencies.

Testing/Phase I Data Recovery

Preliminary excavation phases are exploratory. They determine the nature and distribution of subsurface features in the project area, and if the resources meet the significance and integrity requirements for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Results provide the information to plan and budget next steps. Next steps can include more extensive excavation if necessary to document and remove cultural materials, or avoidance if the footprint of your project is flexible. Our work can inform on whether preserving cultural resources through avoidance or excavation is the best choice for your project.

Data Recovery/Phase II Data Recovery

When your project cannot avoid disturbing significant cultural resources, we develop mitigation strategies. Archaeological excavation, documentary research, and a variety of specialized services are used to recover information and document the past history of a place before construction begins. Our long experience in the region, along with the results from prior phases of the project, means we can develop targeted plans of work that maximize the project’s scientific impact while minimizing client costs.

Preservation Planning

Some types of projects are amenable to preservation planning, particularly long-term projects whose impacts in some portion of the project area may be deferred for decades. Preservation planning projects document cultural resources, consider and mediate the effects of interim impacts, and develop strategies for best uses going forward. In the future, when the construction has more immediacy, the data recovery process will resume.

Some of our past preservation projects have resulted in construction of interpretative parks in excess rights-of-way, placement of soccer fields on engineered fill, and the creation of easements.