Services
Archaeological Surveys
We provide archaeological surveys for private and public clients and projects throughout Washington State. Our projects are supervised by a Secretary of the Interior Qualified Professional Archaeologist and are designed to comply with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), the Governor’s Executive Order 21-02 (formerly 05-05), and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Surveys include consultation with the local Indigenous Tribes and other concerned parties, field inspection, and generation of a technical report with a thorough review of the project area background and recommendations for how the project should proceed. During field inspection the on-site archaeologists dig shovel tests with a shovel and screen all sediments through 1/4-inch mesh.
Archaeological Construction Monitoring
Construction monitoring can occur if a ground-disturbing project contains or is near a recorded archaeological site. Monitoring includes a generation of an Archaeological Monitoring Plan, which guides the monitor for how to proceed if cultural resources are identified during construction. The monitor is on-site for the ground disturbing work outlined in the Monitoring Plan, inspecting above and below ground sediments and profiles for the presence of cultural resources. The observed ground disturbance is documented on a daily basis by notes, photographs, and maps. After the completion of ground disturbing construction an archaeological monitoring report is generated and includes recommendations for future work within the project area.
Data Recovery and Laboratory Analysis
In the event that cultural resources are identified, sometimes there will be the need to collect data, especially it will be destroyed in part or in full. A data recovery involves taking samples from an archaeological site for analysis. Analysis can consist of radiocarbon dating, faunal analysis, , and sediment grain size analysis. We are especially experienced in shellfish analysis, including identifying taxa, employing a statistical sampling to redundancy method to speed up the analysis, and interpretation of the historical marine intertidal environments. After analysis, samples are prepared for curation using archive quality storage materials.