CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OF PREHISTORIC QUARRY LANDSCAPES

The area designated for the future Smiths Basin mine is also a cultural landscape that encompasses hundreds of prehistoric quarrying sites trending through the southern Champlain Valley of northern New York State. The Cambrian and Lower Ordovician carbonate ramp succession contains a variety of cherts that have been mined continuously from Paleo-Indian through Woodland time (~9,000 BCE to 1,000 CE). We have adapted modern economic geology concepts in order to describe the chain of operations in the production of stone tools at these quarry locations, as well as classify the extent of quarry development at any given location. This approach to prehistoric raw material sources can be used as a guide in identifying and evaluating cultural resources for both mitigation and preservation. At the Smiths Basin mine site, the hierarchical classification of quarrying sites we have developed will be used to create a National Register district along the periphery of an active mining operation, in cooperation with the mining company current working at the site.