THE APPLICATION OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE IN CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: NEW CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Cultural resource management (CRM), which emerged in the U.S. during the late 1960s and early 1970s in response to federal mandates designed to protect or mitigate archaeological sites affected by federally funded or permitted projects, such as the construction of roads, reservoirs and pipelines, frequently includes geoarchaeological investigations involving the application of Quaternary science. During the first decade of CRM, geoarchaeologists were often limited to describing soils profiles at archaeological sites and/or providing terrain analysis for archaeological survey areas. However, by the 1980s, geoarchaeology moved beyond the descriptive stage; Quaternary scientists were often called upon to map landform sediment assemblages and determine the geologic potential for buried cultural resources. At individual sites, they were usually expected to interpret depositional environments, site-formation processes, and post-depositional modification of archaeological deposits. Moving into the 21st Century, Quaternary scientists engaged in CRM were faced with these same expectations as well as new challenges. As this paper demonstrates, over the past decade greater emphasis has been placed on high-resolution dating and paleoenvironmental reconstruction at archaeological sites, and incorporating landscape data into geographic information systems. Also, in CRM investigations Quaternary science has not simply become more common, it has changed from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary appendage to a fully integrated geoarchaeological component.