Archaeological deposits discovered during construction will be assumed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D until a formal Determination of Eligibility is made.
Project staff will ensure the proper documentation and field assessment will be made of any discovered cultural resources in cooperation with all parties: the federal agencies (if any), DAHP, affected tribes, and a contracted consultant (if any).
All prehistoric and historic cultural material discovered during project construction will be recorded by a professional archaeologist on a cultural resource site or isolate form using standard and approved techniques. Site overviews, features, and artifacts will be photographed; stratigraphic profiles and soil/sediment descriptions will be prepared for minimal subsurface exposures. Discovery locations will be documented on scaled site plans and site location maps.
Cultural features, horizons and artifacts detected in buried sediments may require further evaluation using hand-dug test units. Units may be dug in controlled fashion to expose features, collect samples from undisturbed contexts, or to interpret complex stratigraphy. A test excavation unit or small trench might also be used to determine if an intact occupation surface is present. Test units will be used only when necessary to gather information on the nature, extent, and integrity of subsurface cultural deposits to evaluate the site’s significance. Excavations will be conducted using state-of-the-art techniques for controlling provenience, and the chronology of ownership, custody and location recorded with precision.
Spatial information, depth of excavation levels, natural and cultural stratigraphy, presence or absence of cultural material, and depth to sterile soil, regolith, or bedrock will be recorded for each probe on a standard form. Test excavation units will be recorded on unit-level forms, which include plan maps for each excavated level, and material type, number, and vertical provenience (depth below surface and stratum association where applicable) for all artifacts recovered from the level. A stratigraphic profile will be drawn for at least one wall of each test excavation unit.
Sediments excavated for purposes of cultural resources investigation will be screened through 1/8-inch mesh, unless soil conditions warrant ¼-inch mesh.
All prehistoric and historic artifacts collected from the surface and from probes and excavation units will be analyzed, catalogued, and temporarily curated. Ultimate disposition of cultural materials will be determined in consultation with the federal agencies (if any), DAHP and the affected tribes.
Within 90 days of concluding fieldwork, a technical report describing any and all monitoring and resultant archaeological excavations will be provided to the Project Manager, who will forward the report for review and delivery to DAHP, the federal agencies (if any), and the affected tribe(s).
If assessment activity exposes human remains (burials, isolated teeth, or bones), the process described in Section 5 will be followed.