Assessing Site Significance: A Guide for Archaeologists and Historians, 2nd Edition (Heritage Resources Management)

255 Pages·2009·1.42 MB·English

by  Donald L. Hardesty

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Archaeology / Public History D
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ASSESSING SITE
Heritage Resources Management Series S
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“One of the most important decisions a cultural resource manager can make involves N
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SIGNIFICANCE
assessing site significance—a decision that often determines, at least in the United States L
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federal preservation system, if a site merits further consideration as a historic prop- T
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erty. In the second edition of this important book, veteran preservationists Donald L. E
Hardesty and Barbara J. Little offer an updated primer on the complex process of Second Edition
determining significance, especially for sites occupied in the relatively recent past. The
authors discuss the role and history of significance in the preservation process, and pres-
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ent compelling case studies. A must-read for the twenty-first-century preservationist!” S
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—JULIA KING, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
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GUIDE ARCHAEOLOGISTS HISTORIANS
Assessing Site Significance is an invaluable resource for archaeologists and others who need S A FOR AND
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guidance in determining whether sites are eligible for listing in the National Register of N
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Historic Places (NRHP). Because the register’s eligibility criteria were largely devel-

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oped for standing sites, it is difficult to know in any particular case whether a site known
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primarily through archaeological work has sufficient “historical significance” to be listed.
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Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little address these challenges, describing how to
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file for NRHP eligibility and how to determine the historical significance of archaeo- I
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logical properties. This second edition brings everything up-to-date and includes new
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material on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sites, traditional cultural properties, I
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shipwrecks, Japanese internment camps, and military properties. I
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DONALD L. HARDESTY is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at
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the University of Nevada, Reno. BARBARA J. LITTLE is an archaeologist with the
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National Park Service in Washington, D.C. and an adjunct professor of anthropology at E
the University of Maryland, College Park.
For orders and information please contact the publisher
Donald L. Hardesty
A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. and Barbara J. Little
1-800-462-6420 Cover image: Bodie State Historic Park,
www.altamirapress.com California. Photo by Donald Hardesty.
AAsssseessssiinnggSSiitteeSSiiggPPBBKK..iinndddd 11 11//77//0099 22::2211::2266 PPMM
ASSESSING SITE
SIGNIFICANCE
Heritage Resources Management Series
Sponsored by the Heritage Resources Management Program
Division of Continuing Education, University of Nevada, Reno
Books in this series are practical guides designed to help those
who work in cultural resource management, environmental
management, heritage preservation, and related areas. The
books are replete with examples, checklists, worksheets, and
worldly advice offered by experienced practitioners in the field.
Volumes in the series:
Federal Planning and Historic Places: The Section 106 Process, by
Thomas F. King (2000)
Assessing Site Significance: A Guide for Archaeologists and Histori-
ans, by Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little (2000)
Tribal Cultural Resource Management: The Full Circle to Steward-
ship, by Darby C. Stapp and Michael S. Burney (2002)
Thinking about Cultural Resource Management: Essays from the
Edge, Thomas F. King (2002)
Places That Count: Traditional Cultural Properties in Cultural Re-
source Management, by Thomas F. King (2003)
Legal Perspectives on Cultural Resources, eds. Jennifer R. Richman
and Marion Forsyth (2003)
Presenting Archaeology in Court: A Guide to Legal Protection of Sites,
eds. Sherry Hutt, Marion P. Forsyth, and David Tarler (2006)
Cultural Resource Laws and Practice, third edition, by Thomas F.
King (2008)
Assessing Site Significance: A Guide for Archaeologists and Histori-
ans, second edition, by Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little
(2009)
ASSESSING SITE
SIGNIFICANCE
A Guide for Archaeologists
and Historians
Second Edition
Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little
A Division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
AltaMira Press
A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group,
Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200
Lanham, MD 20706
www.altamirapress.com
Estover Road
Plymouth PL6 7PY
United Kingdom
Copyright © 2009 by AltaMira Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hardesty, Donald L., 1941–
Assessing site significance : a guide for archaeologists and historians /
Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Heritage resources management series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1126-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1126-X (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1127-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-1127-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
eISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1328-2
eISBN-10: 0-7591-1328-9
1. Historic sites—United States—Management. 2. United States—Antiquities.
3. Archaeology and history—United States. 4. Archaeology—Methodology.
5. Excavations (Archaeology)—United States. I. Little, Barbara J. II. Title.
E159.H26 2009
973—dc22 2008044416
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface ix
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Part I:
APPROACHES TO ASSESSING SIGNIFICANCE
1 Introduction 3
What Is the Modern World? 4
Modern World Archaeological Remains 5
The Value of Modern World Sites 6
The Legal Context of Significance 8
Assessing Significance Matters in the Modern World 10
2 Determining National Register Eligibility 15
Eligibility Step 1. Categorize the Property 16
Eligibility Step 2. Determine Which Historic
Context(s) the Property Represents and
How Property Types Relate to the
Archaeological Resources 18
Eligibility Step 3. Evaluate Significance under
National Register Criteria A–D 40
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vi / Contents
Eligibility Step 4. Apply Criteria Considerations 59
Eligibility Step 5. Determine If Property Retains
Sufficient Integrity to Convey Its Significance 60
Nominating Properties to the National Register 65
3 Scientific and Scholarly Significance 69
What Is Archaeological Information? 69
What Are the Sources of Archaeological Information? 70
Assessing the Information Content of Sites 78
What Makes Archaeological Information Important? 79
Dealing with Redundancy 83
Case Study: Examining World Systems 91
Case Study: Power and the Plantation 93
What’s Next? 95
Part II:
CASE STUDIES
4 Linear Sites 99
Building Context: Defining Sociotechnical Systems 100
Assessing the Information Value of Historic Trails 102
Case Study: Portage Trails in Minnesota 104
Case Study: Assessing Water Conveyance Systems 106
Case Study: Railroad Logging in Arizona 107
Case Study: The Henness Pass Road 112
5 Industrial Sites and Monuments 119
Defining Industrial Property Types 120
Linking Archaeological Resources to Property Types 121
Assessing the Historical Value of Industrial Sites 122
Evaluating Industrial Technology Sites 124
Industrial Social Formations 126
Industrial Landscapes 132
Case Study: Bodie Historic District 135
Case Study: The Iron and Steel Resources
of Pennsylvania, 1716–1945 137
Case Study: Wood’s Gristmill 142
Contents / vii
6 Domestic Sites and Farmsteads 145
Property Types and Research Questions 145
Case Study: Historic Agriculture Resources
of Pennsylvania 148
Case Study: Rural Resources of Leon County, Florida 150
Case Study: Rural Villages at Fort Drum, New York 151
Case Study: Homesteads 155
Case Study: Ozark and Ouachita Rural Households 156
7 Large-Scale Sites 161
Plantations and Ranches 162
Mining Districts 165
Engineering Projects 169
Townsites 178
Military Properties 184
8 Summary 195
Archaeology Is Important to the Recent Past 195
Historical Archaeology Is Still Archaeology 196
The Recent Past Also Needs Good Research Designs 197
There Are Many Pathways to the Recent Past 198
Information Needs Focus 199
Abundant Sites Are Significant 199
Recent Sites Help Understand Global
Ecological Change 200
Recent Sites Are Not Isolated 201
Glossary 203
References 207
Index 235
About the Authors 241

Preface
Assessing the significance of archaeological remains is one of the
most difficult procedures in cultural resource management. That
very old and unique archaeological sites are important seems
obvious to most people, but what about more recent and very
common sites? The archaeological remains of the past five hun-
dred years, that period of time often called the modern world,
are difficult to assess for this very reason. They often are not
particularly rare and certainly are not old by archaeological stan-
dards. Nineteenth-century farmstead sites in the eastern United
States are a good example. Yet they often make up a large part of
the cultural resources that must be managed. In a general sense,
this book, which focuses on how to assess the significance of the
archaeological remains of the modern world, grew out of that
need. More specifically, the book emerged from several profes-
sional training workshops on the topic in which both of us par-
ticipated, sponsored by the Heritage Management Program at
the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). We thank the workshop
participants for their valuable comments. We also thank Don
Fowler, director of the Heritage Resources Management Pro-
gram at UNR, and Mitch Allen of AltaMira Press for their help in
initiating this book and bringing it to completion. Barbara Little
also would like to thank her coworkers at the National Register
of Historic Places for their day-to-day collegiality.
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