Teaching CRM at UW

In spring 2016, the Assistant Wyoming State Archaeologist taught the University of Wyoming Department of Anthropology’s first Cultural Resources Management (CRM) class focusing primarily on Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.  The class dealt mostly with CRM from a private archaeological consulting firm’s perspective, although representatives from the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Transportation, University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository, and USDA Forest Service guest-lectured and taught the students different state and federal agencies’ roles in Section 106. Students were instructed all aspects of conducting compliance archaeology projects and were introduced to many of the issues that professional archaeologists deal with on a daily basis.

Overview of rock art panel with hand sprays.

The class included a field component, which was a Class III cultural resources inventory of a portion of state land near Laramie, Wyoming.  The students surveyed small tracts of land, rerecorded previously recorded archaeological sites within their survey areas, and evaluated those sites for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.  The sites included three large open camps with numerous stone circles, one historic grave, and one cave with stratified cultural deposits and associated rock art panels.  The rock art included numerous hand sprays on two panels, which are rare in Wyoming.  Only two other sites with hand sprays have been formally document within the state!

Overview of rock art panel with hand sprays after applying D-stretch (D-stretch done by UW PhD candidate, Madeline Mackie).

Overview of rock art panel with hand sprays before (left) and after applying D-stretch (right) (D-stretch done by UW PhD candidate, Madeline Mackie).