Effects of Public Agency Orientations and Practices on Archaeology: A View from the Trenches

Many federal and state agencies are instituting contracts with professional archaeologists for cultural resource management work. They include “regulatory” agencies, “management-oriented” agencies and “project-oriented” agencies. Many archaeologists are unaware of how these different agency orientations affect the discipline of archaeology as a whole in many important ways, including types of service, contract and project; quality of work; results or research; use of data; and level of agency direction of research in planning and controlling. All archaeologists need to be aware of these effects. An understanding of “real world” contract archaeology practice will help all archaeologists reaffirm basic goals and values and share the responsibility of determining the best interests of the discipline and of the supporting public.