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• STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH DESIGN <br />OBJECTIVES <br />The objectives of the cultural resowce inventory were to identify and evaluate for National <br />Register of Historic~Places (NRHP) eligibility all cultural resowces located within the Project <br />Area. This information will be used to determine the impacts on cultural resowces. <br />To facilitate the evaluation process with regard to historic resources, WCRM adopted the historic <br />context as defined by the Secretary of Interior and the National Register staff as the vehicle for <br />site eligibility recommendations. <br />PREHISTORIC RESEARCH DESIGN <br />Cultwal resowce investigations usually include the key areas of time, place (space) and theme. <br />Investigations of these elements can add significant information to an extant data base for any <br />region or azea. Each archaeological observation mazks a moment in time acid place. Time as an <br />element is defined azchaeologically by chronology whether by relative or absolute dating. <br />Relative dating establishes an event or culture as being "earlier than, coeval with, or later than <br />some other event or sequence of events" (Jennings 1974:12). A chronology for an area can be <br />established by the use of relative dating for example by examining soil sequences in combination <br />• with cultwal materials. From this information a typology for the azea can often be established. <br />Absolute dating can provide more precise information. Examples of absolute dating include <br />dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), radiocazbon dating, obsidian hydration dating and <br />archeomagnetism. Place or space as an element is defined azchaeologically by the specific <br />geographic location where living activities once occurred. The elements of time and space <br />become more complex as their relationship to other locations or sites in time and space aze <br />examined. <br />Examination of the relationships between sites is augmented by the use of themes or reseazch . <br />problems. Research themes which the cultwat resowce investigations within the Project Area <br />can contribute significant data to include: Chronology and Cultural Relationships, Paleoecology, <br />Geomorphology, Subsistence and Settlement, and Cultwal Economy and Technology. <br />Chronology and cultural relationships can be determined by obtaining relative and absolute dates <br />in association with intact cultwal material. Paleoecology involves the reconstruction of the <br />paleoclimate and paleoenvironment. To reconstruct the paleoecology of an azea, data needs to be <br />obtained from dated, stratified deposits. The geomorphology of an area provides additional <br />information regazding the paleoecology. Studies providing data on Holocene landscapes, <br />absolute dates from archaeological and natwal strata, and soil sampling for the description and <br />interpretation of soil formation, paleoclimate and land form transformations would provide <br />significant information.on this research theme. Reconstruction of asubsistence-settlement <br />requires analyses of lithic assemblages, features, flotation of samples, and faunal evidence. To <br />investigate the culiwa] economy theme it is necessary to collect plant and animal remains from <br />• intact cultwal levels. Studies of formal, technological, functional and sowce data on flaked <br />15 <br />