Legal Applications (Historic vs. Prehistoric)

Members of our professional staff have served as consultants and as expert witnesses in cases of violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA), as amended, the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) and in other legal situations requiring knowledge of archaeological material culture, features and context. We have a wide range of experience and technologies available for identifying the origins of items of prehistoric and historic First Nations material culture. For example, we can identify the sources of sediments that might adhere to a looted object to be able to connect that object with its original provenience using a variety of techniques that might include pollen and phytolith analysis, X-ray fluorescence, thin-section petrography and X-ray diffraction.

We have also participated in investigations of land with the intention of identifying particular sediments as belonging either to the Anglo historic or prehistoric time periods. In much of North America both weedy and cultivated plants have been introduced by Anglo (including Spanish) occupation, making identification of the Anglo historic time period possible through the pollen record. Stratigraphic samples usually produce the best results, since we desire to see change in the vegetation record through time. Numerous samples from a single stratigraphic column or core should be examined to provide enough evidence for vegetation change to characterize the historic period. Evidence for historic occupation sometimes is limited to a few pollen representing weedy plants that accompanied Anglo settlement of an area. In addition, recovery of Sporormiella dung fungal spores more consistently often marks the historic era, since they tend to increase as land use included grazing large herbivores such as cattle.

In a case of contested land ownership, stratigraphic pollen analysis that included recovery of evidence of the presence of weedy plants introduced by Anglos was part of a package of data that was used to demonstrate land emergence and hence, land ownership. In cases regarding land ownership or documentation that a particular group was using the land over a period of time, recovery and identification of ceramics from lands are considered to contribute to the package of evidence that identifies long-term occupation by a particular group or culture. Continuity of occupation may be demonstrated by a thorough look at the ceramic package

Updated01-13-2008