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All archaeological tests are backfilled upon completion of testing. Very large excavation areas area or urban areas are generally backfilled through the use of heavy machinery. Smaller excavation areas are generally backfilled by hand. For smaller tests, soils are tamped by hand and sediments left mounded to settle naturally. If within a maintained lawn area with sod, sod caps are removed at the start of test excavation and replaced after backfilling. If sod cannot be saved or test areas are too large for it to be practical to save and re-use the sod, the backfilled areas are seeded. Paved areas are generally avoided when possible, but if testing must be undertaken within pavement the tests are backfilled and paving can be replaced if requested.

Yes – our field vehicles are clearly marked on the driver’s side with our company name, logo, and office phone number. Each of our staff also always carries a company photo identification while in the field.

There is no official certifying authority or requirement for cultural resource firms or practitioners. In general, a business is qualified to carry out cultural resource management activities if they employ staff who meet or exceed the Secretary of the Interior’s qualifications. All of CDC’s staff meet or exceed these qualifications within their field of study and area of responsibility. For archaeologists within the Cultural Resource Management field, membership within the Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) certifies that an archaeologist meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Qualifications for Archaeologists.

Artifacts that are collected during survey are returned to CDC’s laboratory for inspection. Those artifacts that are collected from an archaeological site are cleaned, cataloged, and analyzed. The information collected from these artifacts is then used to formulate or support CDC’s project recommendation. If the artifacts are not part of an archaeological site, they are either discarded or returned to the landowner (as requested). If the artifacts are part of an archaeological site, they may be prepared for curation with either a museum, a local historical society, or another long-term curation facility.

The landowner also owns any artifacts recovered from their property, including artifacts removed from archaeological sites. For archaeological site artifact collections, the landowner will be contacted once the project is completed and given the choice to have the artifact collection returned to them, or they can gift the collection to a museum or another repository for future research.