Expert: Ralph Salier - 3/17/2009

Question
I'm writing a mystery novel set in California that involves rescue archeology on a construction site that contains Indian burials.  (1) When the construction company discovers bones, who do they call -- the state, the county, the local government?  (2) Say they contract with a rescue archeology company to excavate the site.  How are these contracts usually written:  specific period of time, open-ended, etc?  (3) For the purposes of the story, the project needs to utilize students and volunteers.  Is this possible only if the excavation is run by an academic institution, or could the company make an arrangement with (say) a college or other nonprofit to let students et al. work on the site?  (4) After the excavation is over and the construction project starts up, a police detective needs to get information about the archeology company.  Who would they go to:  the construction company, local government, the state, etc.?

Answer
Hi Paula,

Native Burials are very sensitive subjects especially out west.  The construction company would need to hire a certified company to do the excavation or approach one of the universities with a contract archaeology section like UC San Diego or UC SF.  The company would call the office of the State Archaeologist and the State Archaeologist would send a person who would then assign the work  to one of t he schools or recommend a list of certified companies in the area that could do the work.  Each company that does archaeology would need to meet the same CRM (Cultural Resouce Management) requirements and the contracts are very similar one to the next.  

The terms of the contract, length etc... tend to be open ended unless specified due to the contstruction requirements.  

If it needs students and volunteers, then it will need to be assigned to one of the universities.

It will then be directed by either a graduate student or one of the professors of the university or one of the contract archaeologists attached to the university.  Volunteers are some times a problem due to insurance considerations but if they have signed waivers then this is possible.  A company would not take the risk.

They police would go the the university professor or grad student who ran the excavation.

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