The Cultural Resource Survey Program of the New York State Museum

The Anthropological Survey's extensive applied research program assists State agencies (mainly DOT, OGS, DOC) with their State and Federal historic preservation mandates. This program area is the largest outside-funded Museum program and employs about three- quarters of the Survey staff. Today, the vast majority of archaeologists in the U.S. work in cultural resource management (CRM) programs, and most U.S. archaeology is done in CRM contexts. Each year a wealth of archaeological data are generated through CRM, preventing the loss of information from an untold number of archaeological sites and other cultural resources. A number of state and federal laws mandate CRM projects. These laws require identification and recording of cultural resources, that are potentially eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, before impact by construction projects funded or licensed by federal and/or state agencies. Cultural resources include prehistoric and historic archaeological sites, historic (pre-1948) standing structures, bridges, cemeteries, and monuments, among others. Impacts to National Register eligible resources must be mitigated through excavation, avoidance, or preservation.

All Federal and most State agencies are required to identify and protect cultural resources on the lands they manage. Industries, whose projects are licensed by federal and/or state agencies, must identify and mitigate impacts to cultural resources in project areas before construction activities. The Museum's Cultural Resource Survey Program (CRSP) does well over 100 CRM surveys for the NYS Department of Transportation and other state agencies each year through its in-house staff and its outside contractors. CRSP's work not only benefits the DOT and other state agencies by meeting regulatory requirements, it also benefits the People of New York by collecting data on the history and prehistory of the State before loss through highway and other construction. The Museum curates artifacts and records generated by CRSP projects, thus making them available for research by current and future scholars. By benefiting archaeology, the Museum, and the NYS-DOT and other agencies, CRSP is a model for interagency cooperation.

Information about some of our current projects can be found by following the links below:

CRSP Projects

Displays and Events

CRSP Web Links

The New York Archaeological Council's Cultural Resource Standards Handbook provides additional information concerning cultural resource management in the state of New York:

NYAC Cultural Resource Standards Handbook

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