Archeology
Highway Cultural Resources Program/CRM
What We Do
The State Archeology Office provides cultural resource management services to state and federally-funded agencies on a contract basis. Staff archeologists and architectural historians conduct documentary research and fieldwork to identify and evaluate the significance of sites, bridges, and historic buildings. This work typically begins before construction and development as mandated under state and federal law.
Important historic properties cannot be replaced if they are destroyed. The SAO helps agencies identify significant resources that may be impacted during the course of their activities and either work to avoid those properties or investigate and record them before they are disturbed. In doing so, we are able to protect and preserve much of Nebraska’s past and increase our knowledge and understanding of the state’s previous inhabitants.
Highway Cultural Resources Program
The State Archeology Office’s primary contract is with the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Since the 1950s, Nebraska State Historical Society archeologists have been providing cultural resource assessments on transportation projects statewide. The program works with the NDOT early in the planning process to coordinate archeological and historic architectural surveys ahead of project design and construction. These surveys are done alongside other environmental surveys, including paleontology, endangered plants and animals, and wetlands.
Over nearly six decades, archeologists and architectural historians have identified hundreds of sites as a result of the Highway Cultural Resources Program. If an important historic property is identified in the path of road construction, the SAO works with the NDOT in avoiding the property or minimizing impacts. If avoidance is not possible, then additional work will be completed, including detailed documentation of structures and excavation at archeological sites. These major field investigations and research projects have greatly contributed to our understanding of all aspects of Nebraska’s past, from early Native American hunter-gatherers and farmers to post-contact tribes, to Euroamerican explorers and settlers.
For more information on the cooperative program between the Nebraska State Archeology Office and the Nebraska Department of Transportation, visit https://dot.nebraska.gov/projects/environment/archaeology/.
Archeology Programs and Services
Skeletal Remains and NAGPRA
Nebraska Cultural Resources GIS
Research
Other Services
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Testing the highway right-of-way for archeological materials in advance of a NDOT project near Genoa
Contract Cultural Resource Services
Beyond the cooperative agreement with the Nebraska Department of Transportation, the State Archeology Office offers a wide range of research and cultural resource management services to other state- and federally-funded agencies and projects. As with the NDOT, this work is typically initiated prior to land management or development activities, such as trail construction or prescribed burns conducted by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Even when not mandated by law, cultural resource surveys are beneficial to contracting agencies. Reviews and surveys provide an inventory of historic sites and structures in a given area, allowing agencies to plan for the future in ways that ensure important properties are not damaged unnecessarily. Land-managing agencies, such as the NGPC, can also use survey findings to present a more complete interpretation of Nebraska history within park boundaries for use in their public outreach and education efforts.
Similarly, archeologists also benefit from access to parts of the state that have not been previously surveyed. Some activities, like prescribed burns, provide unique opportunities to archeologists by eliminating the plants and grasses that would otherwise make finding sites difficult. As additional land is surveyed and more sites are identified, our understanding of past occupations in the state increases as a whole.
Collecting Elevation Data at the Cowles Mill Site near Nebraska City
Excavated Fireplace at Engineer Cantonment
Rock Creek Prescribed Burn Survey
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Volunteers work with NSHS staff members to support our mission
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