Cultural Resources
The Cultural Resource Sciences program advances technology and data science in support of archaeological research on public lands. We use a full spectrum of quantitative approaches in archaeology to make connections to cultural resource management, fire ecology, and cultural ecosystem services to inform actionable science and management. Our scientists span multiple archaeological backgrounds and regional foci, including North America, Europe, and Oceania. We work closely with the university and federal partners to support students and early career researchers interested in next-generation tools in archaeology.
OUR RESEARCH SCIENTISTS
Grant Snitker, PhD
Director of Cultural Resource Sciences
Claudine Gravel-Miguel, PhD
Research Scientist
Katherine Peck, MS
Junior Research Scientist
Miguel Martinez
LiDAR Technician
Alexis Fetterhoff
Archaeology Technician
CURRENT PROJECTS
click images to enlarge:
Cultural Resource Detection using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for Management during Pre-planning in Timber and Fire Activities
NMC scientists are working with USDA Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service partners to collect and process point-cloud data for the Kisatchie National Forest. Additionally, we are using machine-learning approaches to enhance feature detection tools for site identification, predictive models, and cultural resource management.
Project lead: Grant Snitker
Other NMC Scientists: Claudine Gravel-Miguel; Katherine Peck; Alex Fetterhoff
Funding Agency: USDA Forest Service
Partner(s): USDA Forest Service, Kisatchie National Forest
Advancing LiDAR-based natural and cultural resource management applications
This project applies vegetation measured through LiDAR as inputs for QUIC-Fire on USFWS priority landscapes across the SE US to evaluate prescriptions used to treat fuels for desired outcomes. The use of lidar before and after fire will provide an ideal monitoring of model performance at management scales. Additionally, NMC scientists are developing LiDAR feature detection workflows for archaeological sites on the same priority landscapes. Using existing cultural resource databases/datasets and new targeted archeological surface surveys, we are validating detection results and provide additional assistance in integrating this work into existing cultural resource management planning procedures for the USFWS.
Project lead(s): Scott Pokswinski and Grant Snitker
Other NMC Scientists: Matt Snider; Claudine Gravel-Miguel; Miguel Martinez
Funding Agency: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Partner(s): US Fish and Wildlife Service
Advanced Integrated Fire Science Support
The overarching research goals of the project are to develop data collection methods, data sets, analytical and modeling frameworks, and applied tools to enhance understanding of the relationship of land cover, the pre-fire environment, fire behavior, and fire characteristics with resulting transient or persistent shifts in plant communities and their distributions, and alteration, loss, or damage to cultural resources and traditional landscapes. We are synthesizing
Project lead: Grant Snitker
Other NMC Scientists: Niko Tutland; Nancy Karraker; Alex Fetterhoff
Funding Agency: US Geological Survey
Partner(s): US Geological Survey
Advancing LiDAR applications for DoD cultural resource management through machine learning algorithms for archaeological survey and risk modeling for cultural resource hazard assessments
This project will develop a LiDAR toolkit for cultural resources with two focal areas: 1) detecting and describing archaeological features within ground-filtered LiDAR products using machine learning (ML) approaches and 2) assessing wildfire and prescribed fire hazards to cultural resources by connecting LiDAR-inventoried fuels to potential direct and indirect adverse effects from wildfire and prescribed fire. This toolkit will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of current cultural resource survey methods, advance methods of archaeological site investigation and detection, allow for rapid post-disturbance triage of sensitive sites and resources, and mitigate impacts of changing climate (i.e., wildfire regimes) on heritage landscapes and cultural resources within DoD properties.
Project lead: Grant Snitker
Other NMC Scientists: Claudine Gravel-Miguel, Alex Fetterhoff
Funding Agency: Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)
Partner(s): Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Collaborative Research: The nexus of long-term human pyrogeography, environmental change, and climate in the high-elevation social-ecological systems of Washington’s Cascade Range
This project investigates social-ecological relationships within Pacific Northwest high-elevation ecological zones, emphasizing long-term cultural burning practiced by indigenous communities. This study employs an interdisciplinary approach that interweaves archaeology, paleoecology, participatory mapping, and computational modeling to evaluate how human-environment interactions potentially shape high-elevation landscapes. This research will foster partnerships with federal land managing agencies and Tribal stakeholders through a co-production of knowledge framework which elevates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in the co-interpretation of research results.
Project lead: Grant Snitker
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (Archaeology Program and Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program)
Partner(s): Arizona State University, Central Washington University, Washington State University
Wenatchee Valley Sustainable Trails Project (WVSTP) Archaeological Survey
The Wenatchee Valley Sustainable Trails Project (WVSTP) Archaeological Survey is a collaborative project facilitated by TREAD, a non-profit advocating of outdoor recreation in Central Washington, to propose a system of non-motorized trails and associated infrastructure in a 120,000-acre area surrounding the community of Leavenworth, WA.. As part of the regulatory process to advancing the WVSTP, the New Mexico Consortium’s Cultural Resource Sciences program (NMC-CRS), under contract with the Washington Conservation Science Institute (WCSI), has designed an archaeological survey within the proposed trail system’s area of potential effect (APE) to evaluate the condition of existing cultural resources and identify any previously unknown archeological sites or isolates. Additionally, NMC-CRS will utilize this archaeological survey to design, deploy, and evaluate new digital data collection methods specifically tailored to the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation’s (WA DAHP) data collection and reporting requirements.
Project lead: Grant Snitker
Funding Agency: Washington Conservation Science Institute
Partner(s): Arizona State University, University of Missouri, Washington Conservation Science Institute, TREAD, USDA Forest Service
PUBLICATIONS
Bergin, Sean and Grant Snitker. ArchaeoSRP: An R Package for Extracting and Synthesizing Federal Cultural Resources Data for Research and Management. Advances in Archaeological Practice 11(4): 402–412.
Snitker, Grant, Jason Moser, Bobby Southerlin, and Christina Stewart. 2022. Detecting historic tar kilns and tar production sites using high-resolution, aerial LiDAR derived digital elevation models: introducing the Tar Kiln Feature Detection workflow (TKFD using open-access R and FIJI software. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41, 103340.
PRESENTATIONS
Grant Snitker. Advancing LiDAR and machine-learning applications for managing wildfires and cultural resources on public lands: Case studies in collaborative research with federal and academic partners. Seminar given at the University of Missouri Anthropology Department visiting seminar series, February 28, 2024. View PDF
Claudine Gravel-Miguel, Grant Snitker, Jayde Hirniak and Katherine Peck. Combining Aerial Lidar and Deep Learning to Detect Archaeological Features in the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. Paper presented at the 89th Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 17-21, 2024. View PDF
Grant Snitker, Leveraging archaeological perspectives in reconstructing historical fire and fuel conditions: a case study from coastal South Carolina, USA. Paper presented at the 7th Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Conference, Tyler, TX. May 16-18, 2023. View PDF
The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) is a non-profit corporation formed by three New Mexico universities in order to facilitate research in the state of New Mexico, and specifically to increase research collaborations between universities, industry and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).