Challenges and Controversies in the Protection of Archaeological Resources

The following article by Mark Raab discusses a basic problem in maintaining quality among programs of contract-based archeology (I regret that Raab feels impelled to call it “cultural resource management”, which, if it means anything at all, certainly does not mean contract-based archeology). Having devoted a substantial part of his professional life to developing and carrying out excellent research through contract programs, Raab is particularly well qualified to speak to this problem, and his article is worth detailed thought and response.The paper was sent to two people who I think are in excellent positions to respond to Raab's arguments, from rather different perspectives, and their responses follow the paper. Richard Leverty has been since the early I970s the primary organizer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' contract archeology and historic preservation program; he has seen the best and the worst that this program and its contractors have had to offer. Pandora Snethcamp, who was active in the contract program of the State University of New York at Binghamton and served as an intern in the Department of the Interior's Interagency Archeological Services dealing with contract problems, now heads a contract-archeology program, based on “soft money,” in a major academic institution. T.F.K

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