::: The Archaeological Research Center (ARC) is a 501C3 not for profit component of the broader Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Studies at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). The purpose of the ARC is to facilitate faculty and student research via funding obtained from grants and contracts. The center brings together considerable individual and team experience in the management of cultural resources throughout California and the Great Basin. Professional expertise is offered in prehistoric archaeology generally, with specialization in paleoethnobotany, zooarchaeology, human osteology, and flaked and ground stone analysis; the ARC does not conduct major historical projects, but has limited expertise in that area.  Personnel currently include two full-time faculty (Principal Investigators), seven full-time staff, and seven part-time student assistants.  Most of the staff members have worked together for many years on various surveys, evaluation, and data recovery programs, and as a team are intimately familiar with the prehistoric archaeology of the western United States, particularly California and the western Great Basin. Key ARC staff members have completed training in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Section 106 of historic preservation law. As a team, they have participated in many projects designed to evaluate sites and determine resource eligibility under California Register of Historical Places (CRHR) and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) criteria. Since the inception of the ARC in 1995, its staff has successfully completed numerous analytical, surface inventory, test excavation, and data recovery programs :::

::: Located on the CSUS campus, the ARC facility assumes about 4200 sq ft of total space, including secure storage areas equipped to handle formal, interim curation of archaeological collections. Specific laboratories at the ARC are fully equipped for lithic, paleobotanical, and faunal analyses, complete with extensive comparative collections assembled jointly by the CSUS Anthropology Department and ARC staff. The ARC also operates a functioning, computer-assisted obsidian hydration laboratory, and houses a complete graphics/ GIS lab and extensive archaeological library :::

::: The ARC is fully outfitted to support a wide range of field and laboratory efforts. Major ARC field hardware includes six Trimble handheld GPS units (2 GeoXT, 4 GeoExplorer 3), six Garmin handheld GPS units, two Topcon total mapping stations, two digital SLR cameras, and basic excavation gear sufficient to support crew sizes of 20-25 people. The ARC owns three 4x4 field vehicles which are used regularly on field jobs, and rents additional trucks as needed on a by-project basis. A host of current software packages are used to handle word processing (Word 2010, WordPerfect 12), database management (Access 2010), and analytical/statistical (Excel 2010, SPSS) tasks. The graphics ofice produces all field and report maps/illustrations (using Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe Photoshop 7.0) and has full GIS capabilities (ArcView 9.3, TerraSync 4.12, Pathfinder Office 4.20).

::: The Principal Investigators and staff have considerable experience in California and the western Great Basin.  Key ARC research efforts have included survey and excavation for numerous federal and state agencies such as the US Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy; California Army National Guard; Bureau of Land Management (CA, NV); US Forest Service; California Department of Transportation (Caltrans); and California Department of Water Resources (DWR).  The ARC has also participated in the reassessment of existing museum collections. The following list indicates particular research tasks the ARC team performs :::

CULTURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT//

            - Overviews                                                   - Management Plans
            - EIR/EIS Documents                                     - Geographical Information Systems
            - Compliance Monitoring                              - Predictive Modeling

PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY//

            - CRHR and NRHP Evaluations                       - Laboratory Processing
            - Background Literature Reviews                   - Paleobotanical Analysis
            - Record Searches                                          - Faunal Analysis -- Vertebrate and Invertebrate
            - Flaked and Ground Stone Analysis              - Research Designs
            - Intensive Surface Surveys                            - Chronological Analysis
            - Test Excavations/Evaluations                     - Human Osteology
            - Mitigation Planning                                     - Obsidian Hydration Analysis
            - Data Recovery Excavations                         - Regional Syntheses 



SERVICES PROVIDED BY ARC STAFF //