Man, Models and Management: An Overview of the Archaeology of the Arizona Strip and the Management of Its Cultural Resources

The region encompassing the land north and west of the Colorado River in the State of Arizona is the subject of this Class I cultural resources overview. This region, commonly referred to as the Arizona Strip, contains approximately 3.5 million acres, of which 2.75 million acres are administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), 650,000 acres are under the jurisdiction of the USDA Forest Service, and the balance is controlled by various State and Federal agencies, Indian tribes, and private concerns. Within the Arizona Strip, approximately 4,000 archaeological sites have been recorded. Of these, about 1,500 are found on land administered by the BLM, slightly over 700 are located on the North District of the Kaibab National Forest, about 1,200 are situated north of the Colorado River within the confines of the Grand Canyon National Park, and close to 400 sites are found north of the Colorado River in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The rest have been recorded by various State and private institutions on non-federally controlled land. This overview is divided into two parts. Part One consists of six chapters which provide background information on the prehistory, history, and environment of the Arizona Strip. Environmental data are brought to bear showing the strong bimodal pattern of precipitation and temperature that currently affects the region. Information gathered from four paleoclimatic indicators—tree-rings, prehistoric pollen, alluvial stratigraphies, and packrat middens—show that various climatic regimes have established themselves at different times and in different parts of the Strip during the late Quaternary period. Archaeological data are then brought to bear on the issues of cultural development. Little information exists on the earliest periods of human occupation, the Paleoindian and the Archaic. The succeeding Formative period is much better represented. Over 60 percent of the recorded sites on BLM and Forest Service land date to this period. Although most information about prehistoric occupations on the Arizona Strip relates to the Formative, there is still very little known about the exact nature of culture at this time. Clearly, the societies occupying the region were greatly influenced by the developments to the east associated with the Kayenta Branch of the Anasazi culture. Topics such as the nature of outside influence, the importance of plant domesticates, and the sudden abandonment of the region around A.D. 1200 still need more study. Part Two concerns the management of cultural resources on the Arizona Strip. This part is divided into four chapters. The discussion begins with an overview of the types and distributions of know cultural resources throughout the Arizona Strip. This presentation includes a series of graphic illustrations showing general site location for the region as well as maps specifically designed for BLM and Forest Service administered lands. With the resources in mind, the discussion proceeds to an evaluation of the structure of the BLM and Forest Service cultural resource management (CRM) programs. Both agencies are dedicated to a balanced CRM program that includes both identifying and mitigating potential adverse impacts of development projects on significant cultural resources and the enhancement and development of cultural resources as a goal in-and-of-itself. Yet it is clear that the current CRM programs of both agencies are geared primarily toward meeting their compliance objectives. While understandable, given the legal priority of compliance work, this orientation has the result of placing both programs in a reactive as opposed to an active posture vis-a-vis cultural resource management. In the long-run, such a narrow focus is not in the best interest of sound management. The final two chapters provide a series of recommendations. At the most general level, it is suggested that both agencies adopt procedures that allow the results of compliance work to be routinely synthesized in a manner conducive to addressing the research topics outlined in Part One. A specific approach, termed red flag modeling, is described. Two examples of the approach derived from areas of current concern for the Forest Service and BLM are presented. The document concludes with a discussion of specific actions each agency could immediately adopt to improve the efficiency and quality of their CRM programs.本一级文化资源概览的研究区域为美国亚利桑那州科罗拉多河以北及以西的陆地范围，该区域通常被称为亚利桑那地带（Arizona Strip），总面积约350万英亩，其中275万英亩由土地管理局（Bureau of Land Management, BLM）管理，65万英亩隶属于美国农业部林务局（USDA Forest Service），剩余部分则由各类州级、联邦机构、印第安部落及私人主体掌控。 亚利桑那地带内已记录有约4000处考古遗址。其中约1500处位于土地管理局管辖的土地上，略多于700处坐落于凯巴布国家森林北区，约1200处位于科罗拉多河以北的大峡谷国家公园（Grand Canyon National Park）范围内，近400处遗址位于科罗拉多河以北的米德湖国家游乐区（Lake Mead National Recreation Area）内，其余遗址则由各类州级及私人机构在非联邦管辖土地上记录完成。 本概览分为两个部分。第一部分包含六章，旨在提供亚利桑那地带的史前史、历史与环境背景信息。其中的环境数据揭示了当前影响该区域的显著双峰型降水与温度模式。通过四项古气候指标——树木年轮、史前花粉、冲积地层及林鼠粪堆（packrat middens）——收集到的信息表明，在晚更新世时期，亚利桑那地带的不同区域曾先后形成过多种气候环境。 随后，考古数据被用于探讨文化发展相关议题。关于人类定居的最早阶段，即古印第安时期（Paleoindian）与古风期（Archaic），目前留存的资料极少。后续的形成期（Formative period）则拥有更为丰富的遗存记录：在土地管理局与林务局管辖的土地上，超过60%的已记录遗址都属于这一时期。尽管亚利桑那地带的史前定居相关信息大多与形成期相关，但目前对该时期文化的确切特征仍知之甚少。显然，栖息于此的社会群体深受东部阿纳萨齐文化（Anasazi culture）凯恩塔分支（Kayenta Branch）的发展影响。诸如外部影响的本质、植物驯化的重要性，以及公元1200年左右该区域的突然废弃等议题，仍有待进一步研究。 第二部分聚焦亚利桑那地带的文化资源管理（Cultural Resource Management, CRM）工作，该部分分为四章。讨论首先概述了亚利桑那地带已知文化资源的类型与分布情况，其中包含一系列图示，展示了该区域遗址的大致位置，以及专为土地管理局与林务局管辖土地绘制的专属地图。 结合上述资源现状，讨论继而评估了土地管理局与林务局的文化资源管理项目架构。两家机构均致力于构建均衡的文化资源管理项目，其目标既包括识别并减缓开发项目对重要文化资源的潜在不利影响，也将文化资源的保护与开发作为独立目标加以推进。然而显而易见的是，两家机构当前的文化资源管理项目主要围绕合规性目标展开。尽管考虑到合规工作的法定优先级，这一导向不难理解，但它也导致两个项目均采取了被动应对而非主动前瞻的文化资源管理姿态。从长远来看，这种狭隘的定位并不利于实现科学合理的管理。最后两章提出了一系列建议。总体而言，建议两家机构采用相关流程，使合规工作的成果能够定期得到综合梳理，以利于解决第一部分中提出的各类研究课题。 文中还介绍了一种被称为“预警模型（red flag modeling）”的特定方法，并展示了两个分别源自林务局与土地管理局当前关注领域的该方法应用实例。本文件最后讨论了两家机构可立即采取的具体行动，以提升其文化资源管理项目的效率与质量。