ARIs Answers a Common Question: “Are You Guys the One at Stateline Road?”

“Are you guys the ones at Stateline Road?”  This is a question that we get several times a week at ARI. The answer is no, but we completely understand why people ask! What are the odds that one of the largest ongoing archaeological excavations of the area in the past decade is not being conducted by the local, public archaeology organization? Hopefully we can help answer that here.

About The Stateline Road Excavation

The dig at the intersection of Stateline Road and US 50 is being conducted by a Cultural Resource Management (CRM) firm. CRM refers to the professional field and sets of practices dedicated to the identification and protection of cultural resources such as precontact and historic archaeological sites, buildings, and structures.

CRM firms bid for and obtain governmental contracts to assess if a project (such as intersection improvements) will impact any cultural resources. If yes, and the area cannot be avoided, large-scale excavations like what is seen at Stateline will take place to obtain as much information as possible about the site.

How are ARI’s Efforts Different?

There is a big difference between the archaeology at Stateline and the public archaeology that we do: we are public archaeologists. That means we invite the public to join us in every step of the archaeological process, from digging and mapping to cataloging finds and interpreting what they tell us about the past. Unlike CRM work, which is often driven by governmental contracts and project timelines, our explorations are guided by research questions, curiosity, and the interests of our community. We focus on investigating, preserving, and sharing the history of our region with anyone who wants to be part of it.

Even though we are not the ones digging at Stateline, we can offer a glimpse into what they are finding. The Stateline Site is a Ft. Ancient village site, much like our Guard Site that we steward. Based on the work that has been done so far, it seems that the Stateline site is slightly younger, larger, and was inhabited longer than our Guard Site. We find similar projectile point and pottery types, similar house structures and remnants of feasts. In both places, we find evidence of the people that inhabited and cared for this region hundreds of years ago. But at ARI, we have the benefit of being able to bring you in to explore the past alongside us.