New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 4 - CULTURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 10 - CULTURAL PROPERTIES AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Part 15 - STANDARDS FOR SURVEY AND INVENTORY
Section 4.10.15.7 - DEFINITIONS

A. "Archaeological investigation" means the study of archaeological sites, isolates and other cultural properties and areas of historic and scientific interest including without limitation survey and inventory, examination, collection, limited tests, test excavation, excavation and monitoring.

B. "Archaeological records management section" or "ARMS" means the entity within the historic preservation division that maintains, in cooperation with the museum of Indian arts and culture-laboratory of anthropology (MIAC), the statewide archaeological and cultural properties databases and associated records and documents pursuant to Section 18-6-7 A of the Cultural Properties Act.

C. "Archaeological site" or "site" means a location where there exists material evidence of the past life and culture of human beings in the state. A significant archaeological site typically is 50 or more years old. Examples of archaeological sites include without limitation campsites, pueblos, homesteads, artifact scatters, resource procurement or processing areas, agricultural fields, locales with one or more features in association with other cultural materials, and locales that have the potential for subsurface features or cultural deposits.

D. "Area of potential effect" or "APE" means the geographic area or areas within which an undertaking may directly or indirectly cause changes in the character or use of a cultural property. The APE is influenced by the scale and nature of an undertaking and is different for different kinds of effects caused by the undertaking. For archaeological sites the APE typically includes all areas involving ground disturbance but may also include areas adjacent to the disturbance that may be indirectly affected as a consequence of the undertaking. For aboveground historic buildings, structures and other cultural properties, the APE often extends beyond the limits of ground disturbance and includes visual, vibratory and noise impacts to a building, structure, site, district, or cultural landscape and its setting and viewshed. Variation in topography, vegetation, and contemporary land use influences the visual impact on cultural properties.

E. "Areas of historic and scientific interest" means areas lacking surface evidence of cultural properties but where there is a high probability of finding subsurface material remains and cultural deposits or areas suitable for geomorphological or paleoenvironmental study.

F. "Buffer area" means an area extending 500 meters or 1000 meters in every direction of the edge of the APE or project area.

G. "Collection" means the removal of material remains from state land, whether or not the remains are located within an archaeological site or isolate as defined herein.

H. "Cultural landscape" means a geographic area including both cultural and natural resources associated with a historic event, activity or person or exhibiting other cultural or aesthetic values. Landscapes include formally designed landscapes, vernacular landscapes, sites and ethnographic landscapes.

I. "Cultural property" or "cultural resource" means a structure, place, site or object having historic, archaeological, scientific, architectural or other cultural significance.

J. "Excavation" means displacing, disturbing or moving earth, soil, dirt, other deposits or material remains from their current contexts or significant orientation in, or on, the ground within the boundaries of an archaeological site, isolate or area of historic and scientific interest using hand tools or mechanical earth-moving equipment.

K. "Historic preservation division" or "HPD" means the division within the department of cultural affairs created pursuant to Section 18-6-8 A of the Cultural Properties Act.

L. "Historic structures and buildings" means structures or buildings that are 50 or more years old or properties less that 50 years old that either meet the requirements of national register criteria consideration G (properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years) or properties that are likely to meet the integrity and significance criteria in 30 CFR 60.4 within 5 years of the date of recording.

M. "Human burial" or "unmarked human burial" means a human body or human skeletal remains and includes any funerary object, material object or artifact buried, entombed or sepulchered with that human body or skeletal remains.

N. "Intensive survey" means a visual inspection conducted on foot that examines, identifies, records, evaluates and interprets all surface-visible cultural properties 50 or more years old located in an APE or project area.

O. "Interpretation" means the inventory, registration, mapping and analysis of cultural properties and public educational programs designed to prevent the loss of cultural properties.

P. "Isolate" means a single object or artifact or a few artifacts greater than 50 or more years old that lack clear association. Examples of isolates include a single flake, projectile point, potsherd, sherds from a single broken pottery vessel, pieces of glass from a single bottle or a single feature that lacks integrity.

Q. "Items of cultural and religious significance " means ceremonial or cultural items, such as funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.

R. "Limited tests" means the systematic placement of probes, cores, shovel tests or similar tests using hand tools. Limited tests are conducted during survey to augment survey-level information on an archaeological site or isolate without substantially damaging or diminishing the integrity of the archaeological site. The total surface disturbance resulting from the limited tests shall not exceed five one-hundredths percent (.05%) of the area of the site surface.

S. "Material remains" means any tangible evidence of past human life or activities. Such evidence includes without limitation:

T. "Mechanical earth-moving equipment" means any motorized machine or device that is capable of displacing, disturbing or moving earth, soil, dirt or other deposits or materials from their current contexts or significant orientation in, or on, the ground, including without limitation trenchers, backhoes, graders, scrapers, bulldozers and front-end loaders.

U. "Monitoring" means the presence of and visual inspection by a supervisory archaeologist on the ground immediately prior to and during ground-disturbing actions to ensure site protection, avoidance of site deposits or recovery of information from newly discovered cultural properties.

V. "Museum of Indian arts and culture-laboratory of anthropology" or "MIAC" means the museum division within the department of cultural affairs, museum of New Mexico, that serves as the repository for archaeological materials and associated records and documents taken or collected from state land.

W. "National register of historic places" or "national register" means the official federal register of historic properties maintained by the U.S. department of the interior, national park service.

X. "New Mexico cultural resource information system" or "NMCRIS" means the statewide archaeological and cultural properties database maintained by ARMS.

Y. "Permit" means the written authorization required for all public and private entities to conduct archaeological investigations of a particular kind, within a defined geographic location and for a specified period of time, all of which are specified in the written authorization.

Z. "Preservation" means sustaining the existing form, integrity, material or vegetative cover of a cultural property and includes protective maintenance or stabilization.

AA. "Project area" means the geographic area or areas of study for an archaeological investigation conducted for research purposes.

BB. "Registered cultural property" means a cultural property that the CPRC placed in the state register individually or as a contributing property within a district either on a permanent or temporary basis.

CC. "Sample survey" means a pedestrian survey that identifies all surface-visible cultural properties within defined sample units of a larger whole.

DD. "State agency" means a department, agency, institution or political subdivision of the state.

EE. "State archaeologist" means the archaeologist designated pursuant to Section 18-6-15 of the Cultural Properties Act.

FF. "State historian" means the historian designated pursuant to Section 18-6-14 of the Cultural Properties Act.

GG. "State historic preservation officer" or "SHPO" means the individual appointed pursuant to Section 18-6-8 of the Cultural Properties Act and serves as the director of the historic preservation division.

HH. "State land" means property owned, controlled, or operated by a department, agency, institution or political subdivision of the state. Examples of state land, include but are not limited to: state trust lands managed by the commissioner of public lands; New Mexico department of transportation rights of way and easements; state parks; state monuments; state game and fish lands; county and municipal property including open space areas, leased lands, and rights of way; and lands owned or managed by public schools and state colleges and universities.

II. "State register" or "official register" means the New Mexico register of cultural properties maintained by the CPRC for the purpose of recording cultural properties deemed worthy of preservation.

JJ. "Survey" means a visual inspection of land to examine, identify, record, evaluate and interpret cultural properties and may include limited tests but shall not include excavation or test excavation.

KK. "Test excavation" means the systematic placement of probes, cores, shovel tests or test pits using hand tools, and test trenches excavated by hand or with mechanical earth-moving equipment to expose geomorphological soils and buried cultural deposits to determine the research potential and nature and extent of cultural deposits at an archaeological site without substantially damaging or diminishing the integrity of the archaeological site. The total surface disturbance resulting from test excavation shall not exceed 5 percent of the surface area of the site area or 5 percent of the portion of the site that may be affected by an undertaking or project, whichever is less.

LL. "Thematic survey" means a pedestrian survey that identifies selected types of cultural properties and may be performed with written concurrence of the state agency.

MM. "Traditional cultural places" means a geographic place or area of cultural or religious importance to an Indian tribe or pueblo or other ethnic group. Traditions include beliefs, customs and practices of a living community of people that have been passed down through the generations.

NN. "Tribal consultation" means formal discussion between a state agency and Indian tribes and pueblos that may have knowledge of and interest in the general area of an archaeological investigation to assist in identification and protection of traditional cultural places and items of cultural and religious significance.

OO. "Unmarked burial ground" means a location where there exists a burial or burials of any human beings that are not visibly marked on the surface of the ground in any manner traditionally or customarily used for marking burials and includes any funerary object, material object or artifact associated with the burial or burials.