New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 4 - CULTURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 10 - CULTURAL PROPERTIES AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Part 8 - PERMITS TO CONDUCT ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON STATE LAND
Section 4.10.8.7 - DEFINITIONS

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

B. "ARMS" means the archaeological records management section within the historic preservation division that maintains NMCRIS, associated cultural resource records and the records repository pursuant to 4.10.19 NMAC.

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 and is the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure, whether standing, ruined or vanished, where the location itself maintains historical or archaeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure. An archaeological site typically is 50 or more years old. Examples of archaeological sites include without limitation campsites, habitation sites, ruins of buildings or structures, artifact scatters, resource procurement or processing areas, agricultural fields, locales with one or more features in association with other cultural materials.

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, if any such properties exist. The APE is influenced by the scale and nature of an undertaking, variation in topography and vegetation, and may be different for different kinds of effects caused by the undertaking and may include a buffer area to adequately account for direct and indirect effects.

E. "Area of historic and scientific interest" means an area lacking surface evidence of cultural resources but where there is a high probability of finding subsurface material remains and cultural deposits.

F. "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.

G. "Commissioner of public lands" or "commissioner" means the executive officer of the state land office, who shall have jurisdiction over all state trust lands and shall have the management, care, custody, control and disposition thereof in accordance with the provisions of state statutes and the law or laws under which such lands have been or may be acquired.

H. "Committee" or "CPRC" means the cultural properties review committee, created pursuant to Section 18-6-4 of the Cultural Properties Act.

I. "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.

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

K. "Cultural resource" means any archaeological, historic, or architectural sites, districts, landscapes, buildings, structures, objects, and places of traditional cultural or religious importance to specified social or cultural groups. Cultural resources may be significant and eligible for listing in the national register of historic places or state register of cultural properties; they may be insignificant and ineligible for either register; or cultural resources may not have been evaluated to determine their significance and eligibility.

L. "District" means a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings, structures, landscape elements, or objects united historically or aesthetically by plan or physical development.

M. "Effect" means any alteration of the cultural property's physical characteristics, including relevant features of its immediate environment, which may diminish the integrity of the property's location, design, setting, material, workmanship or association. "Effects" include, but are not limited to, physical destruction, damage or alteration of all or part of the property; alteration of the character of the property's surrounding environment where the character contributes to the property's eligibility; introduction of visual, audible or atmospheric elements that are out of character with the property or alter its setting, and neglect of a property resulting in its deterioration or destruction. Effects include those caused by the undertaking that are later in time or farther removed in distance, but are still reasonably foreseeable.

N. "Easement" means a right or privilege granted by the commissioner of public lands or by the state agency on lands under their jurisdiction to use a defined area for a prescribed purpose and time.

O. "Excavation" means to systematically dig up artifacts, deposits or material remains within the boundaries of an archaeological site, isolate or area of historic and scientific interest using hand tools or mechanical earth-moving equipment.

P. "General Permit" means a permit for survey and inventory and test excavation or monitoring on state land issued by the CPRC with the concurrence of the state archaeologist and the SHPO to a qualified institution. Staff listed on the roster of the permit must be listed in the SHPO directory.

Q. "Historic preservation division" or "HPD" means the division within the department of cultural affairs created pursuant to Subsection A of Section 18-6-8 NMSA 1978 of the Cultural Properties Act.

R. "Historic structures and buildings" means buildings or structures that are 50 or more years old or properties less than 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 five years of the date of recording.

S. "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.

T. "Individual unmarked human burial excavation permit" is a permit issued by the CPRC with the concurrence of the state archaeologist and the SHPO for the excavation of unmarked human burials on state or private land. Individual unmarked human burial permits are submitted with an application for a project-specific permit for excavation and when unmarked human burials are known to exist within the project area.

U. "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.

V. "Limited tests" means the placement of probes, cores, shovel tests or similar tests using hand tools to augment survey-level information without substantially damaging or diminishing the integrity of an archaeological site or area of historic and scientific interest. Limited tests are located systematically, randomly, or judgmentally in areas with the highest potential for buried cultural deposits and may also provide information on soils, stratigraphy or depositional context and integrity.

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

X. "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 including without limitation trenchers, backhoes, graders, scrapers, bulldozers and front-end loaders.

Y. "Mechanical Excavation Permit" is a permit issued by the CPRC with the concurrence of the state archaeologist and the SHPO for the excavation of archaeological sites on private land using mechanical earth-moving equipment by someone other than the landowner or his agent.

Z. "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 and avoidance of sites and may include documentation and excavation of cultural deposits.

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

BB. "New Mexico cultural resource information system" or "NMCRIS" means the statewide online computer information system that integrates geographic, research, and management data on cultural properties and cultural resource investigations maintained by ARMS.

CC. "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.

DD. "Principal investigator" means the individual with overall administrative responsibility for the investigation authorized by the permit and who, without limitation, assures compliance with the terms of the permit and conformance with all laws, rules and professional standards.

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

FF. "Project director" means the individual who works under the direction of the principal investigator and is responsible for ensuring that the field work, analysis and reporting are consistent with professional standards.

GG. "Project-specific permit" means permit issued by the CPRC, with the concurrence of the state archaeologist and the SHPO, to a qualified institution for survey, test excavation or monitoring when the applicant does not hold a general permit or when the applicant proposes excavation project as part of a data recovery program.

HH. "Qualified institution" means public and private entities including without limitation individuals, corporations, partnerships, trusts, associations, educational institutions, foundations, museums, any agency of the federal government, or department, agency, institution, or political subdivisions of the state with staff that include individuals listed in the SHPO directory and who demonstrate capability to accomplish the type and scope of archaeological investigation proposed in the permit application.

II. "Reconnaissance survey" means a survey used to characterize the resources of an area. A reconnaissance survey can include a "windshield survey", a "pedestrian survey," a study of aerial photographs, historical and recent maps and city plans to gain a general understanding of the community's layout or a detailed inspection of sample blocks or areas as a basis for extrapolation about the resources of the community as a whole.

JJ. "Registered cultural property" means a cultural property that the CPRC placed in the state register of cultural properties individually or as a contributing property within a district on either a permanent or temporary basis or that the keeper of the national register has placed on the national register of historic places.

KK. "Right of way" means a right or privilege to pass over, upon, through or across a defined area of state trust lands granted by the commissioner of public lands or by the head of another state agency for lands under its jurisdiction for a prescribed purpose and duration.

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

MM. "SHPO directory" means the directory of historic preservation professionals maintained by the SHPO and approved by the CPRC. The SHPO directory includes but is not limited to archaeologists who act in the capacity of principal investigator, project director, supervisory archaeologist; cultural anthropologists; historic archaeologists; architectural historians; historic architects; historic landscape architects; historians; and other historic preservation professionals.

NN. "SOI standards" means the secretary of interior's historic preservation professional qualifications standards as expanded and revised in 1997 (62 FR 33708). The standards specify the academic degrees or comparable training, professional experience and the products and activities that demonstrate that the professional is able to perform competent and professionally credible work in archaeology, architectural history, historic architecture, historic landscape architecture, history, cultural anthropology or one of the other historic preservation disciplines.

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

PP. "State archaeologist" means the archaeologist designated pursuant to Section 18-6-15 NMSA 1978 of the Cultural Properties Act.

QQ. "State historian" means the historian designated pursuant to Section 18-6-14 NMSA 1978 of the Cultural Properties Act.

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

SS. "State land" means property owned, controlled, or operated by a state agency. 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; state parks; state historic sites; 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.

TT. "State trust land" means lands, their natural products and all rights, privileges, or assets, which are derived from them, and which are under the care, custody, and control of the commissioner of public lands.

UU. "Supervisory archaeologist" means a crew chief, field supervisor or field director who works under the direction of the principal investigator or project director and is physically present for all field investigations. The supervisory archaeologist works independently in the field and may be in direct charge of archaeological field crews.

VV. "Survey" means a visual inspection of land to examine, identify, record, evaluate and interpret cultural resources and may include limited tests but shall not include excavation or test excavation. Survey intensity, design and methods are based on management and research objectives.

WW. "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. Test excavation is completed under a test excavation plan and is conducted to determine the eligibility of a site or define the nature and extent of cultural deposits.

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

YY. "Written and photographic records" means original or legible duplicate site data, such as site forms, artifact forms, notes, drawings, tables, maps, plans, charts and other written materials, and prints, slides and other photographic records.