Assessing Site Significance

A Guide for Archaeologists and Historians

By (author) Donald L. Hardesty, Barbara J. Little

Publication date:

16 March 2009

Length of book:

254 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759111271

Assessing Site Significance is an invaluable resource for archaeologists and others who need guidance in determining whether sites are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Because the register's eligibility criteria were largely developed for standing sites, it is difficult to know in any particular case whether a site known primarily through archaeological work has sufficient "historical significance" to be listed. Hardesty and Little address these challenges, describing how to file for NRHP eligibility and how to determine the historical significance of archaeological properties. This second edition brings everything up to date, and includes new material on 17th- and 18th-century sites, traditional cultural properties, shipwrecks, Japanese internment camps, and military properties.

Preface
Preface to the Second Edition

Part One: Approaches to Assessing Significance
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Determining National Register Eligibility
Chapter 3. Scientific and Scholarly Significance

Part Two: Case Studies
Chapter 4. Linear Sites
Chapter 5. Industrial Sites and Monuments
Chapter 6. Domestic Sites and Farmsteads
Chapter 7. Large-Scale Sites

Summary
Glossary

One of the most important decisions a cultural resource manager can make involves assessing site significance—a decision that often determines, at least in the US federal preservation system, if a site merits further consideration as a historic property. In the second edition of this important book, veteran preservationists Don Hardesty and Barbara Little offer an updated primer on the complex process of determining significance, especially for sites occupied in the relatively recent past. The authors discuss the role and history of significance in the preservation process, and present compelling case studies. A must-read for the 21st-century preservationist!