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The Sponsored Research Program (SRP) of the Arkansas Archeological Survey manages and conducts externally-funded research, based on contracts, grants, and cost-share agreements. Projects range in scope from documenting cultural resources within small project areas to developing resource overviews for large regions of the United States. At the local level, SRP frequently is requested to identify the nature and significance of cultural resources within a project area, and to identify the potential effects of individual projects on those resources. On a broader scale, SRP has provided resource inventories for large tracts of Federally managed lands. The recently completed Central and Northern Plains (United States) regional overview conducted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is widely recognized as a landmark study..
Background
Developed in the 1970s as a statewide response to Federal, State, and private agency requirements for the management of cultural resources, SRP has a long history of meeting both administrative and scientific requirements in a timely and professional manner. To date, SRP has successfully completed nearly 1,000 studies within Arkansas and in adjacent states. Past clients include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Arkansas Department of Heritage, Shell Oil, NORAM, Texas Eastern Gas, and Barnard Dunkelberg & Company.
As a major component of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, SRP is able to provide services unavailable from private consulting firms, particularly in the areas of computerized data management and analysis, including GIS applications, as well as public education. Other notable strengths of SRP include historic site archeology, historical research, ecosystem analysis, geophysical prospection (remote sensing) and prehistoric ceramic analysis.
The institutional funding base of the Survey allows the SRP to develop cooperative cost-sharing cultural resource studies with State and Federal agencies, such as those conducted with Arkansas State Parks and Ozark-St. Francis National Forest. Finally, the Survey publication series ensures the availability of research results to professional archeologists and the general public. SRP project completion reports are regularly published by the Survey as Research Reports and in the highly regarded Research Series.
Staff of the Sponsored Research Program can contribute less tangible benefits, especially to agencies that include educational or public involvement in their missions. In cooperation with the University of Arkansas Department of Anthropology, SRP created an internship program in which graduate students gain practical experience in all aspects of cultural resource management. The Arkansas Archeological Survey is a world leader in communicating archeology and history to the general public, and in public participation in archeological research. To date, the Survey has published over 60 monographs on archeological research, including several specifically for the general public.
The SRP presently maintains a permanent staff of 8 individuals, including a Research Administrator, 2 Project Archeologists, an Office Manager, and 2 Archeological Research Assistants. Degrees held by the SRP staff include 1 Ph.D., 2 M.A., and 1 B.A. All 3 senior staff are members of the Register of Professional Archaeologists. Full-time SRP staff members and their titles are listed below:
- Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., Research Administrator/Professor
- Randall L. Guendling, Senior Project Archeologist
- Kathleen H. Cande, Senior Project Archeologist
- Lindi Holmes, Secretary II
- Mike Evans, Archeological Assistant
- Jared Pebworth, Archeological Assistant
Dr. Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. (Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1977) is the Administrator of the Sponsored Research Program and Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Dr. Mainfort has extensive archeological research and resource management experience in the Midwest and Midsouth, including both prehistoric and historic archeological sites. He has published numerous monographs, book chapters, and articles in national and regional journals, and was recently named Editor for the Survey's Research Series of publications. Mainfort also holds the title of Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and teaches one formal course, as well as independent study courses, each year.
Randall L. Guendling (M.A., University of Arkansas, 1993) has held professional positions in archeological research and administration since 1975, and has been employed by the Arkansas Archeological Survey since 1981. He has extensive experience in the archeology of Arkansas, and has directed and completed a number of large survey and data recovery projects for the SRP.
Kathleen Hinkle Cande (M.A., University of Arkansas, 1984) has over 16 years of professional archeological field and laboratory experience in the Midwest and Midsouth, including prehistoric and historic sites. Since joining the Survey in 1987, she has directed and completed several large survey and data recovery projects.
Facilities
The Sponsored Research Program is located not far from the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. In February of 1999, the SRP moved its offices and laboratories from the West Avenue Annex to the new Arkansas Archeological Survey building at 2475 N. Hatch Road. This building was specifically designed to facilitate the processing, analysis, and storage of archeological materials. In addition to administrative offices and computer resources, the facility has a large, multifunctional laboratory where collections are processed, analyzed, and inventoried, as well as a library, photographic laboratory, and a metal conservation laboratory. The facility houses curatorial space that meets strict Federal standards; in fact, the Survey is the designated curation facility for collections from all National Park Service lands in Arkansas.
All SRP permanent staff have personal computers (both Windows and Macintosh) with current versions of major software packages and laser printers. The computers are linked to the Survey's mainframe computer and three Sun workstations. Other SRP equipment includes a variety of digitizers, scanners, and several kinds of geophysical prospection equipment (ground-penetrating radar, conductivity, resistivity, magnetic susceptibility).
The SRP Research Administrator and the Project archeologists can be reached by calling (479) 575-6560 or via e-mail at the following addresses:
- Dr. Robert Mainfort mainfort@uark.edu
- Kathleen Cande archinfo@cavern.uark.edu
- Randall Guendling guendlin@uark.edu
INTRODUCTION | PERSONNEL | FACILITIES | CONTACTS |
REPORT ABSTRACTS | INTERNSHIP
