Cultural Resource Management Archaeology in New Zealand

Cultural Resource Management Archaeology in New Zealand

A Guide for Students and Practitioners

Simon H Bickler 2018, Bickler Consultants, Auckland, New Zealand. 337pp. NZ$45.00 + Postage. Order from arch@bickler.co.nz [1]

ISBN 978-0-473-46275-8

From the Introduction:

This Guide

"The relative youth of the profession has meant that most of the consulting professionals carrying out CRM work in New Zealand have learnt the requirements of the job while working and with little available formal training. Furthermore, the statutory and legal requirements relating to archaeological sites around the country have changed significantly during the past 25 years. This has escalated in recent years with rapid land development across the country and resulted in an increasing number of archaeologists working as consultants.

The legal demands of the work have also increased, resulting in a need for improvements in the quality of the assessments and new methodologies for evaluating archaeological sites and undertaking investigations. The archaeologists have responded to these demands in a variety of ways, but there has been little opportunity to look at how to be a professional archaeologist in this new environment.

This document is designed to be a guide to the complex inner workings of CRM archaeology in New Zealand. I have not attempted to duplicate all the specifics of most of the relevant material such as the legislation, planning documents, legal, contractual or academic papers that form part of the corpus of recommended reading for practitioners. That material is easily available and referenced throughout.

Much of the information should be obvious to professional archaeologists in current practice and hopefully common sense to most readers. However, the purpose of this book is to establish a baseline for improvements in method, safety, and professional development tor CRM archaeologists working in New Zealand.

The material presented here is not meant to serve as a template for specific projects. Cultural heritage has become a resource - created, ignored, destroyed, managed, enhanced, and understood. It is hoped that the document provides a baseline for understanding the role of archaeology in 21st century New Zealand, and how archaeologists can and should function within statutory frameworks designed to manage our heritage as an "environmental resource.'"

The Author

"Simon Bickler is an archaeological consultant in Auckland, New Zealand. He earned a BSc in Mathematics, an MPhil (Hons) from the University of Auckland, and an MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. He has done archaeological surveying and excavation in Italy, Turkey, the USA and the Pacific. Simon has been directing and working on a wide variety of New Zealand CRM projects since 2002 and has previously served as President of the New Zealand Archaeological Association. He publishes on a range of topics including the archaeology of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, radiocarbon dating, computer simulation, machine learning and other data analytic approaches to archaeological issues."

Mini Review

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It represents a Personal OPinion.
That opinion is the sole responsiblity of the author and not the website!

At 337 pages this might surprise many in the industry with its length but is a very comprehensive review of CRM as practiced in New Zealand. It includes as one would expect a comprehensive guide to the legislation, but it brings an experienced eye to the subtleties of its application and in particular the differing heritage needs of the Heritage New Zealand and the Resource Management Act legislation.

People newly entering the profession will find some good advice in this section and when after a few years they start to be used as expert witnesses in hearings, there is much for them too as their careers so develop.

There is more on health and safety, management in the field, sound advice on running a consultancy and managing clients.

Part three of the guide on professional ethics, consultation and public archaeology will engage current practitioners, as it does not pull punches. Students may not recognise much from their academic training here – but it is the basic diet of managing CRM as a mature practitioner.

Anyone at any stage in their career will benefit from having this on their bookshelves.

GL