312 IAC 21-3-8 Project documentation and reporting

Sec. 8. (a) A principal investigator must ensure that project documentation is integrated into a project completion report. This report provides the results of archaeological investigations, including recommendations for further archaeological work. A project completion report must also provide the division with technical findings from which cultural resource management and compliance decisions can be made, which will protect important archaeological sites. (b) A project completion report is required for an investigation under this article. The principal investigator shall submit a draft of the report through the person who is required to complete a project (or, if the state is the contractor, directly) to the division for review and approval. After a report is approved, the principal investigator shall submit a final copy to the division, to the agency that requires a project to be completed under this article, and to the person who is required to complete the project under this article. (c) The size and content of a project completion report shall reflect the size and complexity of the project and the project plan. The report shall use standard quality paper on white bond, eight and one-half (81/2) inches wide and eleven (11) inches long, and must include the following: (1) A title page with the following: (A) The project title. (B) The project sponsor. (C) The project number. (D) The principal investigator. (E) The agency or institutional affiliation. (F) Any coauthors. (G) The date of issuance. (2) Tables that include the following: (A) Contents. (B) Figures. (C) Maps. (D) Any appendices. (3) A management summary that provides a project report abstract summarizing who, what, how, when, and where. (4) Any acknowledgments. (5) Introduction. (6) Archaeological and historical background of the project area. (7) Natural physical description of the project area. (8) Project plan. (9) Methods. (10) Data analyses. (11) Results of the investigations. (12) Conclusions and recommendations. (13) Bibliographic references. (14) Appendices as needed to account for the proper definition or justification of the report findings. Included shall be any seven and five-tenths (7.5) minute United States Geological Survey quadrangle maps for the project area, with identified and updated sites clearly marked in permanent black ink. A site record report must accompany the project completion report for any site located or investigated. (d) An abbreviated project completion report may be prepared where the archaeological investigation does not produce evidence for archaeological resources or where alteration or disturbance precludes the survival of any archaeological sites. A report prepared under this subsection must satisfy subsection (c)(1) and must provide adequate additional documentation under subsection (c) to inform the division of any potential project effect on archaeological sites. (e) A project that consists of a records check or literature search shall minimally address subsection (c)(1), (c)(3), and (c)(5) through (c)(14). The focus of a project under this subsection is normally on the range of site forms and historical and archaeological documentation addressed by the investigation, where the information is housed or curated, the author's conclusion as to whether potentially important archaeological sites are affected, and recommendations to the applicant for additional investigations. The project shall also contain bibliographic references, maps that adequately portray the location of archaeological sites discovered by the investigation, and copies of completed site forms under subsection (c)(14).