| (a) Justification for investigation. Investigations
undertaken on publicly owned cultural resources or to locate or discover
such resources must be oriented toward solving a particular research
problem, preparation of a site for public interpretation, or for the
purpose of salvaging information and specimens from a site threatened
with immediate destruction.
(b) Eligibility for application. Permits to conduct
investigations of any nature on landmarks or for the discovery of
potential landmarks, or on lands owned or controlled by agencies or
political subdivisions of the state will be issued exclusively by
the Commission under the conditions provided in the Antiquities Code
of Texas and in this chapter.
(1) Permits may be issued by the Commission to scientific
and educational institutions, nonprofit corporations and organizations,
investigative firms, and governmental agencies which have demonstrated
their ability to carry out proper archeological investigations through
their own staffs, including one or more professional archeologists
who can serve as principal investigators, and who will supervise the
project, or through a contract with a professional archeologist who
can serve as a principal investigator. Permits may also be issued
to individuals and private corporations who:
(A) retain a professional archeologist who can serve
as a principal investigator for the investigations, and can be in
direct charge of the project from field investigation through preservation
of collections and analysis of data to reporting of results; and
(B) if required by the Commission or the terms or conditions
of a Memorandum of Understanding, provide proof that adequate funds,
equipment, facilities, and personnel are available to properly conduct
the investigation as proposed to the Commission, and to report the
results. The Commission may require a performance bond to be posted
as part of the application process.
(2) State or local archeological societies and archeological
stewards wishing to conduct investigations on landmarks must have
a principal investigator and be limited to non-compliance, investigation
activities.
(3) Principal investigators holding one or more defaulted
permits are not eligible to be issued additional permits until all
terms and conditions of defaulted permits are met.
(4) Principal investigators and investigative firms
that are currently censured due to permit application offenses are
not eligible to be issued a permit. Once the censure period has lapsed
the censured principal investigator or investigative firm will be
eligible to be issued a permit.
(5) No permits will be issued if the principal investigator
and/or investigative firm cannot commit to direction of the permitted
investigations by the principal investigator.
(c) Application for permit. Permit application forms
may be obtained from the Commission. Any institution, corporation,
organization, museum, investigative firm, or individual desiring a
permit for investigations must file a completed application with the
Commission prior to the proposed beginning date of the project. Special
circumstances may require that a permit be issued on short notice
when a site is threatened with immediate destruction. When a permit
is issued for emergency salvage of a site threatened with destruction,
the same rules apply as with all permits. The permit application must
include:
(1) a statement of the purpose of the investigation;
(2) an outline of the proposed work and research design;
(3) the proposed beginning date for the fieldwork and
the length of time that will be devoted to the entire project;
(4) name, address, and telephone number of the principal
investigator, sponsor, and landowning or controlling agency;
(5) an accurate plotting of the particular site or
area to be investigated on a 7.5' USGS quadrangle map and locational
data indicating the universal transverse mercator (UTM) coordinates;
(6) the name of the facility where the specimens, material,
and data will be kept during analysis of results of the investigation;
and
(7) evidence of adequate funds, personnel, equipment,
and facilities to properly complete the proposed investigation.
(d) Research design. Research designs prepared prior
to implementation of a field study and submitted with an Archeological
Permit Application Form are essential to the success of scientific
objectives, resource management decision-making, and project management.
The following points should be considered during formulation of a
research design.
(1) Research designs present the essential objectives
of a project or study and the means by which those objectives will
be attained. As such, the research design is an efficient means of
communicating with resource managers and the professional community
at large.
(2) The research design provides a logical basis for
detailed project planning and assessment of resource significance.
(3) Research designs may contain a wide range of theoretical
and methodological approaches. Similarly, research designs may address
general research objectives, as well as more focused types of problem
orientation. The following criteria shall be met.
(A) Care should be taken to link the research design
to existing topical and geographical bodies of data.
(B) The nature of the resources under investigation
should be considered.
(C) The need to address a wide range of cultural and
scientific resources should be considered.
(D) Applied research that addresses cultural resource
management and impact-related issues should be recognized as necessary
and incorporated into research designs whenever possible.
(E) The skills of the investigative personnel must
be appropriate to the project goals and specifications in the research
design. In many cases it may be desirable to include provisions for
consultants with special expertise.
(4) Research designs should not be conceived as rigid,
unchanging plans. Although research designs may place relatively greater
emphasis on certain kinds of scientific questions and certain kinds
of data collection, as circumstances warrant, the investigator is
not relieved of responsibility to recognize other research. Whether
such alternative questions and data warrant changes in the ongoing
investigation is a question that should be explicitly addressed and
answered in the context of pertinent resource management objectives
and research goals. It is expected that research designs will be modified
as projects develop. A conscious effort should be made to modify research
designs to exploit new information efficiently. It is to be expected
that some research objectives will, for many reasons, prove less productive
than anticipated, while other objectives will become more important
than anticipated or perhaps materialize for the first time. The crucial
objectives in the modification process are:
(A) demonstrated progress in solving stated problems;
and
(B) subsequent modification of a research design on
the basis of explicit, rational decisions intended to attain stated
goals.
(5) Research designs that anticipate encountering human
remains must contain a detailed treatment and preservation plan developed
in consultation with the Commission. Any analytical methodologies
resulting in the destruction of human remains to obtain the maximum
amount of scientific knowledge must be explicitly addressed in the
research design for the Antiquities Permit or must be approved by
the Commission with a permit amendment prior to initiation.
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