Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

Pioneer Basin. An area in southeast Idaho that includes the Big Lost River and its small tributaries as
they flow across the northeastern Snake River Plain.
Plano. Several lanceolate-type projectile points representative of a variety of cultures dating from around
12,000 to 8,000 B.P. These cultures were known for big-game hunting, and most known sites are
associated with extinct bison kills. A variety of Plano-age projectile points have been defined and include
Plainview, Scottsbluff, Agate Basin, Hell Gap, Alberta, Eden, and Angostura.
Pleistocene. A geologic epoch, usually thought of as the Ice Age, which began about 1.6 million years
ago and ended with the melting of the large continental glaciers, creating the modern climatic pattern
about 12,000 years ago.
pluvial. Of or pertaining to rain. Also refers to the wetter periods during a major, extended dry period.
Prehistoric period. The period prior to the historic, before any written languages were present (in Idaho,
before 150 B.P.).
preservation. Cultural resource identification, evaluation, recordation, documentation, curation,
acquisition, protection, management, rehabilitation, restoration, stabilization, maintenance, research,
interpretation, conservation, and education and training. Any combination of the aforementioned
activities. [NHPA, Section 301 (8)]
programmatic agreement. A document that records the terms and conditions agreed upon to resolve the
potential adverse effects of a federal agency program, complex undertaking, or other situations in
accordance with 36 CFR § 800.14(b). [36 CFR § 800.16(t)] Within the context of this document, a
programmatic agreement is a document executed between an agency or facility and advisory groups that
may take the place of multiple memoranda of agreement when actions are programmed, repetitive, or
perceived to have similar impacts on cultural resources.
projectile point. Any stone, bone, metal, or wood spear point, dart point, or arrow point.
protection (legal definition). The review process of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
regarding federal undertakings as codified in 36 CFR 800, “Procedures for the Protection of Historic and
Cultural Properties.” [Wendorf 1978]
protohistoric period. A period represented in the archaeological record that occurs between prehistory
and history, during which a culture has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have noted its
existence in their own writings. At INL, indigenous cultures adopted European trade items and influence
before the actual arrival of Euro-American settlers.
provenience. The location of an artifact or object described in terms of map grids, stratified levels, and/or
depth from ground surface. It provides for scientific control of artifacts and associations once the items
have been removed from the context of the site. The three-dimensional location of an artifact or feature
within an archaeological site, measured by two horizontal dimensions and a vertical elevation.
Quaternary period. The most recent geologic period, dating from approximately two million years ago
to the present. The Quaternary subsumes the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs.
radiocarbon analysis (dates, dating). A physiochemical method of estimating the length of time since
the death of an organism. A process that provides dates by counting the radioactive decay of carbon in the
remains of once-living plants and animals (e.g., charcoal, wood, bone, shell). Originally it was believed
that the decay rates were constant through time, but recent comparative work has shown this is not the
case. Therefore, carbon decay rates must be calibrated, leading to significant differences in radiocarbon
years and calibrated, or calendar, years; the older the material, the greater the difference. Unless otherwise
specified, dates in this document reflect actual calibrated calendar years before present.
xxx