Program for Avocational Archaeological Certification
Commonly Asked Questions
  Program Information
Class Schedule
Local PAAC Coordinators

Summer Training Survey

  Code of Ethics
  Candidate Application (PDF)
  Local PAAC Seminar Program
  Class Descriptions with Course Outline, Bibliography & Glossary

PAAC Summer Training Survey

Many prehistoric sites at Antelope Gulch
			are found on ridges

Each year the Office of the State Archaeologist of Colorado (OSAC) sponsors an archaeological inventory ("survey") on a parcel of state property, typically during the June-August period when few classes are scheduled.  The purposes of the survey are to provide field training in surveying techniques for PAAC volunteers, applicable toward certification requirements, and to help OSAC meet its statutory obligations to inventory land within Colorado.  Previously undocumented archaeological and historical sites are discovered during the inventory, and added to OSAC’s data base for use in future research.

Projectile points collected
			  in July 2008

Field training involves hiking across undeveloped lands in search of artifacts and features more than fifty years old.  When such sites are discovered, volunteers are instructed in the production of sketch maps, filling out standard recording forms, plotting site locations on topographic maps, artifact illustration, etc.  Credit toward certification is earned for the days spent under professional supervision (Certified Surveyor I), and for each site form which volunteers complete following the inventory (Provisional Surveyor). Final technical reports on the summer surveys held at Pike’s Stockade in Conejos County and Hermit Park in Larimer County describe the training survey program in greater detail as well as providing interpretations of the results of the inventories.
Download Hermit Park Report (5.6MB, PDF)
Download Pike's Stockade Report (12MB, PDF)

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