THE
VOLPENTEST HAMMER
TRAINING AND EDUCATION CENTER
The Volpentest
HAMMER Training and Education Center is a facility
managed by Fluor Hanford for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
www.hammertraining.com
The HAMMER Cultural Resources Test Bed dates
to 1994 when the Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response
Training Facility (HAMMER) www.hammertraining.com
responded to a request from Hanford Area Tribes to help develop
non-destructive tools to assist in the location of human burials
and other important resources. A 7-acre parcel was set aside for
cultural resources research and training. Planning for a geophysical
test bed commenced. Through consultation with the tribes, the idea
for a surface component also emerged to assist in educating people,
for example, law enforcement officers, in the identification of
archaeological sites artifacts, and looted sites.
The Cultural Resource
Test Bed today consists of two major components.
1. The “surface”
component consists of approximately 15 sites constructed by the
CRPP, including housepits, burials, lithic scatters, and historic
dumps. The surface component is used primarily for trainings where
it provides opportunities for people to see artifacts (reproductions)
in context.
2. The “subsurface” component, named
the Remote Target Test Bed, consists of a trench 30m x 10m in size
where approximately 30 archaeological features have been constructed;
examples include burials, pre-historic trash dumps, lithic caches,
brick wells, and earth ovens. The subsurface component is used for
geophysical experimentation such as ground penetrating radar (Woody
and Stapp).
(click
here to download PDF of Test Bed info)
(click here to download PDF of Test Bed pictures)
Examples of trainings
conducted at HAMMER include the following:
- For 6 years the CRPP have sponsored the Archaeological
Resource Protection Act (ARPA) Training for Law Enforcement at HAMMER
(see attached articles by Longenecker and Van Pelt).
- The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)
has requested CRPP to conduct sensitivity trainings for many of
its staff, from high-level managers to field personnel.
- The CRPP have used the test bed to train their
cultural resource technicians in archaeological field methods.
- The International Association of Illustrators
held a one-day training facilitated by CRPP that focused on stone
tool artifact illustration.
- The Girl Scouts help a one-day cultural awareness
training as part of Archaeology Month in 2003 facilitated by CRPP
and the Hanford Cultural Resources Laboratory.
- Larry Conyers of the University of Denver,
a renowned ground penetrating radar expert, came to use the subsurface
facility to enhance his techniques.
TOP
|