CAREER BENCHMARKS:
Directed over 30 major archaeological expeditions and emergency rescue field operations and mitigation planning solutions for national and international agencies throughout the US and Latin America.
Developed multi-agency (NJ Meadowlands Commission, the USEPA, US Army Corps, New Jersey DEP, and NOAA) environmental management plan (the SAMP -Special Area Management Plan) based on the innovative use of historic GIS and 3D terrain modeling to project archaeological sensitivity within the now submerged New Jersey Hackensack Meadowlands. The “Grossman Model” was reconfirmed as the primary analytical framework for federal and state agencies in a major USACE reassessment study by Hunter Research (with contributing recommendations by Dr. Grossman and Dr. Peteet of Lamont Doherty) in 2006.
Planned and directed the first major archaeological all weather terrestrial and marine archaeological HAZMAT investigations and excavations of chemically and radioactively contaminated “Superfund” sites in North America.
Directed and Developed major federal and state basin-wide geospatial and archaeological sensitivity models for Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island, the Hudson River drainage, the Delaware, Hackensack, Passaic, Raritan, Monmouth, Manasquan, Musconetcong, and Tom’s Rivers of New Jersey.
Directed critical large-scale archaeological mitigation projects in New York City: including the discovery of the original 17th Century Dutch West India Company settlement in Lower Manhattan, New York’s first municipal Almshouse under City Hall Park and the GIS-based reconstruction of potentially surviving Colonial Period remains in the original shoreline blocks of the Battery Park/South Ferry Terminal area of Lower Manhattan.
Developed GIS-based historic preservation and cultural resource sensitivity models for major urban parklands of New York City, including: Union Square Park, Washington Square Park, Rufus King Park, Battery Park-South Ferry, City Hall Park and Inwood Hill Park.
Expert in integration of advanced geospatial (3D GIS) and geophysical remote sensing strategies for non-random, target-specific site testing & definition.
Introduced high-precision concurrent computerized data control, computer transits, single-camera photogrammetry and the first successful application of true-color 3D LIDAR (laser-radar) in North American archaeology.
Invited to train international teams in Applied Technology in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Hungary and Russia.
Negotiated and Implemented new policies and protocols for the respectful, non-intrusive, in-situ documentation and ceremonial reburial between the tribal leadership of the Iroquois Six Nations, other Native American groups, and federal, state and municipal agencies.
Authored the annual review of New World Archaeology for Encyclopedia Britannica (1977 – 1994).
NARRATIVE HISTORY:
Background & Focus: The history of my archaeological research and project management can be grouped into three major phases between 1969 and the present: First, my initial work in Pre-Inca Andean research, second, beginning in 1975, with my establishment of the Rutgers Archaeological Survey Office - a laboratory facility that would become noted for its applied technology innovations in data capture and control -, the direction of large scale regional planning studies and rescue excavation programs throughout the Northeast and Caribbean, and three, over the last two decades, the direction and development of new strategies and applied technology solutions to demonstrate the feasability of the archaeological investigation of important archaeological sites impacted by natural disasters, or contaminated from chemicals, unexploded ordnance or radiation.
Many of these large scale documentation and mitigation programs represented environmental test cases over the feasibility of archaeological and environmental compliance in dangerous and/or contaminated contexts – often beyond the capabilities of traditional archaeological method and theory. Since, 1997, these capabilities have ben focused on the deployment of advanced technology systems to facilitate the documentation of important archaeological sites impacted by natural disasters.
I have spent more than twenty-five years directing large-scale emergency rescue excavations of unexpected discoveries in the path of major federal infrastructure and development projects. Beginning in the late 1980’s, I was selected by the USEPA to plan and direct the first large-scale, federally mandated, archaeological investigations of chemically and radioactively contaminated Superfund sites in North America. The majority of these projects involved my direction of large multi-disciplinary teams with U.S. government contract awards $250,000 to $400,000 range.
My work is internationally recognized for pioneering innovations in advanced applied technology solutions (geophysics, GIS, 3D terrain modeling, concurrent, on-site, data control, remote, high-speed, Single-camera Photogrammetry, and most recently, the first generation of high precision terrestrial color Laser-Radar) to resolve and expedite planning emergencies from unexpected or logistically difficult discoveries in hazardous or time-critical contexts.
Andean Archaeology & Economic History: Between 1970 and 1983, and following Doctoral training as a Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Andean Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, I planned and directed a series of Ford Foundation, N.S.F. and UNESCO sponsored, joint Peruvian-U.S. field explorations in the southern Andean highlands of Peru. Using air photos to pinpoint unmapped pre-Inca urban centers, and llama teams to reach remote valley settlements, this research led to the discovery of a large number of previously unknown prehistoric sites and the earliest evidence of ceramic and gold working technology in the Andes.
This series of high altitude field expeditions resulted in the discovery and excavation of a 3000 year sequence of ceramic occupations at the high altitude pre-Inca site of Waywaka, in the province of Andahuaylas, north of Cuzco. The deepest occupation levels revealed the earliest evidence of metal technology in the New World with the discovery of a gold workers tomb, associated tool kit and gold foil dating to ca. 1,500 B.C. (Grossman 1972, 1974,1983). The investigation also revealed a series of significant changes in the size and subsistence patterns of the subsequent inhabitants which, when evaluated against 16th century ethno-historical and ecological evidence, provided a chronological framework for arguing the origins and antiquity of Pre-Inca Andean non-market “vertical” economic systems(Grossman1983). As the first scientist to work in this area of the southern Andes since WWII, my research continued into the mid-1980’s until ongoing combat and insurgent activity precluded, until recently, continued investigation in this highland region.
Regional Survey and Planning: Between 1976 and 1981, I established and directed the Rutgers Archaeological Survey Office (RASO), trained scores of New Jersey archaeologists, and directed many of the major Federal and State cultural resource survey and planning studies in the state. These strategies used GIS comparisons and georeferenced re-projections of historic maps to reconstruct ancient landscape, drainage and settlement patterns throughout New York and New Jersey, including the Hudson, Raritan, Hackensack, Passaic, Monmouth, Manasquan, Tom’s River and Delaware drainages. These regional survey and planning efforts resulted in the discovery and mapping with ground penetrating radar of the buried colonial port of Raritan Landing, opposite New Brunswick, N (Grossman 1981, 82, 2003, 2007b). These surveys also resulted in the discovery of an ca. 8,000 year old Early Man “Folsom” spear point and site in Monmouth County, NJ that remains protected and unpublished as critical cultural resource of state and national importance.
New York Discoveries included the discovery and excavation of the deeply buried remains of the 17th Century Dutch West India Company block in Lower Manhattan, the discovery of New York’s original Colonial Almshouse in City Hall Park, and the unlikely, or better unexpected, definition of a well -preserved stone line “bath”, very possible a religious Jewish path for ritual cleansing, found preserved with thousands of museum-quality civil War-era artifacts under an abandoned lot in the Lower East side and in the path of a Transit-police housing project.
Throughout the winter of 1984, excavations, under my direction as Principal Investigator for the private archaeological firm Greenhouse Consultants, along the original colonial shoreline at Pearl Street and Broadway in lower Manhattan led to the discovery of the well-preserved 17th century remains of the Dutch West India Company as well as the house foundations, first warehouse and artifacts of some of its principal residents and officials from the 1650's and the1680's.
Sealed below the 19th row-house basement floors, the original archaeological excavation recorded the exposed original 17th century fast-land surface. These included the pre-1651 warehouse of Augustine Heerman’s, a principle trader of the West India Company, and the house of Cornelius van Tienhoven, the Secretary of the Province under Peter Stuyvesant after 1652. The surfaces outside the buildings - identified by the exposure of the “green clays of Manhatta” described by early visitors - contained mid-17th century double-barrel “Dutch” style cisterns, all found to contain beautifully preserved imported and domestic colonial ceramic, glass and metal artifacts. Of the 43,318 excavated artifacts, more than half dated to the mid-17th and early18th century, the period of New Amsterdam’s social and economic transition from a Dutch to a British-dominated society. The museum-quality finds included a well preserved pewter goblet with a bullet hole, as well as tiles depicting mounted Dutch men shooting blunderbusses. Among the early coins recovered, one - with the seal of Holland and a date of 1590 was found wedged in the cobble floor of Heerman's warehouse.
The 1983-84 winter excavation used near-laser, EDM’s (Electronic Distance Meter) survey and mapping instruments, early computer data collectors, and custom-built, overhead stereo camera systems to quickly capture undistorted photo mosaic records of the excavated colonial surfaces. All excavated materials were concurrently tabulated, stabilized, computer inventoried into a quantified computer data base and tied into a high resolution electronic transit-derived 3D provenience records of all excavated materials. This concurrent data control in turn permitted the avoidance of disturbed deposits and resulted in the recovery of almost exclusively high integrity archaeological evidence.
Emergency Rescue Archaeology (1979 – 1997): Almost immediately following the discovery of the Dutch West India Company in Lower Manhattan, in 1986, I was mobilized to direct large-scale excavations to address the unexpected presence of major archaeological remains under the Federal government’s last water-treatment complex on the upper Hudson -, “stumbled” upon by the construction crews afer inadequate archaeological testing by others in the planning phase - at the multi-million dollar construction was beginning. Fist I discovered, defined and documented the Revolutionary War-era bastions of historic Fort Edward. This find was found over what emerged as a 400,000 square foot pre-Iroquois village and burial site on the banks of the Hudson river. Below it, geotechnical probes revealed a 3500 year old “Broad Spear “ village with 80,000 undisturbed artifacts, cooking hearths, food and processing areas, all found “in-situ” on a buried shoreline island buried at five to eight feet below the modern flood plain(Grossman, 1987).
This politically charged “discovery under construction” set the stage for the development new interagency compliance procedures and policies to address Native American religious and cultural issues. I both directed all aspects of the multi-faceted site evaluation and excavation program, and served as the cross-cultural interface and coordinator (facilitator) of formal negotiations between the Native American Iroquois leadership and representatives of the involved Federal and State Agencies.
Immediately following the peaceful resolution of this upstate New York emergency, between 1986 and 1990, I was selected by the USEPA and the Puerto Rican Aqueduct Authority to direct the rescue excavation of two large pre-contact sites in coastal Puerto Rico. These fast-track emergency site definition and data recovery operation was initiated on a “fast-track” basis to re-start federal court-imposed work stoppages over a failure to implement US government-mandated historic reservation requirements to protect or document important archaeological remains in the path of critical island-wide federally funded water supply and treatment programs.
“Superfund” Archaeology (1987-1997): The initiation of major Superfund cleanup and reclamation programs to clean up heavily contaminated “dumps” and abandoned facilities, some over important archaeological sites, raised the need for federal agencies to develop new capabilities for the identification, evaluation, and if required, excavation of contaminated archaeological remains of national significance, many permeated with PCB’s, organic fumes, Arsenic, Cadmium, radioactivity and ordnance. These hazards posed required me to introduce innovative new strategies and techniques to address the dictates of the National Historic Preservation Act in dangerous contexts, to expedite the traditional time frames of archaeological fieldwork, and to reduce exposure levels to the HAZMAT trained and medically monitored archaeological field teams (Grossman 2003, 2007b).
One of the most significant and challenging cases of “Superfund” archaeology involved the discovery and excavation of a secret Civil War era military “Super Gun” testing facility under a cadmium-laced Federal Superfund site across the Hudson River from West Point(Grossman 1994). This discovery, conducted under adverse deep-winter conditions under custom-built, all weather heated shelters and 24 hour de-watering to enable excavation below the water table, all conducted in HAZMAT protective suits with medical monitoring and daily decontamination, also revealed archaeological and archival clues that led me to reconstruct the existence of a previously unknown military intelligence capability within the Executive Branch and military high command of President Lincoln’s Civil War administration (Grossman 1994).
Paleo-environmental Modeling: After establishing my own archaeological firm in 1986, I was developed the multi-agency Federal and State (USEPA, USACE, NJCZM, NOAA, NJDEP) long-term cultural resource compliance strategies for the investigation of the submerged landscapes within the New Jersey Hackensack Meadowlands. This model and research strategy implemented the innovative early (1992 -1995) use of Historic GIS and 3D paleo-environmental reconstruction to target prehistoric archaeological resources within the now submerged Meadowlands - an environmental review framework that continues to be used in hundreds of US Army Corps and NJDEP permitting evaluations. Finally, beginning with my research in Andean where the data permitted, all of my projects were distinguished by the integration of ethno-history, ethno-botany and ecological/geospatial analysis to define the economic and environmental history of each study area (see www.GeospatialArchaeology.com for case histories).
Archaeology of Natural Disasters (1992 - 2008): In 1999, I was called upon by Hartgen Asociates of albany -with input from the State Historic Preservation Office and members of the Governor’s staff - to resolve the belated discovery of significant colonial remains through the first US archaeological use of new 3D laser-radar (LIDAR) scanner technology and NATO-derived single-camera photogrammetry to rapidly record two blocks of intricately constructed colonial dock structures - discovered along the banks of the Hudson River beneath modern Albany, New York (Grossman 2003). Between 2002 and 2004, the New Jersey DEP and Compac Corporation selected me to direct the joint engineering redesign and deep winter archaeological mitigation of flood damaged and submerged historic dam components of the Morris Canal Historic District and associated Civil War-era foundry remains in the highlands of New Jersey. A preliminary sensitivity evaluation and mitigation plan used Historic GIS and air-photo analysis to define and then avoid through redesign potential impacts to the site. As part of a broad range of applied technology solutions for the high speed emergency site excavation of unavoidable impacts, I deployed 3D laser-radar, air photo and map re-projection technology, high resolution GPS and digital photogrammetry. Carried out in sub-freezing conditions concurrent with ongoing construction and the overland diversion of the Musconetcong River, these technologies enabled the capture in six hours of the first high precision true-color 3D terrestrial LIDAR (laser-radar) record of an archaeological site (Grossman 2007b).
National & International Advisor: I have served as a scientific advisor to U.S. and international agencies on the implementation of innovative technology-based planning strategies in North America, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Hungary, and the Chernobyl impact area of Russia. In 1983 I was invited by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture and UNESCO to conduct a series of field demonstrations and seminars for senior Peruvian academic and government scientists on the use of applied technology systems (ground penetrating radar, laser mapping, photogrammetry, and computerized conservation procedures) to augment the national capacity to identify, define and document important Andean archaeological sites (Grossman 1983). In 1995 I ws invited, at the suggestion of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (an Executive Branch unit that monitors Federal and state agency compliance with US preservation laws) and by the Washington, D.C.-based National Preservation Institute to present a series of seminars illustrating my methodology and strategies in archaeological discovery for federal compliance officers and planners. In 1996 I was invited by Environmental Planning Center of the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to draw. on these case studies to develop a series of recommendations and protocols implementing applied technology strategies and guidelines to facilitate efficient environmental compliance at “mission-critical” Department of the Army facilities throughout the U.S.(Grossman 1997).
Recent Invited Publications: In 2006, I was invited by an international panel to join a select group of body of international scholars to write two invited policy-level chapters on the “state of the discipline” and future research priorities for archaeological investigation over the next decade. One invited chapter, entitled Archaeology of Toxic and Hazardous Environments draws on two emergency rescue projects directed by the author, one a natural disaster of breached dams, and the other, a man-made “Superfund” site over a buried National Register eligible Civil War foundry, to demonstrate how modern applied technologies of non-random testing and evaluation strategies, in tandem with remote, high-speed, non-contact, recording strategies have demonstrated the feasibility of high level archaeological documentation even in contaminated, ordnance-laced, and dangerous contexts. The second invited chapter, entitled Future of Archaeology: in the 21st Century: Human Landscape Interactions, addresses the role of archaeology in providing otherwise unavailable lines of evidence for the understanding of current issues of climate change, sea level rise and environmental trauma. This overview also highlights the significance of emerging geospatial technologies in providing new insights into the history human adaptations to changing environments, as well as past human impacts to the environment from prehistoric and historic archaeological evidence(available in digital format upon request).
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 1967-1972
B.A. University of California, Berkeley - 1967
AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS:
FulbrighT-special Career Fellow (1969-72), Ford &NSF Travel Grants (1970’s- 80’s); Peruvian Government-OAS-UNESCO-Andres Bello Fund Fellow (1981-82); Explorers Club Fellow (1999-, Institute of Andean Studies (1970 - Present), Society for Historical Archaeology (1980’s – Present).
LANGUAGES: English, Fluent in Spanish
Directed over 30 major archaeological expeditions and emergency rescue field operations and mitigation planning solutions for national and international agencies throughout the US and Latin America.
Developed multi-agency (NJ Meadowlands Commission, the USEPA, US Army Corps, New Jersey DEP, and NOAA) environmental management plan (the SAMP -Special Area Management Plan) based on the innovative use of historic GIS and 3D terrain modeling to project archaeological sensitivity within the now submerged New Jersey Hackensack Meadowlands. The “Grossman Model” was reconfirmed as the primary analytical framework for federal and state agencies in a major USACE reassessment study by Hunter Research (with contributing recommendations by Dr. Grossman and Dr. Peteet of Lamont Doherty) in 2006.
Planned and directed the first major archaeological all weather terrestrial and marine archaeological HAZMAT investigations and excavations of chemically and radioactively contaminated “Superfund” sites in North America.
Directed and Developed major federal and state basin-wide geospatial and archaeological sensitivity models for Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island, the Hudson River drainage, the Delaware, Hackensack, Passaic, Raritan, Monmouth, Manasquan, Musconetcong, and Tom’s Rivers of New Jersey.
Directed critical large-scale archaeological mitigation projects in New York City: including the discovery of the original 17th Century Dutch West India Company settlement in Lower Manhattan, New York’s first municipal Almshouse under City Hall Park and the GIS-based reconstruction of potentially surviving Colonial Period remains in the original shoreline blocks of the Battery Park/South Ferry Terminal area of Lower Manhattan.
Developed GIS-based historic preservation and cultural resource sensitivity models for major urban parklands of New York City, including: Union Square Park, Washington Square Park, Rufus King Park, Battery Park-South Ferry, City Hall Park and Inwood Hill Park.
Expert in integration of advanced geospatial (3D GIS) and geophysical remote sensing strategies for non-random, target-specific site testing & definition.
Introduced high-precision concurrent computerized data control, computer transits, single-camera photogrammetry and the first successful application of true-color 3D LIDAR (laser-radar) in North American archaeology.
Invited to train international teams in Applied Technology in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Hungary and Russia.
Negotiated and Implemented new policies and protocols for the respectful, non-intrusive, in-situ documentation and ceremonial reburial between the tribal leadership of the Iroquois Six Nations, other Native American groups, and federal, state and municipal agencies.
Authored the annual review of New World Archaeology for Encyclopedia Britannica (1977 – 1994).
NARRATIVE HISTORY:
Background & Focus: The history of my archaeological research and project management can be grouped into three major phases between 1969 and the present: First, my initial work in Pre-Inca Andean research, second, beginning in 1975, with my establishment of the Rutgers Archaeological Survey Office - a laboratory facility that would become noted for its applied technology innovations in data capture and control -, the direction of large scale regional planning studies and rescue excavation programs throughout the Northeast and Caribbean, and three, over the last two decades, the direction and development of new strategies and applied technology solutions to demonstrate the feasability of the archaeological investigation of important archaeological sites impacted by natural disasters, or contaminated from chemicals, unexploded ordnance or radiation.
Many of these large scale documentation and mitigation programs represented environmental test cases over the feasibility of archaeological and environmental compliance in dangerous and/or contaminated contexts – often beyond the capabilities of traditional archaeological method and theory. Since, 1997, these capabilities have ben focused on the deployment of advanced technology systems to facilitate the documentation of important archaeological sites impacted by natural disasters.
I have spent more than twenty-five years directing large-scale emergency rescue excavations of unexpected discoveries in the path of major federal infrastructure and development projects. Beginning in the late 1980’s, I was selected by the USEPA to plan and direct the first large-scale, federally mandated, archaeological investigations of chemically and radioactively contaminated Superfund sites in North America. The majority of these projects involved my direction of large multi-disciplinary teams with U.S. government contract awards $250,000 to $400,000 range.
My work is internationally recognized for pioneering innovations in advanced applied technology solutions (geophysics, GIS, 3D terrain modeling, concurrent, on-site, data control, remote, high-speed, Single-camera Photogrammetry, and most recently, the first generation of high precision terrestrial color Laser-Radar) to resolve and expedite planning emergencies from unexpected or logistically difficult discoveries in hazardous or time-critical contexts.
Andean Archaeology & Economic History: Between 1970 and 1983, and following Doctoral training as a Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Andean Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, I planned and directed a series of Ford Foundation, N.S.F. and UNESCO sponsored, joint Peruvian-U.S. field explorations in the southern Andean highlands of Peru. Using air photos to pinpoint unmapped pre-Inca urban centers, and llama teams to reach remote valley settlements, this research led to the discovery of a large number of previously unknown prehistoric sites and the earliest evidence of ceramic and gold working technology in the Andes.
This series of high altitude field expeditions resulted in the discovery and excavation of a 3000 year sequence of ceramic occupations at the high altitude pre-Inca site of Waywaka, in the province of Andahuaylas, north of Cuzco. The deepest occupation levels revealed the earliest evidence of metal technology in the New World with the discovery of a gold workers tomb, associated tool kit and gold foil dating to ca. 1,500 B.C. (Grossman 1972, 1974,1983). The investigation also revealed a series of significant changes in the size and subsistence patterns of the subsequent inhabitants which, when evaluated against 16th century ethno-historical and ecological evidence, provided a chronological framework for arguing the origins and antiquity of Pre-Inca Andean non-market “vertical” economic systems(Grossman1983). As the first scientist to work in this area of the southern Andes since WWII, my research continued into the mid-1980’s until ongoing combat and insurgent activity precluded, until recently, continued investigation in this highland region.
Regional Survey and Planning: Between 1976 and 1981, I established and directed the Rutgers Archaeological Survey Office (RASO), trained scores of New Jersey archaeologists, and directed many of the major Federal and State cultural resource survey and planning studies in the state. These strategies used GIS comparisons and georeferenced re-projections of historic maps to reconstruct ancient landscape, drainage and settlement patterns throughout New York and New Jersey, including the Hudson, Raritan, Hackensack, Passaic, Monmouth, Manasquan, Tom’s River and Delaware drainages. These regional survey and planning efforts resulted in the discovery and mapping with ground penetrating radar of the buried colonial port of Raritan Landing, opposite New Brunswick, N (Grossman 1981, 82, 2003, 2007b). These surveys also resulted in the discovery of an ca. 8,000 year old Early Man “Folsom” spear point and site in Monmouth County, NJ that remains protected and unpublished as critical cultural resource of state and national importance.
New York Discoveries included the discovery and excavation of the deeply buried remains of the 17th Century Dutch West India Company block in Lower Manhattan, the discovery of New York’s original Colonial Almshouse in City Hall Park, and the unlikely, or better unexpected, definition of a well -preserved stone line “bath”, very possible a religious Jewish path for ritual cleansing, found preserved with thousands of museum-quality civil War-era artifacts under an abandoned lot in the Lower East side and in the path of a Transit-police housing project.
Throughout the winter of 1984, excavations, under my direction as Principal Investigator for the private archaeological firm Greenhouse Consultants, along the original colonial shoreline at Pearl Street and Broadway in lower Manhattan led to the discovery of the well-preserved 17th century remains of the Dutch West India Company as well as the house foundations, first warehouse and artifacts of some of its principal residents and officials from the 1650's and the1680's.
Sealed below the 19th row-house basement floors, the original archaeological excavation recorded the exposed original 17th century fast-land surface. These included the pre-1651 warehouse of Augustine Heerman’s, a principle trader of the West India Company, and the house of Cornelius van Tienhoven, the Secretary of the Province under Peter Stuyvesant after 1652. The surfaces outside the buildings - identified by the exposure of the “green clays of Manhatta” described by early visitors - contained mid-17th century double-barrel “Dutch” style cisterns, all found to contain beautifully preserved imported and domestic colonial ceramic, glass and metal artifacts. Of the 43,318 excavated artifacts, more than half dated to the mid-17th and early18th century, the period of New Amsterdam’s social and economic transition from a Dutch to a British-dominated society. The museum-quality finds included a well preserved pewter goblet with a bullet hole, as well as tiles depicting mounted Dutch men shooting blunderbusses. Among the early coins recovered, one - with the seal of Holland and a date of 1590 was found wedged in the cobble floor of Heerman's warehouse.
The 1983-84 winter excavation used near-laser, EDM’s (Electronic Distance Meter) survey and mapping instruments, early computer data collectors, and custom-built, overhead stereo camera systems to quickly capture undistorted photo mosaic records of the excavated colonial surfaces. All excavated materials were concurrently tabulated, stabilized, computer inventoried into a quantified computer data base and tied into a high resolution electronic transit-derived 3D provenience records of all excavated materials. This concurrent data control in turn permitted the avoidance of disturbed deposits and resulted in the recovery of almost exclusively high integrity archaeological evidence.
Emergency Rescue Archaeology (1979 – 1997): Almost immediately following the discovery of the Dutch West India Company in Lower Manhattan, in 1986, I was mobilized to direct large-scale excavations to address the unexpected presence of major archaeological remains under the Federal government’s last water-treatment complex on the upper Hudson -, “stumbled” upon by the construction crews afer inadequate archaeological testing by others in the planning phase - at the multi-million dollar construction was beginning. Fist I discovered, defined and documented the Revolutionary War-era bastions of historic Fort Edward. This find was found over what emerged as a 400,000 square foot pre-Iroquois village and burial site on the banks of the Hudson river. Below it, geotechnical probes revealed a 3500 year old “Broad Spear “ village with 80,000 undisturbed artifacts, cooking hearths, food and processing areas, all found “in-situ” on a buried shoreline island buried at five to eight feet below the modern flood plain(Grossman, 1987).
This politically charged “discovery under construction” set the stage for the development new interagency compliance procedures and policies to address Native American religious and cultural issues. I both directed all aspects of the multi-faceted site evaluation and excavation program, and served as the cross-cultural interface and coordinator (facilitator) of formal negotiations between the Native American Iroquois leadership and representatives of the involved Federal and State Agencies.
Immediately following the peaceful resolution of this upstate New York emergency, between 1986 and 1990, I was selected by the USEPA and the Puerto Rican Aqueduct Authority to direct the rescue excavation of two large pre-contact sites in coastal Puerto Rico. These fast-track emergency site definition and data recovery operation was initiated on a “fast-track” basis to re-start federal court-imposed work stoppages over a failure to implement US government-mandated historic reservation requirements to protect or document important archaeological remains in the path of critical island-wide federally funded water supply and treatment programs.
“Superfund” Archaeology (1987-1997): The initiation of major Superfund cleanup and reclamation programs to clean up heavily contaminated “dumps” and abandoned facilities, some over important archaeological sites, raised the need for federal agencies to develop new capabilities for the identification, evaluation, and if required, excavation of contaminated archaeological remains of national significance, many permeated with PCB’s, organic fumes, Arsenic, Cadmium, radioactivity and ordnance. These hazards posed required me to introduce innovative new strategies and techniques to address the dictates of the National Historic Preservation Act in dangerous contexts, to expedite the traditional time frames of archaeological fieldwork, and to reduce exposure levels to the HAZMAT trained and medically monitored archaeological field teams (Grossman 2003, 2007b).
One of the most significant and challenging cases of “Superfund” archaeology involved the discovery and excavation of a secret Civil War era military “Super Gun” testing facility under a cadmium-laced Federal Superfund site across the Hudson River from West Point(Grossman 1994). This discovery, conducted under adverse deep-winter conditions under custom-built, all weather heated shelters and 24 hour de-watering to enable excavation below the water table, all conducted in HAZMAT protective suits with medical monitoring and daily decontamination, also revealed archaeological and archival clues that led me to reconstruct the existence of a previously unknown military intelligence capability within the Executive Branch and military high command of President Lincoln’s Civil War administration (Grossman 1994).
Paleo-environmental Modeling: After establishing my own archaeological firm in 1986, I was developed the multi-agency Federal and State (USEPA, USACE, NJCZM, NOAA, NJDEP) long-term cultural resource compliance strategies for the investigation of the submerged landscapes within the New Jersey Hackensack Meadowlands. This model and research strategy implemented the innovative early (1992 -1995) use of Historic GIS and 3D paleo-environmental reconstruction to target prehistoric archaeological resources within the now submerged Meadowlands - an environmental review framework that continues to be used in hundreds of US Army Corps and NJDEP permitting evaluations. Finally, beginning with my research in Andean where the data permitted, all of my projects were distinguished by the integration of ethno-history, ethno-botany and ecological/geospatial analysis to define the economic and environmental history of each study area (see www.GeospatialArchaeology.com for case histories).
Archaeology of Natural Disasters (1992 - 2008): In 1999, I was called upon by Hartgen Asociates of albany -with input from the State Historic Preservation Office and members of the Governor’s staff - to resolve the belated discovery of significant colonial remains through the first US archaeological use of new 3D laser-radar (LIDAR) scanner technology and NATO-derived single-camera photogrammetry to rapidly record two blocks of intricately constructed colonial dock structures - discovered along the banks of the Hudson River beneath modern Albany, New York (Grossman 2003). Between 2002 and 2004, the New Jersey DEP and Compac Corporation selected me to direct the joint engineering redesign and deep winter archaeological mitigation of flood damaged and submerged historic dam components of the Morris Canal Historic District and associated Civil War-era foundry remains in the highlands of New Jersey. A preliminary sensitivity evaluation and mitigation plan used Historic GIS and air-photo analysis to define and then avoid through redesign potential impacts to the site. As part of a broad range of applied technology solutions for the high speed emergency site excavation of unavoidable impacts, I deployed 3D laser-radar, air photo and map re-projection technology, high resolution GPS and digital photogrammetry. Carried out in sub-freezing conditions concurrent with ongoing construction and the overland diversion of the Musconetcong River, these technologies enabled the capture in six hours of the first high precision true-color 3D terrestrial LIDAR (laser-radar) record of an archaeological site (Grossman 2007b).
National & International Advisor: I have served as a scientific advisor to U.S. and international agencies on the implementation of innovative technology-based planning strategies in North America, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Hungary, and the Chernobyl impact area of Russia. In 1983 I was invited by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture and UNESCO to conduct a series of field demonstrations and seminars for senior Peruvian academic and government scientists on the use of applied technology systems (ground penetrating radar, laser mapping, photogrammetry, and computerized conservation procedures) to augment the national capacity to identify, define and document important Andean archaeological sites (Grossman 1983). In 1995 I ws invited, at the suggestion of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (an Executive Branch unit that monitors Federal and state agency compliance with US preservation laws) and by the Washington, D.C.-based National Preservation Institute to present a series of seminars illustrating my methodology and strategies in archaeological discovery for federal compliance officers and planners. In 1996 I was invited by Environmental Planning Center of the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to draw. on these case studies to develop a series of recommendations and protocols implementing applied technology strategies and guidelines to facilitate efficient environmental compliance at “mission-critical” Department of the Army facilities throughout the U.S.(Grossman 1997).
Recent Invited Publications: In 2006, I was invited by an international panel to join a select group of body of international scholars to write two invited policy-level chapters on the “state of the discipline” and future research priorities for archaeological investigation over the next decade. One invited chapter, entitled Archaeology of Toxic and Hazardous Environments draws on two emergency rescue projects directed by the author, one a natural disaster of breached dams, and the other, a man-made “Superfund” site over a buried National Register eligible Civil War foundry, to demonstrate how modern applied technologies of non-random testing and evaluation strategies, in tandem with remote, high-speed, non-contact, recording strategies have demonstrated the feasibility of high level archaeological documentation even in contaminated, ordnance-laced, and dangerous contexts. The second invited chapter, entitled Future of Archaeology: in the 21st Century: Human Landscape Interactions, addresses the role of archaeology in providing otherwise unavailable lines of evidence for the understanding of current issues of climate change, sea level rise and environmental trauma. This overview also highlights the significance of emerging geospatial technologies in providing new insights into the history human adaptations to changing environments, as well as past human impacts to the environment from prehistoric and historic archaeological evidence(available in digital format upon request).
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 1967-1972
B.A. University of California, Berkeley - 1967
AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS:
FulbrighT-special Career Fellow (1969-72), Ford &NSF Travel Grants (1970’s- 80’s); Peruvian Government-OAS-UNESCO-Andres Bello Fund Fellow (1981-82); Explorers Club Fellow (1999-, Institute of Andean Studies (1970 - Present), Society for Historical Archaeology (1980’s – Present).
LANGUAGES: English, Fluent in Spanish
JOEL W. GROSSMAN, PH.D. - Archaeologist
| · | Senior Archaeological Project Manager (Ph.D.) - expert in historic preservation, cultural resource planning and mitigation for municipal, state and federal compliance mandates to the highest Department of Interior standards and guidelines. |
| · | Internationally recognized for the innovative planning and mobilization of fast-track multi-disciplinary strategic solutions for logistically challenging and time-critical contexts. |
| · | Experienced negotiator and advisor with strong national and international cross-cultural leadership and collaboration for institutional capacity building for the resolution of cross-cultural conflicts and to meet community concerns and sensitivities. |
| · | Expert in the Innovative Design and Implementation of effective Applied Technology and Geospatial Strategies for the remote evaluation and documentation of buried, submerged and/or contaminated landscapes. |
| · | Acclaimed Speaker, Educator and Author: New World Archaeology, Andean Archaeology, Archaeology of Dutch New York, Prehistoric and Historic Economic, Environmental & Land-Use History, Applied Technology in Historic Preservation, Geospatial Strategies in Archaeology, Emergency Response and the Archaeology of Hazardous Environments |
EXPERTIZE:
EXPERTIZE
CAREER BENCHMARKS
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
RECENT INVITED PAPERS &TALKS
NARRATIVE HISTORY
Background & Focus
Andean Archaeology & Economic History
Regional Survey and Planning
Emergency Rescue Archaeology
"Superfund" Archaeology
Paleo-environmental Modeling
Archaeology of Natural Disasters
National & International Advisor
EDUCATION
AWARDS & APPOINTMENTS
LANGUAGES
CAREER BENCHMARKS
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
RECENT INVITED PAPERS &TALKS
NARRATIVE HISTORY
Background & Focus
Andean Archaeology & Economic History
Regional Survey and Planning
Emergency Rescue Archaeology
"Superfund" Archaeology
Paleo-environmental Modeling
Archaeology of Natural Disasters
National & International Advisor
EDUCATION
AWARDS & APPOINTMENTS
LANGUAGES
BIOGRAPHY
