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Director 1959-1993
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The Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program (ITARP) is the
product of a nearly one-half century long intergovernmental cooperative agreement
between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Illinois
Department of Transportation (IDOT) to ensure the preservation and promotion
of the state's important archaeological resources within the broader framework
of cultural resource compliance efforts. It is jointly managed and funded by
both institutions.
The program's foundations lie in the IDOT survey work of the newly created
Illinois Archaeological Survey (1959) carried out under the direction of Charles
J. Bareis, UIUC. In 1980 the IDOT statewide survey program was transferred
to the UIUC Resource Investigation Program and in 1994 its mission was broadened
in scope with the creation of ITARP. The establishment of ITARP was the product
of IDOT's concern to develop a more centralized program to facilitate its
cultural resources protection efforts and to ensure the preservation of
the state's
important archaeological resources. ITARP is one of the oldest research and
cultural resources programs in the Eastern United States and currently employs
approximately forty full-time professional archaeologists in five different
field stations throughout the state.
Director 1994-Present
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ITARP conducts both short-term and long-term large-scale projects that
concentrate exclusively on the archaeology of Illinois. This research has
been recognized
with two national awards and produced a 28-volume University of Illinois Press
series hailed as a major landmark in North American archaeology. An integral
part of the ITARP program includes the curation of extensive research collections,
which accomodate artifacts from over a hundred major Illinois sites. Furthermore,
one of ITARP's primary goals is the dissemination of information to both professional
and public audiences through publications, educational exhibits, lectures,
school visits, and displays.
The program occupies large central facilities on the edge of the University
of Illinois' campus and includes administrative offices, computer and GIS
facilities, processing and research laboratories, as well as significant
lithic, ceramic,
and ethnobotanical comparative collections. The program curates major prehistoric
and historic archaeological collections from over 3,000 Illinois sites including
the massive FAI-270 Project and many Cahokia site collections from the American
Bottom with the associated photographic, map, and documentary records. ITARP
is also one of the repositories for the records of the Illinois Archaeological
Survey. Facilities for visiting scholars are available for visiting researchers.
The Charles J. Bareis research library, specializing in CRM-related documents,
is kept at the program offices while researchers also have access to the main
campus libraries of the University of Illinois, Urbana.
The various divisions within ITARP conduct archaeological resource and
research projects that provide funding and research opportunities for students
and
other researchers. Program Cultural Resource Archaeologists hold academic
professional
appointments within the University. Various ITARP divisions include the Statewide
Survey Division that conducts statewide cultural resource inventories; the
Special Projects Division that manages the large-scale multi-year mitigation
projects such as the FAI-270, FAP 310, East St. Louis Bridge or Hoxie Farm
Projects; the American Bottom Survey Division that performs archaeological
research in the St. Louis metropolitan area; the Western Illinois Survey
Division that performs archaeological research in the central and western
portions
of the state; and the Northern Illinois Survey Division that performs archaeological
research in northern Illinois. The Program Support Division located in Champaign
provides administrative, laboratory, physical anthropology, curation, cartography/GIS,
photographic and artistic resources, desktop publishing, and computer support
for the program.
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