Archaeology before you build: the ICP review

The Program evaluates construction and development projects for their possible impact on archaeological sites, and that evaluation is part of the permit process OGPe administers. The Council for the Protection of Terrestrial Archaeological Heritage, under Ley 112 of 1988, regulates the practice of archaeology within Puerto Rico and sets the public policy of protection; that act declares archaeological sites, deposits, artifacts, documents or materials to be of public utility and the people’s heritage, and establishes obligations regarding every excavation, construction and reconstruction work carried out in Puerto Rico. The Council keeps an updated inventory of all known archaeological sites and an Archaeological Research Library with more than 6,000 reports. The subaquatic archaeology Council, under Ley 10 of 1987, declares of public interest all subaquatic archaeological sites and resources in the internal and coastal waters under Puerto Rico’s jurisdiction, including shipwrecks and their remains, and is the only Government body dedicated exclusively to subaquatic archaeology.

Any proponent of a construction or development project can — and, in cases going through OGPe, must — go through this review. The Program evaluates projects with government or private funds and location consultations across the island. The advance advisory is open to proponents who want to know beforehand the archaeological possibilities of an area. And the terrestrial Council’s guidance is offered to researchers, developers and the general public for compliance with Ley 112. If your project touches the sea floor, the subaquatic Council is the one that reviews, supervises and endorses construction projects impacting it.

• Submitting the Archaeological Services Request, which the ICP publishes on its Archaeology and Ethnohistory Program page.Verified against the official source
• If the project impacts the sea floor: going through the Council for the Conservation and Study of Subaquatic Archaeological Sites and Resources, which reviews, supervises and endorses such projects.Verified against the official source
• To explore, excavate, recover or salvage subaquatic archaeological resources: the permit the subaquatic Council publishes.Verified against the official source

• The Archaeological Services Request, in the June 2020 updated version the ICP publishes.
• For the subaquatic sphere, the exploration, excavation, recovery and/or salvage Permit form, along with Ley Núm. 10 of 1987 and the Council’s Regulation No. 2, which the ICP publishes.

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   Step 1: Ask before you buy the land

   This is the cheapest advice in the guide. The Program offers guidance to the public on the importance of archaeological heritage and gives advice or consultations to proponents of construction projects who want to know in advance the archaeological possibilities of the area they intend to develop. A location consultation before signing costs far less than discovering a site with the machinery already on the ground.

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   Step 2: Understand why the ICP is in your permit

   From 2009, Ley 161, the Puerto Rico Permit Process Reform Act, transferred to the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture every power, duty and obligation regarding the evaluation for granting or denying final determinations or permits, in coordination with the Permit Management Office. That is why the Archaeology Program performs regulatory functions and evaluates construction and development projects daily, whether government- or privately-funded, and location consultations across the island. It is not an optional step someone added: it is the permits statute.

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   Step 3: Submit the Archaeological Services Request

   The ICP publishes the Archaeological Services Request form, updated June 2020, on the Program’s page. The Program’s email is cperez@icp.pr.gov and its mailing address is Programa de Arqueología y Etnohistoria, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apartado postal 9024184, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902-4184.

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   Step 4: If the project touches the sea, it is the other council

   The Council for the Conservation and Study of Subaquatic Archaeological Sites and Resources, created by Ley Núm. 10 of 7 August 1987, is responsible for reviewing, supervising and endorsing construction projects impacting the sea floor. That act declares of public interest all subaquatic archaeological sites and resources in the internal and coastal waters under Puerto Rico’s jurisdiction, and defines those resources broadly: any artifact, evidence of historic-era settlement, shipwrecked vessels and all their parts and remains, remains of human habitation and any object related to the history, government or culture of Puerto Rico found in those waters. The Council is made up of the ICP’s Executive Director, the Secretary of Natural Resources, the Director of the State Historic Preservation Office, one professional archaeologist from each university in the country with studies in the discipline, and three people appointed by the Governor with the Senate’s consent.

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   Step 5: Diving, excavating or salvaging a wreck needs a permit

   The subaquatic Council publishes the exploration, excavation, recovery and/or salvage Permit form, along with Ley Núm. 10 and its Regulation No. 2. It also maintains a Site Registry compiling references to shipwrecks from documentary sources, interviews, informants and publications, with visual inspection and verification of the exact location; a conservation laboratory and materials repository; and a specialized reference library available to researchers and to the general public. And it handles complaints or reports of violations of the law.

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   Step 6: If someone is destroying a site

   The Council for the Protection of Terrestrial Archaeological Heritage handles complaints about impacts to archaeological sites, with the declared purpose of preventing the indiscriminate destruction of the past. It also offers guidance to researchers, developers and the general public for compliance with Ley 112 of 1988, maintains the updated, georeferenced inventory of all known archaeological sites in Puerto Rico, and an Archaeological Research Library with more than 6,000 reports.

Archaeology and Ethnohistory Program of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, email cperez@icp.pr.gov, or by post to Apartado postal 9024184, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902-4184. ICP’s general phone: 787-724-0700. For talks and workshops on archaeological, indigenous or historical topics and on the applicable laws and regulations, the Program asks that a letter or email be addressed to it.

• Buying land or starting design without asking for the advance location consultation.
• Believing the archaeological review is an optional step the agency added.
• Taking a project impacting the sea floor to the terrestrial Council, or the reverse.
• Exploring or recovering something from a wreck without the subaquatic Council’s permit.
• Confusing this programme with Built Historic Heritage, which handles buildings.
• Assuming that if no site is known there is nothing to consult: the Council keeps the inventory precisely because not everything is visible.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP)

  ICP

  www.icp.pr.gov