OUR SERVICES
What We Do
CHRIS provides specialized cultural heritage services for projects that require more than a standard approach. We combine research, archaeology, anthropology, osteology, historical expertise, and community knowledge to investigate complex histories, document cultural resources, and develop practical solutions.
Our work ranges from historical and provenance research to human remains analysis, cemetery preservation, cultural heritage monitoring, legacy collections, and sensitive heritage concerns.
Whether the challenge involves a person, place, collection, burial ground, or unresolved history, CHRIS helps clients determine what they have, what happened, and what comes next. A project might begin with unidentified human remains in an institutional collection, a historic cemetery with uncertain boundaries or incomplete burial records, a collection with little documentation about its origins, questions about the provenance or appropriate disposition of cultural materials, a need to identify descendants or communities connected to a person or place, a historic property whose story has never been fully researched, cultural resources threatened by construction or change where professional monitoring is needed to document conditions, identify unexpected discoveries, and help protect cultural resources as work proceeds, or records and materials inherited from an earlier institution, researcher, or project that no one quite knows how to address. CHRIS investigates the available evidence, fills critical gaps where possible, and develops a well-supported path forward.
Research & Cultural Heritage Investigation
Historical and archival research, provenance and acquisition research, genealogical and descendant research, institutional and community histories, historical context development, legacy collections research, documentation review, and specialized cultural heritage investigations.
Cemeteries, Human Remains & Mortuary Heritage
Historic cemetery and burial-ground research, cemetery documentation and preservation planning, burial-history research, osteological analysis, human remains inventory and documentation, biological profiles, association and MNI assessment, and integration of skeletal findings with archaeological and historical evidence.
Collections, Provenance & Heritage Resolution
Legacy and sensitive collections, provenance reconstruction, collections histories, affiliation and community research, repatriation and restitution support, stewardship and disposition research, documentation development, and coordination of complex cultural heritage cases.
Monitoring, Protection & Response
Archaeological and cemetery monitoring, construction monitoring, cultural-resource documentation, unexpected discoveries, heritage impact assessment, emergency heritage response, recovery support, technical reporting, and coordination with project teams and specialists.
Not Sure What Service You Need?
You don't need to know.
Cultural heritage projects often cross disciplinary boundaries. CHRIS begins with the question or problem, determines what research and expertise are needed, and develops an appropriate scope of work. When a project requires additional specialization, CHRIS can coordinate the professionals necessary to complete the work.