Heather D. Barras serves as Laboratory Technician, File Researcher, and Field Technician for Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. She is experienced in Prehistoric Archaeology, and Historic Archaeology, and has acted as Project Archaeologist for a Phase I project located in the Western Pennyroyal physiographic region.
As Laboratory Technician, she has been responsible for the processing of incoming project artifacts and the development of project film. She is responsible for the analysis of prehistoric artifacts, which entails size grading, raw material typing, and reduction stage determination. The analysis section of the project report is then written by Ms. Barras. She is responsible for the cataloguing and preparing of artifacts for museum curation, including the preparation of site documentation forms. She is also experienced in the processing of flotation materials from a variety of site types and she prepares them for analysis.
As Field Technician, she is experienced in a variety of excavation styles, including shovel test probes, test units, and trenching on various Phase I, II, and III projects. She has also documented architecturally significant historic homes.
As File Researcher, she researches background information on sites and projects for current project areas at the Office of State Archaeology and other archives throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This process requires Ms. Barras to be experienced in reading quadrangle and historical maps and to have full knowledge of the location of file reports and site forms.
Ms. Barras became interested in archaeology during her study at Transylvania University, where she graduated in 2001 with a B.A. degree in Anthropology/Sociology. Shortly after graduating, she began working for Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.
Away from work, one of Ms. Barras’ major hobbies includes her addictive collection of yarn, which she uses in creating many items, from scarves to blankets to clothing. Her main process of reducing her yarn stash is to crochet, but she is learning to knit, as well. She has a variety of interests and has, in the past, taken ballroom dancing lessons with her husband and studied Shaolin Do, a form of kung fu, in which she holds a brown belt. In her spare time, she has enjoyed playing Xbox; watching her insane cat, Pandora, chase her tail; trying out new recipes in the kitchen; listening to music (of all kinds) at obscene volumes; and reading. Presently, however, she spends the majority of her time adoring their son, the newest addition to their family.