data (Other Keyword)
1-12 (12 Records)
Virginia’s archaeological site inventory contains detailed information on nearly 43,000 sites in datasets maintained by the Department of Historic Resources (State Historic Preservation Office). At times, responsibility to protect sensitive sites from looting and vandalism seems to run counter to providing information to the public about Virginia’s archaeology. But the two are not mutually exclusive. This paper will explore Virginia’s historical approach to archaeological data dissemination with...
Curles Neck: a collections reassessment. (2017)
The Curles Neck excavation, under the direction of Dan Mouer at Virginia Commonwealth University, produced a wealth of information about a significant mid-seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century site. Unfortunately the collections ended up housed in a non-archaeological repository, separate from the unordered documentation. A 2016 reassessment, undertaken by staff and students at the University of Tennessee, conducted an inventory of the physical collections; converted old digital files; digitized...
Digital Archive of Archaeological Dog Burial and Metric Data of the Americas (2016)
Integrating large amounts of data into streamlined, coherent datasets is a popular trend among archaeologists today, as these large datasets allow for the recognition and analysis of regional temporal and spatial trends. This paper presents an overview of a large dog burial dataset for the Southeastern US, where dog burials have been encountered on archaeological sites dating from about 8,000 years ago through the historic period. The information recorded includes contextual information...
Following the Pattern: Using Transferprints to Refine 19th Century Site Chronologies (2018)
Refining site chronologies on predominantly nineteenth century sites is a goal of many historical archaeologists. This paper analyzes transferprint colors and identified patterns recovered from Andrew Jackson’s The Hermitage plantation as one analytical solution. The dataset consists of thousands of sherds excavated from yard spaces and structures built when Jackson acquired the property in 1804, in an area known as the First Hermitage. Using the same approach outlined in the DAACS Hermitage...
It Must Be Right, GIS Told Me So! Questioning the Infallibility of GIS as a Methodological Tool (2016)
While the benefits of GIS are widely touted among archaeologists today, less attention has been paid to the potential pitfalls and drawbacks of this undeniably important methodological tool. One of the greatest challenges of geospatial modeling is unbalanced data; due to the nature of the archaeological record, we can never assume that the remnants of past behavioral processes we are working with constitute a fully representative sample. Rather, our datasets are reflective of differential social...
The Little Things (2017)
"It’s the little things…" this often-used quote sums up one of the most important things that I learned while working with Dr. Scott. Whether it was taking the time to show us how to properly sharpen our trowels during an excavation, reminding us to double check our data, and to make sure to keep artifacts together by their respective proveniences when in the lab, each of these little pieces of advice helped to shape my own career. I find her advice on the little things coming back to me at the...
The Maryland Archaeological Synthesis Project: One State’s Solution to Archaeology’s Crushing Gray Literature Problem (2016)
Since passage of the National Historic Preservation Act a growing body of valuable data has been generated by state agencies, CRM professionals, and preservation officers. Unfortunately, this data is usually trapped in an archaic paper-based format, restricted geographically to a single state archive. All too often the data is brought to light only to be "reburied" in the SHPO’s library where it may be largely inaccessible to researchers scattered throughout the country. This paper describes how...
Preparing for the Future or Investing in the Present? Assemblages from an Overseer’s Site and an Enslaved Laborers’ Quarter (2017)
This paper analyzes and compares ceramic diversity and small domestic artifacts from two domestic sites located at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, one site was the home of white overseer Edmund Bacon while the other was the location of at least one quarter for enslaved African Americans. Analysis of artifacts recovered from plowzone enhances our understanding of how one of Monticello’s white overseers’ personal items differed from the...
Presenting Data to the Public: Approaches for Contextualizing Archaeological Information for a Non-Specialist Audience (2016)
Disseminating archaeological findings to the public is an important part of the discipline’s mission. However raw archaeological data are often difficult for a non-specialist audience to interpret. Including a mediating layer of information that helps the reader to understand the data can provide needed contextual information when presenting archaeological findings for a public audience. Developing and maintaining this additional interpretive content, however, can be difficult, especially for...
Prosthetic Angels: Empirical Anxiety and Rationalizing Vision in Archaeology (2015)
Working from tensions within historical and landscape archaeology, this paper examines the stress expressed by the question: "how can we know what happened in the past if we weren’t there?" This query shapes much of the analytical framework within archaeology and underlies anxious discussions of archaeology’s status as a ‘real’ science. At the heart of both this anxiety of "how do we know" and the ways in which we cope with it methodologically are assumptions about what facts are and how (or...
Shaken Apart: Community Archaeology In A Post-Industrial Earthquake City (2018)
This paper explores the interplay of a post-industrial setting, heritage and archaeology following a natural disaster. The setting is Christchurch, New Zealand, and the natural disaster was the devastating earthquakes that struck the city in 2010 and 2011, leading to the demolition of thousands of buildings across the city and its surrounds, followed by extensive rebuild-related earthworks. Throughout this process, numerous archaeological sites have been found and much of the built heritage has...
Using Collector for ArcGIS for Cultural Resource Data Collection (2016)
The Calvert County, Maryland cultural resources planner has worked with the county GIS team to develop a Collector for ArcGIS app template for collection of data in the field for archaeological sites and architectural properties. The Collector for ArcGIS template is designed to capture the information required by the state on its forms, acquire geolocation information, and attach pictures for each site. With minimal editing, a mail merge is used to produce a printable form that is acceptable to...