Methodologies for Integrating Eastern Archaic Faunal Databases Using the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR)
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016) , Presentations on Digital Antiquity and tDAR
As part of multi-scalar research on the use of aquatic animal resources by Archaic period hunter-gatherers in the interior Eastern Woodlands, zooarchaeologists from multiple institutions are exploring the integration of Archaic faunal datasets that have been collected and analyzed over the last half century. As a first step in this research these zooarchaeologists, who have formed the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG), have uploaded their faunal databases into the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), a digital repository for archaeological information maintained by Digital Antiquity. Initially these zooarchaeologists have been concentrating on uploading their datasets and making them usable in tDAR. This group also has been exploring database comparability with respect to taphonomy and context, and developing proxies for environmental and demographic change. Meanwhile the computer scientists at tDAR have further streamlined the integration tools available through tDAR. The posters in this session present the capabilities of tDAR for database integration, the researchers various experiences in working with tDAR and with the problems of database comparability as well as possible methodologies for modeling Archaic demographic change. Although there has been a definite learning curve, this work suggests that faunal database integration can be used to address important archaeological questions.
Other Keywords
Archaic •
demography •
Faunal •
Zooarchaeology •
Taphonomy •
Hunter-Gatherer •
Synthesis •
data integration
Culture Keywords
Archaic •
Early Archaic •
Middle Archaic •
Late Archaic
Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview •
Collections Research •
Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis •
Records Search / Inventory Checking •
Systematic Survey
Material Types
Chipped Stone
Temporal Keywords
Archaic Period (9000-3000 BP)
Geographic Keywords
North America - Midwest •
United States of America (Country) •
Illinois (State / Territory) •
North America (Continent) •
North America - Southeast
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Beyond Archiving: Synthesizing Data with tDAR (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The future of archaeological research is dependent on our ability to synthesize data across sites and leverage both current and legacy data. Asking questions of regions or clusters of sites where data was recovered over over decades or centuries and by multiple researchers becomes difficult without significant, manually-performed normalization and standardization processes at a great impediment to synthetic research. Beyond archiving, tDAR provides integration tools to extend the lifespan of...
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Developing Demographic Proxies for Archaic Faunal Database Integration (2016)
DOCUMENT Full-Text
In conjunction with multi-scalar integrative faunal research on the use of aquatic resources by Archaic period hunter-gatherers, the EAFWG has been required to focus on both environmental and demographic reconstructions for both specific locales and larger regions within the interior of the North American Eastern Woodlands. Although the importance of social and ethnic factors has increasingly been recognized, both environmental change and variability and human population growth and aggregation...
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Exploring Taphonomic and Contextual Comparability in Eastern Archaic Faunal Datasets (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG), established with funding from NSF, is preserving Archaic period faunal databases from interior portions of the Eastern Woodlands in tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record) in order to undertake data integration at multiple scales that examines the use of aquatic resources across time and space during the Archaic. A major initial question about our existing datasets is how comparable they are taphonomically and contextually. Protocols for...
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The Ups and Downs of Uploading Data to the Eastern Archaic Faunal Database with the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Uploading faunal data from eastern Archaic sites to the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) as members of the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) was a very exciting prospect. We are pleased to be involved in a project that will address significant questions about animal use during the Archaic period. However, making the data comparable entailed some challenges and compromises. While most zooarchaeologists agree on taxonomic designations, developing ontologies for elements, portions,...