The Aferlife of Archaeometry; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Database Project

Summary

What happens to artifact-sourcing data after a laboratory closes? We provide an update on the ongoing effort to preserve archaeometric data produced between 1968 and 1990 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Over the past decade, we have located and digitized chemical and contextual data for over 10,000 archaeological specimens analyzed by the laboratory. Our efforts are now turning toward analysis and application of these data, many of which have never been published let alone studied. Aside from representing one of the single largest databases of neutron activation data for archaeological research, the Berkeley database project demonstrates the fundamental need for explicit data-storage protocols, data-management plans, and an infrastructure for the long-term preservation and sharing of archaeometric data. Determining how best to preserve and retain the utility of these data is increasingly pertinent given the widespread and decentralized nature of archaeometry in the twenty-first century.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Afterlife of Archaeological Information: Use and Reuse of Digital Archaeological Data   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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