Using Multidimensional Analysis for the Presentation of Zooarchaeological Data

Summary

Management and dissemination of data has long been a challenge for archaeologists, and this challenge has increased in recent years with demands from various funding agencies for data management plans. Additionally, querying the complex datasets generated often results in iterative rounds of SQL code creation as each answer raises further questions. Online analytical processing (OLAP), a tool for multi-dimensional analysis used by many private companies for reporting, management, and forecasting, as well as by government agencies, such as the Department of Labor, to track the effectiveness of their programs, provides a possible solution to the difficulties in data management and querying in archaeology. Defining data in terms of dimensions and measures, OLAP allows rapid and complex querying without a developer anticipating the specific questions a researcher may ask. I will demonstrate the effectiveness of this tool for analyzing data using zooarchaeological data from the North Atlantic region. Using OLAP to present such data also can serve as an aid in outreach efforts to policy makers and researchers in related fields. The ability to integrate disparate datasets and create complex queries in an ad hoc fashion will also be shown.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16456