Open Obsidian Geochemistry Visualization with an example from the Andes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The open science movement is growing in archaeology, and raises fundamental questions about data and who it belongs to. In this talk, we outline a protocol for sharing data on obsidian sources to facilitate replicable research. While in obsidian sourcing a direct calibration is preferable (e.g., measuring source standards on the same instrument used to measure artifacts), it is nonetheless useful to create a platform for researchers to share their data for comparison with others. To that end, advances in data accessibility via servers and the growth of open-source computing languages such as R make it possible for a repository to not only store data, but also provide an analytical environment data exploration. Here, an example is provided of a dynamic repository framework which allows for a) user-contributed data, b) aggregation of data across multiple researchers, and c) qualitative and quantitative association of new data. We use an example from the Central Andes where forty years of geochemical studies have identified primary obsidian sources and a sizable literature. Archaeological obsidian excavated from sites in the prehispanic Central Andes can inform on long distance exchange and community relationships with regional polities on emergent road networks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26290