Equity, Access, and the Privilege of “Best Practice” in Archaeological Fieldwork

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Developing Paleolithic Excavation Methods for the Twenty-First Century" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Technological advances in digital imagery, field recording, and mapping have transformed the ability of archaeologists to rapidly collect, store, and analyze large quantities of high-resolution field data. In spite of steadily lowering prices and broader consumer accessibility over the years, the costs associated with acquiring, maintaining, and training to use these technologies can remain significant. These costs may be justified in terms of “best practice,” or the ethics of recording the irreplaceable archaeological record at the finest detail feasible before it is gone forever. However, the ability to establish “best practice” comes from privileged access to resources such as funding, training, software, and other infrastructure. From a structural perspective, if technological solutions are incorporated into new standards of field data acquisition, it is not feasible to hold all archaeological practitioners to the same standards. It is therefore imperative to empirically justify their use, and then to facilitate equitable access to the necessary resources. Here, we simulate the costs associated with incrementally adding technological components to archaeological field projects (e.g., laptop computers, digital cameras, total stations) relative to their returns in data resolution, as a step in quantifying how crucial each one is to the overall success of a field project.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Developing Paleolithic Excavation Methods for the Twenty-First Century   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37449.0