Paleo Core: A Conceptual Framework for Integrating Paleontological, Archaeological, and Geological Data

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Big Ideas to Match Our Future: Big Data and Macroarchaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Data sharing, integration, and synthesis remain elusive goals for paleoanthropological and archaeological research into human biological and cultural origins, which relies on fossils, artifacts, and geological specimens collected by diverse, independent research teams. Integrating find data across these efforts is an acknowledged but as yet unachieved goal. Part of the challenge is the heterogeneous nature of the collected data as well as the lack of shared conceptual frameworks and standards for sharing information. A shared framework supports integration and synthesis of primary data across sites and teams by specifying the relationships between notional entities fundamental to paleoanthropological and archaeological research. Here, we present a modular, extensible conceptual framework for recording and sharing paleoanthropological and archaeological data, developed from an assessment of existing data dictionaries from a diverse set of projects. We also provide concrete examples of data standard implementation in paleoanthropology and archaeology to demonstrate the benefits of adopting such a framework.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Big Ideas to Match Our Future: Big Data and Macroarchaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38443.0