Pulling it Together: Collecting, Collating, and Analyzing Quantitative Data from Written Reports using R

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Due to the nature of long-term archaeological investigations, data collection and curation methods change over time. This means that data can end up in several physical and digital locations, making the analysis of evidence challenging if it was collected years apart or by several investigators. In Lowland Maya archaeology, annual reports are required to be turned in to the government for the public record. Because they are regular publications and contain much of the information collected in the field, these reports, or informes, can be an easy and efficient way to gather site data when original collection documents are decentralized or not easily accessible. This poster describes how to employ R to collect and collate data into a database from these reports. This method allows for a deep and diachronic analysis of archaeological data that can be compared with current investigations and evidence, creating a more complete picture of the past. Collecting data from previously published reports also presents possibilities for the study of heritage data that has long been ignored or overlooked in archival collections. Overall, using R to collect data from reports can provide important context for current and future investigations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39223.0