Enhancing Multiscalar Archaeofaunal Research using cyberSW

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Big data projects, like cyberSW, greatly expanded the scope of archaeological research by providing insights into issues of sustainability and resilience through broad reconstructions of past interactions between societies and environments. Similarly, archaeological fauna data provide a window into human-environmental relationships and speak to resilience and sustainability at multiple temporal and spatial scales. With the recent expansion of cyberSW allowing for more nuanced analyses at the intrasite level, we explore how this new degree of detail to provide further nuance to reconstructions of human animal interrelationships more often conducted at site or regional scales. In this paper, we consider the new intrasite capabilities of cyberSW through the lens of fauna data from the Tonto Basin and Mimbres Mogollon. Beyond serving as an ideal intersection between society and environment, faunal data and are greatly influenced by archaeological classifications and categorization (e.g., ritual or domestic economy, by element or by taxa, intentional burial or informal disposal, etc.). We draw on the expertise of multiple zooarchaeological scholars in the Southwest US to consider both how our interpretive and scalar frameworks influence our understandings of the past and what research tools could improve the ability to translate between interpretive and scalar frameworks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50031