Archiving and Using the Oaxaca Survey Data Part 1: The Physical and Online Records
Author(s): Stephen Kowalewski
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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This project integrates, curates, and makes widely accessible the raw data from eight systematic regional surveys (1971–2011) covering 5775 km<sup>2</sup>, including 6000 sites and over 10,000 components, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Materials consist of field notes, site and artifact forms, coded data, sketches, maps, air photos, photographs, and project records. University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology (UGAL) staff and volunteers rehabilitated the physical records to current standards and scanned and digitized all documents and photographs, in accord with UGAL procedures. As described in Part II, the project georeferenced all components recorded before accurate topographic maps existed. The digital files meet modern curation standards and have documentation in English and Spanish. We are creating policies and procedures for free access to the digital archive. Our project offers lessons for curation and digital archiving, including: 1) Making data accessible is costly in time and labor; 2) Compiling large datasets allows researchers to recognize larger patterns and ask new questions; 3) Digital curation and access is another level of reporting and an expense that should be budgeted at the beginning of every archaeological project.
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Cite this Record
Archiving and Using the Oaxaca Survey Data Part 1: The Physical and Online Records. Stephen Kowalewski. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510821)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
digital archaeology
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Mesoamerica
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Settlement patterns
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Survey
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 52695