Opinion: Fostering synthesis in archaeology to advance science and benefit society (original) (raw)
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Refining Archaeological Data Collection and Management
Advances in Archaeological Practice
ABSTRACTMost archaeological investigations in the United States and other countries must comply with preservation laws, especially if they are on government property or supported by government funding. Academic and cultural resource management (CRM) studies have explored various social, temporal, and environmental contexts and produce an ever-increasing volume of archaeological data. More and more data are born digital, and many legacy data are digitized. There is a building effort to synthesize and integrate data at a massive scale and create new data standards and management systems. Taxpayer dollars often fund archaeological studies that are intended, in spirit, to promote historic preservation and provide public benefits. However, the resulting data are difficult to access and interoperationalize, and they are rarely collected and managed with their long-term security, accessibility, and ethical reuse in mind. Momentum is building toward open data and open science as well as Ind...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2024
Large datasets are often needed to explore important, big picture questions, making effective information management as critical in modern archaeology as it is in many other disciplines. Freeman et al. (1) use archaeological data to explore one of the most significant questions facing the modern world, which is why and for how long human populations grow rapidly in some circumstances, oscillate to varying degrees in others, and, most worryingly to all who hope never to live in such times, experience severe declines in still others. The expansion and contraction of human populations, from among hunter-gatherers to those associated with the rise and fall of complex agricultural civilizations, is a subject studied since antiquity, with many explanations advanced (e.g., refs. 2-5). One of the triumphs of modern archaeology is that it provides replicable datasets useful for documenting such demographic trends and their possible causes. Proxy measures of human populations at large scales are seeing increasing development and use to examine major topics
Antiquity, 2018
The ‘Digital Index of North American Archaeology’ (DINAA) project demonstrates how the aggregation and publication of government-held archaeological data can help to document human activity over millennia and at a continental scale. These data can provide a valuable link between specific categories of information available from publications, museum collections and online databases. Integration improves the discovery and retrieval of records of archaeological research currently held by multiple institutions within different information systems. It also aids in the preservation of those data and makes efforts to archive these research results more resilient to political turmoil. While DINAA focuses on North America, its methods have global applicability.
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2019
With the advent of the Web, increased emphasis on "research data management," and innovations in reproducible research practices, scholars have more incentives and opportunities to document and disseminate their primary data. This article seeks to guide archaeologists in data sharing by highlighting recurring challenges in reusing archived data gleaned from observations on workflows and reanalysis efforts involving datasets published over the past 15 years by Open Context. Based on our findings, we propose specific guidelines to improve data management, documentation, and publishing practices so that primary data can be more efficiently discovered, understood, aggregated, and synthesized by wider research communities. Con el advenimiento de la Web, el mayor énfasis en el "manejo de datos de investigación" y las innovaciones en las prácticas de investigación reproducibles, los investigadores tienen más incentivos y oportunidades para documentar y divulgar sus datos primarios. Este trabajo busca ofrecer a los arqueólogos una guía sobre cómo compartir información, señalando los desafíos más recurrentes en la reutilización de datos archivados que recopilamos a partir de observaciones sobre flujos de trabajo y del reanálisis de bases de datos publicadas a lo largo de los últimos 15 años en Open Context. Sobre la base de nuestros resultados, proponemos algunos lineamientos específicos para mejorar el manejo de datos, la documentación y las prácticas de publicación, de modo que los datos primarios puedan ser descubiertos, comprendidos, agrupados y sintetizados de manera más eficiente y por comunidades de investigadores más amplias. Palabras clave: arqueozoología, investigación reproducibles, manejo de datos, documentación de datos, lineamientos, reutilización de datos Archaeologists, particularly those specializing in zooarchaeology and other domains that emphasize quantitative methods, have long recognized that scientific rigor requires access to full and well-documented data (Driver 1992; Grigson 1978; Meadow and Zeder 1978). Only recently, however, have technologies caught up to the vision of full data description and dissemination. In addition to the decreasing cost of data storage, the Web offers new opportunities to efficiently and comprehensively document and disseminate our work. Data dissemination is becoming an expected part of scholarly communication, such that open access to publicly funded research results is now encouraged and even mandated by many governments and institutions (Kimbrough and Gasaway 2015; ScienceEurope 2019; White House 2013). Even so, while policies calling for data dissemination have gained traction, actual data sharing practices remain largely piecemeal and inconsistent. For data sharing to facilitate reproducibility and to open new research opportunities that involve reusing shared data, we must overcome significant challenges in archiving, curating, disseminating, and integrating diverse datasets. The challenges and opportunities afforded by computers and the Web require us to reexamine normative data management practices and consider both new approaches and refinements of extant practices. In this article, informed by years of data management experience and integrative data analyses, we describe some of the problems inherent in current, normative practices of data collection and documentation in archaeology. These problems can inhibit future data reuse by imposing costs in terms of the time and effort needed to clean, translate, and understand other researchers' datasets. We advocate integrating conventional publishing with new forms of data publication and version control to provide open access to primary datasets. We then offer a set of guidelines for data collection and dissemination in the "digital age." These are practical steps that practitioners can take to
What North American Archaeology Needs to Take Advantage of the Digital Data Revolution
Advances in Archaeological Practice
ABSTRACTToday, there is a growing movement to use accumulated archaeological information to contribute to discussions of general issues facing human societies, including our own. In this regard, the archaeological record is most unique and helpful when viewed at broad comparative scales. Most relevant data for these sorts of analyses are collected through the cultural resource management (CRM) process. Still, by and large, interpretation remains limited to individual projects, and data integration across projects is nearly nonexistent. What would it take for CRM to achieve real data integration? In this article, we discuss these issues and suggest one potential solution. The most pressing need we identify is for data products that integrate the primary data emanating from CRM at broad spatial and temporal scales, which are suitable for research by archaeologists and other social scientists. We argue that the time is right for the discipline to invest in organizations that produce su...
American Antiquity, 1992
A survey of presentations at recent Society for American Archaeology annual meetings (1983, 1991, and is taken to examine the state of American archaeology. Roughly 80 percent of the presentations focus on New World archaeology, and between 60 and 80 percent are concerned with the last 3,000 years. In the last 10 year there has been a slight shift away from subsistence and production studies to a greater concern with settleme and regional systems, sociopolitical organization, and public archaeology. A major trend has been increased participation by women. Se utiliza un andlisis de las comunicaciones presentadas en recientes reuniones anuales de la Society for American Archaeology (1983, 1991 y 1992) para examinar el estado de la arqueologia americana. Aproximadamente 80 porciento de las comunicaciones se concentran en la arqueologfa del Nuevo Mundo y entre 60 y 80 porciento de ellas se ocupan de los ultimos 3.000 ahos. En los ultimos diez ahos ha habido un leve cambio en los temas de las comunicaciones, con menos enfasis en estudios de subsistencia y produccion, y un mayor interes en sistemas regionales y de asentamiento, organizacion sociopolitica, y arqueologia para elpublico. Una importante tendencia ha sido hacia una mayor participacion de las mujeres.