| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 12, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 12, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 1216810 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
John Yellen
jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2012 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,006.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,006.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
107 S INDIANA AVE BLOOMINGTON IN US 47405-7000 (317)278-3473 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1700 Mishawaka Ave. South Bend IN US 46634-7111 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
With National Science Foundation support, a team of university, public, and private sector researchers will develop protocols to integrate archaeological information from large areas of North America into a unified database, and make these capabilities available to a wide variety of scholarly, resource management, and public audiences. The primary team consists of Dr. David G. Anderson and Mr. Stephen Yerka of the University of Tennessee, Dr. Eric Kansa of Open Context & the UC Berkeley School of Information, Dr. Sarah Whitcher Kansa of the Alexandria Archive Institute, and Dr. Joshua Wells of Indiana University South Bend. Researchers and land managers at a number of state and federal agencies, public and private universities, and private companies will assist in this effort, both by providing information and evaluating how it may be best used for research and management purposes.
Efforts to collect and compile archaeological data have a long history, and information about archaeological sites and collections is maintained by every state and territory. Only rarely, however, have these data been compiled and examined at large geographic scales, especially those crosscutting state lines, and never to the extent and for the research and management purposes proposed in this project. Data from some 15 to 20 states (>half a million sites) east of the Mississippi will be integrated using an informatics framework that promotes extensions and reuse by government personnel in state and federal agencies, and domestic and international researchers. Linkage of site file and other datasets will facilitate studies of past human adaptation spanning large areas, and lead to greater collaboration between archaeologists and scientists in other disciplines. As examples, the linkage of archaeological data at broad new scales will permit, for the first time, the exploration of exciting new research topics, such as how the human populations in North America responded to climate change, population growth, and/or anthropogenic environmental issues over the past 13,000 years.
The availability of output online in the form of maps and data tables (at significantly reduced spatial resolution, to protect sensitive locations) will enhance public awareness, education, and appreciation for scientific research in general and archaeology in particular. The demonstration that primary archaeological data can be integrated and used to address fundamental questions at such scales will stimulate similar efforts worldwide. Finally, by creating translating routines rather than dictating procedures, this project will foster archaeological cooperation through cyberinfrastructure with a high ratio of benefits to costs.
The project will help to achieve NSF goals for research and education. It will foster novel networking and data integration among multiple partners, as well as research and educational activities across multiple disciplines and geopolitical boundaries. The project will fund graduate and undergraduate students, and will assist their training in critical information management skills for the 21st century. The project addresses head-on a major challenge facing research communities worldwide: how to link disconnected and incompatible data systems in such a way that the combined data are useful for important scientific research.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) currently integrates information on about 500,000 archaeological sites from 15 states, and links it with information in a range of data repositories using Smithsonian trinomial site numbers as common identifiers [http://ux.opencontext.org/archaeology-site-data/]. This initial proof-of-concept culminates a three year project now poised to expand to encompass all archaeological sites in North America (including the United States, Canada, and Mexico). DINAA cross-references other museum and research information systems, thereby linking American archaeological data from across the Web — giving both researchers and the public a more comprehensive view of the archaeological past.
Efforts to collect and compile archaeological data have a long history. Every state and territory in the United States maintains information about archaeological sites and collections largely independently. Only rarely, however, have these data been compiled and examined at large geographic scales, especially those crosscutting state lines, and never to the extent envisaged by this project. The DINAA team creates a shareable base layer of information from archaeological site file databases maintained by State Historic Preservation Offices and allied federal and tribal agencies in Eastern North America. Site files contain information about the chronology, location, and function of sites, among other information used by government officials and the research community alike, and can include diagnostic artifact descriptions, radiocarbon data, and bibliographic citations. DINAA developed methods to link these data for public research and management purposes.
DINAA is already the largest completely public and open-source compilation of primary archaeological site data in North America, and is still growing. The only sensitive data that DINAA solicits from agencies are the coordinate locations of sites, information transferred using secure protocols and strong encryption. DINAA does not, however, publish or store coordinates online. DINAA sites are presented online as part of a continental grid, with cells 400 square kilometers in area. Editorial and publishing workflows redact sensitive locational, ownership, and other information from state site file repositories before datasets go online via the Open Context archaeological publication Web service. The integration of site file data at continental scales in a new and unique informational infrastructure allows, for the first time, the exploration of the North American archaeological record across multiple temporal periods and geographic regions.
The availability of DINAA output online in the form of maps and data tables (at significantly reduced spatial resolution, to protect sensitive locations) enhances research, public awareness, education, and appreciation for scientific research in general and archaeology in particular. Archaeological researchers and open science policy groups in the United States, Australia, and the European Union have already recognized the potential of DINAA’s data holdings and best practices. Workshops by DINAA staff for archaeological researchers and heritage resource managers have provided valuable opportunities for technical training and professional development. Free course module materials available through the DINAA website allow use of archaeological data in K-12 and higher education settings. Rather than dictating data procedures or requiring systems centralization, DINAA fosters independent development and experimentation through integration of distributed syst...
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