SAROI: Spatial Archaeology Residential and Online Studies

FAIN: HT-272565-20

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201)
Carla Klehm (Project Director: March 2020 to March 2024)
W. Fred Limp (Co Project Director: July 2020 to March 2024)
Jackson Cothren (Co Project Director: July 2020 to March 2024)

An online and in-person mentorship and training program to facilitate collaboration among scholars at the Spatial Archaeology Residential and Online Institute, devoted to large-scale archeological analysis of objects, structures, sites, and landscapes.

The Spatial Archaeology Residential and Online Institute, hosted at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas, addresses an increasing need for advanced training in spatial methodologies in archaeology and heritage management. Spatial analysis of human behavior involves data on a “very large-scale,” as there are many aspects involved in understanding how humans perceive space, occupy it, and alter it. Obtaining this “very large-scale” data involves the high-density measurement and analysis of objects, structures, sites, and landscapes. Recent developments that allow for higher density and more precision are helping us address complex questions about human nature that heretofore were not possible. SAROI seeks to support 16 junior scholars in an online and in-person training and mentorship program over the course of three years, with the intent of building long-term collaborative relationships among Fellows and between Fellows and SAROI staff.

Associated Products

2021 SAROI First Workshop (on Data Acquisition and Data Analysis) (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: 2021 SAROI First Workshop (on Data Acquisition and Data Analysis)
Author: Carla Klehm
Author: W. Fred Limp
Author: Jackson Cothren
Abstract: The first institute workshop is two weeks in length and focus on teaching principles of data collection and analysis. Topics for the first workshop will included GNSS, geodetic control and coordinate systems, photogrammetry, terrestrial and close-range scanning, microCT applications, sUAS thermal and multispectral imagery, LiDAR (aircraft and sUAS), historical and satellite imagery, data sourcing, and data analytics.
Date Range: July 5-18, 2021
Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Primary URL: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu/structure
Primary URL Description: Provides information about the first workshop and the detailed daily schedule.

GNSS for Archaeologists online course (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: GNSS for Archaeologists online course
Author: W. Fred Limp
Abstract: GNSS for Archaeologists is one of two Blackboard courses that Fellows have access to. It is an intensive introduction to the theory and practice of positioning (navigating, mapping and surveying) using the US Department of Defense’s Global Positioning System (GPS) along with new next generation L5 satellites and Russian GLONASS. In addition to the basic of data acquisition and processing, topics include horizontal and vertical datum definition and realization, time systems, orbit definition, GPS observables, receiver and antenna design, positioning methods, sources of error, data exchange and collection methodologies.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://learn.uark.edu/ultra/courses/_293214_1/cl/outline
Primary URL Description: Link to GNSS for Archaeologists. *Note this link is password protected. Access to the course material can be made upon request*
Audience: Graduate

Geospatial Technologies for Archaeologists online course (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Geospatial Technologies for Archaeologists online course
Author: W. Fred Limp
Abstract: Geospatial Technology for Archaeologists is one of two online courses that Fellows have access to. It provides a comprehensive overview of various geospatial methods. Topics included vector and raster data, metadata and topologies, queries and modeling, aerial photography and photogrammetry, remote sensing, satellite imaging, basics of map design, geocoding and network analysis, GPS (covered further in GNSS for Archaeologists), Digital Terrain Modeling and LiDAR, and 3D applications. It utilizes ArcGIS, the most common geographic information system (GIS) software in use in the US, but also offers parallel exercises in QGIS, an open-source software platform, to increase accessibility beyond potential paywalls. All Fellows without access to ArcGIS were offered digital access as part of their SAROI Fellowship.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://learn.uark.edu/ultra/courses/_293213_1/cl/outline
Primary URL Description: Link for Geospatial Technology for Archaeologists. *Note that the link is password protected. Access can be given on request.*
Audience: Graduate

SAROI Website (Web Resource)
Title: SAROI Website
Author: Carla Klehm
Abstract: As the initial impression of SAROI for interested publics, the SAROI website was launched to provide basic information of the intent and content of the SAROI fellowship program. The SAROI website can be found at: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu/. The website was created by PI Klehm using Wordpress, is viewable on both desktop and mobile devices.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu
Primary URL Description: The SAROI website: • has a landing page with a brief description of SAROI • provides a fuller description of the SAROI program, including specific objectives of the program and details what a SAROI Fellowship award entails. • provides a brief history of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST), which hosts SAROI, and the facilities and equipment available through CAST. • provides additional detail about accommodations and meals during the workshops as well as information about places of interest in and around Fayetteville. • describes, in detail, the three main components of the SAROI Fellowship: pre-institute online materials, the residency workshops, and sustained mentorship. • has bios and pictures of the first SAROI cohort • details eligibility requirements and application components on which prospective Fellows are assessed. • provides short blog posts about publications, educational resources, and SAROI updates.
Secondary URL: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/SAROI2021
Secondary URL Description: Because of the volume and components associated with SAROI applications, Microsoft’s Conference Management Toolkit (CMT) was selected as an external application website. CMT provides a secure, password-protected centralized platform to upload and handle both multiple attachments (e.g., project narrative, references, figures, CV) and other required responses (e.g., biographical information, diversity and inclusion statement). Reviewers are then able to securely access applications, read them within the website and/or download them, and score accordingly within CMT.

Zotero SAROI Fellow Group Library (Web Resource)
Title: Zotero SAROI Fellow Group Library
Author: Carla Klehm
Author: W. Fred Limp
Author: Rachel Opitz
Abstract: The Zotero (https://www.zotero.org/) shared library served to provide a curated set of references for Fellows about various geospatial technologies of interest as they pertain to spatial archaeology and/or the digital humanities more widely. Fellows were provided with an email invitation to join the group library for free. References to articles, book chapters, books, and other online materials included DOIs, URLs, and, for some of the most pertinent resources, pdfs that were uploaded to the library. A core set of references (curated by Limp and others) offers foundational texts and case studies, and important workflows that remain relevant. These References include searchable tags such as “3D data,” “LiDAR,” and “Digital Humanities” so that Fellows can browse through relevant titles efficiently. Klehm added a Recent Articles subfolder focusing on case studies from the past five years, with pdf provided (if the journal was behind a paywall) or links if open-source. Recent Articles seeks to keep Fellows abreast of the most recent scholarship on various topics within digital archaeology, knowing again that it may have been several years since some Fellows last took GIS and remote sensing courses (and to provide perhaps a broader set of case studies than one may have looked at as a Mayan scholar working in Belize, for example).
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/317611/hdsm/library
Primary URL Description: Link to the Zotero group library for SAROI Fellows. *The Zotero group library is password protected. Access can be given upon request.*

2022 SAROI First Workshop (on Data Acquisition and Data Analysis) (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: 2022 SAROI First Workshop (on Data Acquisition and Data Analysis)
Author: W. Fred Limp
Author: Carla Klehm
Author: Jackson Cothren
Abstract: The first workshop for the second cohort took place at CAST June 6-17, 2022, for both the second cohort (of eight Fellows) and three international Leica Foundation SAROI Fellows. Topics covered included: an overview of HDSM techniques, photogrammetry, object-based and terrestrial laser scanning, aerial LiDAR, sUAS (small unmanned aerial systems, “drones”) applications, sUAS flight planning and data processing, basics of GNSS (global navigation satellite system, the world term for GPS) and post-processing of locational points, high-resolution satellite imagery, historical imagery, data sourcing, data integration, Git for scientists, microCT applications for archaeology, grants for spatial archaeology and the digital humanities, and data management. Four of these lecture topics were new (data sourcing, data integration, Git, and grants), as compared to 2021, and based on feedback from the first cohort class.
Date Range: June 6-17, 2022
Location: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Primary URL: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu/structure/

2022 SAROI Second Workshop on Data Visualization, Publication, and Archiving (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: 2022 SAROI Second Workshop on Data Visualization, Publication, and Archiving
Author: Carla Klehm
Author: W. Fred Limp
Author: Jackson Cothren
Author: Angelia Payne
Author: Malcolm Williamson
Abstract: The second workshop, on data visualization, publication, and archiving, ran one week (June 27-July 1, 2022), with Fellows arriving a day in advance and departing a day after the workshop concluded. Topics covered included: data integration and analytics, High Density Survey and Measurement (HDSM) protocols and thoughtful data management plans, data preparation, an introduction to tools and techniques for visualization, continued visualization and publication software demonstrations, post-product organization and metadata standards, publication strategies, and data storage and archiving for preservation and reuse. The workshop schedule is included as a supplemental document with this report.
Date Range: June 27-July 1, 2022
Location: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Primary URL: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu/structure/

The Use and Challenges of Spatial Data in Archaeology (Article)
Title: The Use and Challenges of Spatial Data in Archaeology
Author: Carla Klehm
Abstract: Spatial data, under the broader umbrella of digital data, is becoming increasingly integral to all stages of archaeological research design and dissemination. As archaeologists lean toward reuse and interoperability, with ethics on their minds, how to treat spatial data is of particular importance. This is because of the complexities involved at every life-cycle stage, from collection to publication, including black box issues that may be taken for granted, and because the size of spatial data can lead to archiving difficulties. Here, the “DIY” momentum of increasingly accessible spatial methods such as photogrammetry and handheld lidar is examined alongside forthcoming changes in publication policies that will impact the United States in particular, framed around a conversation about best practices and a call for more comprehensive training for the archaeological community. At its heart, this special issue seeks to realize the potential of increasingly digitized—and increasingly large amounts of—archaeological data. Within cultural resource management, this means anticipating utilization of data through widespread standardization, among many interrelated activities. A desire to enhance the utility of archaeological data has distinct resonances with the use of spatial data in archaeology, as do some wider challenges that the archaeological community faces moving forward.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.38
Access Model: Open-access
Format: Journal
Publisher: Advances in Archaeological Practice

Dunes, death, and datasets: Modelling funerary monument construction in remote arid landscapes using spaceborne stereo imagery (Article)
Title: Dunes, death, and datasets: Modelling funerary monument construction in remote arid landscapes using spaceborne stereo imagery
Author: Jonathan S. Lim
Author: Gonzalo J. Linares Matás
Abstract: The Tabarit-East tumulus field is a large cluster of funerary monuments in the western Tagant (southern Mauritania), where fieldwork has long been restricted by security and logistical concerns. In this paper, we use photogrammetry derived from very high-resolution satellite stereo imagery to measure the volumetric geometry of these funerary monuments, in order to quantify labour energetics and calorific intake associated with construction efforts. This is the first time such a study has been attempted on archaeological structures of this size (more than 3.5m in diameter). Our results indicate that while the smaller tumuli could have been constructed by nuclear family members within a very short time span, the largest monuments would have demanded greater coordination, as we estimate them to have required the mobilisation of more than 200 person/days and over a million kilocalories. We contextualised how past communities may have engaged with these monuments through spatial analyses, such as least-cost pathways and viewsheds. This combined approach demonstrates the potential of remote sensing techniques to facilitate a deeper understanding of cultural heritage in dryland ecosystems. Furthermore, we aim to integrate these desk-based approaches with collaborative, community-centred fieldwork as soon as this becomes a viable option for this region of Mauritania.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105815
Access Model: Open-access
Format: Journal
Publisher: Journal of Archaeological Science

Aerial Drone Photogrammetry of Aboveground Mortuary Architecture in the Amazonian Andes (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Aerial Drone Photogrammetry of Aboveground Mortuary Architecture in the Amazonian Andes
Author: Raillard Arias, Daniela
Abstract: For centuries, Indigenous Andean communities known as the Chachapoya placed their ancestral dead in aboveground architecture across the landscape of the Amazonian Andes, in what is now northeastern Peru. The study of Chachapoya ancestral sites presents a series of ethical and practical challenges due to issues of cultural sensitivity, profuse looting, structural instability, site inaccessibility, tourism development, and the legacy of pseudoarchaeology in the region. Thus, I present a minimally invasive approach that combines local spatial knowledge with aerial drone photogrammetry to document, map, and study these sensitive and sacred places located in vertical environments. I discuss a methodology for conducting vertical flight paths to capture photographs of mortuary architecture built into limestone cliff faces. I then outline the process of photogrammetric modeling of drone photographs, developed through the SAROI workshop series. The resulting models enabled the identification of additional mortuary structures and can be further analyzed to reconstruct access patterns, building technologies and spatial relationships. This approach works toward providing an alternative to excavation that is attuned to the cultural and structural sensitivities of Chachapoya ancestral sites, where resulting models can be integrated into local management plans and heritage revitalization efforts.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Improving Understanding of the Location and Utility of Pueblo Gravel Mulch Fields Using Remote Sensing (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Improving Understanding of the Location and Utility of Pueblo Gravel Mulch Fields Using Remote Sensing
Author: Davis, Kaitlyn
Abstract: In this paper, I present the preliminary results of a study using remote sensing to document and better understand the functioning of Pueblo agricultural features. This study built on my dissertation research, which focused on recording and understanding precontact and historic Pueblo agricultural practices in the northern Rio Grande area of New Mexico. One of the most interesting dissertation findings was that Pueblo people were successfully growing certain crops in areas where, based on environmental conditions, they could not grow. Cobble-bordered gravel mulch field systems are found in these locations. Gravel mulch is thought to help retain heat and moisture. I attempted to assess the extent of heat retention to determine if it was enough to overcome the environmental constraints, or if other technologies also had to be used. This paper discusses the utility of airborne photogrammetry to find and map gravel mulch fields on the landscape, as well as the potential of handheld and airborne infrared imaging for assessing the thermoregulatory capabilities of gravel mulch fields. Through better understanding the utility and long-term functionality of these gravel mulch fields, communities will be able to assess how they would like to use these features for arid-land farming today.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Remote Sensing and Dynamic, Unique Landscape Perspectives (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Remote Sensing and Dynamic, Unique Landscape Perspectives
Author: Klehm, Carla
Author: Westmont, V. Camille
Author: Davis, Kaitlyn
Abstract: Remote sensing has been fundamental since the establishment of landscape archaeology, from capturing site layout to aiding in the synthesis of human-environmental relationships. Geospatial technology and its analytical software continue to advance at an accelerated pace and are considered almost integral to archaeological research. Critical reflections by scholars about the data acquisition, analysis, and visualization remind archaeologists that remote sensing data is not neutral, even when sensors are passive. For example, decisions about processing directly tie to what we see as do features of “significance” and the scales archaeologists use to derive their conclusions. This paper considers how remote sensing, especially very highresolution UAV and satellite-derived imagery, provides an exceptional and expressive perspective about the decisions and risks human societies engage with over time. We examine active (lidar) and passive (RGB, multispectral) data derived from case studies from the historical US Southeast, precolonial southern Africa, and precontact US Southwest to take a comparative look at the dynamic and uniqueness of 2.5/3D data. We discuss how remote sensing, as a methodological tool, can be used as a palimpsest with quantitative and qualitative attributes to conceptualize connectedness of people to place—not just what happens where, but why and why then.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Mapping Marronnage: Creating, Managing, and Visualizing Archival Datasets (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Mapping Marronnage: Creating, Managing, and Visualizing Archival Datasets
Author: Clay, Elizabeth
Abstract: In the nineteenth century, captive Africans in Guyane, a French colony and overseas territory in northeastern South America, increasingly sought their own freedom leading up to definitive abolition in 1848. Colonial administrators recognized the practice as a problem and began systematically documenting instances of marronnage, thereby creating a rich archaeological data source. Records related to the act of running away— and oftentimes subsequently recapture and re-enslavement—include details unavailable in other archival sources for this time and place, including naming practices, personal adornment choices, presumed African places of origin, the materiality of nineteenth-century Guyane, and the physical scars of slavery, in addition to spatial information related to sites of enslavement and strategies of escape. In this paper, I discuss the process of creating data from these archival fragments and propose ways of visualizing the information to reconstruct social and spatial relationships. While marronnage was much more prevalent in neighboring Suriname, where long-standing maroon communities persist to this day, the archival record offers one of the only ways to illuminate the existence and extent of the practice in the French Amazonian context.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Modeling Mobility and Lithic Raw Material Transport in the Late Pleistocene along the Southern Coast of South Africa (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Modeling Mobility and Lithic Raw Material Transport in the Late Pleistocene along the Southern Coast of South Africa
Author: Watson, Sara
Author: Zhang, Peiqi
Author: McNeill, Patricia
Author: Wyatt, Katie
Abstract: Understanding how hunter-gatherer groups move around the landscape is essential for answering questions about human behavioral ecology and evolution of the social landscape. Lithic raw material proveniencing sheds light on how far people in the past were traveling for toolstone and whether people from different sites were accessing the same raw materials but can be challenging. We applied digital methods for spatial analyses to create predictive models of raw material source access for silcrete for three late Pleistocene sites in South Africa, two coastal and one inland. Silcrete, a terrestrial sedimentary rock, is rare along the southern coast of South Africa and becomes more common inland at higher elevations. The discrete outcrops of silcrete and its relatively low frequency on the landscape provide an opportunity for geochemical proveniencing. We performed least-cost analyses to determine which sources people from each site should acquire silcrete raw materials from if they are trying to access the least energetically costly sources based on terrain and distance to source. Future research will include collecting samples from these locations and comparing the geochemical composition of collected samples with silcrete artifacts from the sites to see if the artifacts come from the modeled raw material collection locations.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Using Digital Technologies to Enhance Public Interpretation and Increase Access at Booker T. Washington National Monument (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Using Digital Technologies to Enhance Public Interpretation and Increase Access at Booker T. Washington National Monument
Author: Goldberg, Kelly
Author: Fogle, Kevin
Abstract: The site of Booker T. Washington’s birth and enslavement in Hardy County, Virginia, has been honored since 1945 when the farm was purchased to serve both as a memorial and a school. Eventually incorporated into the National Park system in the 1950s, this site has been the focal point of various historical landscape research endeavors, seeking to interpret experiences of slavery, the Civil War, and emancipation. For over half a century, shifting sociopolitical climates, development of archaeological landscape theory, and increases in applications of multivocality in site interpretation have impacted research motivations and directly affected the trajectory of park interpretive frameworks. This paper discusses ongoing efforts to incorporate digital technologies to more readily engage a public audience in the conversation behind academic research agendas, and explore the complexities of interpretive strategies at a National Park Service site that highlights complex and compounded histories.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Nuna Nalluituq / The Land Remembers: Spatial Technology and Community Engagement to Protect Alaska Native Heritage Landscapes (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Nuna Nalluituq / The Land Remembers: Spatial Technology and Community Engagement to Protect Alaska Native Heritage Landscapes
Author: Lim, Jonathan
Abstract: Southwest Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta, where two immense salmon-bearing rivers flow into the Bering Sea, is the ancestral homeland of the Yup’ik people. This biodiverse subarctic tundra wetland is a landscape in constant flux from the annual cycle of flooding, silting, and erosion. However, the effects of unmitigated climate warming have accelerated landscape change to an unprecedented degree, threatening modern infrastructure, heritage, and traditional Yup’ik subsistence lifeways. There is therefore a need to develop new strategies to assist communities in monitoring these at-risk landscapes. Based on fieldwork conducted with the community of Quinhagak, it will be demonstrated how high-density survey and measurement, archival spatial datasets, and community engagement may be deployed to (1) identify undocumented heritage sites and (2) monitor known ones. For example, multispectral false-color composites and digital elevation models derived from unpiloted aerial vehicles are best used in tandem to locate precontact sod-built structures. An experimental points-based system that considers ethnographic accounts and traditional place-name etymology alongside topography may be used to model past subsistence use. Automated change detection and visual inspection of archival imagery are effective for identifying areas of the landscape that are most endangered from erosion
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Remembering ichaskhah (Camp Creek): Low-Impact Methodologies for Documenting an Early Twentieth-Century Wichita Camp and Dance Ground in Oklahoma (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Remembering ichaskhah (Camp Creek): Low-Impact Methodologies for Documenting an Early Twentieth-Century Wichita Camp and Dance Ground in Oklahoma
Author: Bethke, Brandi
Author: Trabert, Sarah
Author: McAdams, Gary
Abstract: The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes have a long history of occupation in Oklahoma. This includes evidence of both pre- and postcontact habitations along major and minor waterways near Anadarko, Oklahoma. Here Wichita peoples camped, built grass houses and arbors, and held social gatherings in these spaces leading up to and following the passing of the General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act) in 1887. After allotment, communal camp and dance grounds were especially important focal points for community building. These Allotment period sites are critical to understanding the multigenerational connections between ancestral and contemporary Wichita peoples. This history is also important to the community today. However, few archaeological sites from the Allotment period have been documented. This paper presents a collaborative, low-impact methodology for identifying and recording the ichaskhah (Camp Creek) site that was used from the 1930s until 1963 as a center of Wichita social life.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

MicroCT, Maternal Health, and Stress at the Beginning of Life (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: MicroCT, Maternal Health, and Stress at the Beginning of Life
Author: Charles, B
Abstract: In Winona LaDuke’s All Our Relations, the Mohawk midwife and environmental activist Katsi Cook declares that women are the first environment. Fetal growth and development correlate with the condition of that first environment. An infant skeleton with identifiable indicators of stress may hint to differential access to prenatal nutrition, maternal health, or other factors impacting pregnancy outcomes. However, bioarchaeologists have often avoided pathological studies of perinatal remains because the rapid new bone growth that typically occurs during this period is virtually indistinguishable from structures indicative of prolonged exposure to environmental stressors. MicroCT is a powerful nondestructive tool with the potential to distinguish between these osteological microstructures in the developing skeleton. This paper reviews recent studies that implemented MicroCT to investigate the microstructures of perinatal bone and considers factors that influence patterns of bone formation and growth in utero. Through MicroCT investigations of early life, we may also gain contextual insight on pregnancy in the past, and the lives of the women who experienced it.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

From Bluffs to Floodplain: A Spatial Approach to Mississippian Communities in the Ozarks of Arkansas (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: From Bluffs to Floodplain: A Spatial Approach to Mississippian Communities in the Ozarks of Arkansas
Author: Kowalski, Jessica
Abstract: Mississippian (ca. AD 1000–1500) occupation of the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas is known through few multiple-mound ceremonial centers in river valleys and from rockshelters along limestone bluff lines. Few permanent habitation sites are recorded, and understanding how sites articulate in a larger settlement system is a major research question for the area. Using a combination of spatial datasets, including aerial imagery, lidar, and near-surface remote-sensing, characteristics such as site location, size, proximity, and layout are examined. Based on these variables, settlement appears largely unchanged from the preceding Woodland period indicating the strong influence of tradition in shaping Mississippian lifeways, despite the introduction of mound ceremonialism and major changes in subsistence.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

Landscapes of Stone in Mauritius and Zanzibar (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Landscapes of Stone in Mauritius and Zanzibar
Author: Haines, Julia Jong
Author: Alders, Wolfgang
Abstract: Using archaeological and geospatial methods, we compare landscape modifications associated with the maintenance of the monocropping plantation orders under Omani, French, and British colonialism in nineteenth-century Zanzibar and Mauritius. How do similarities and differences in the material signatures of these island sites inform an understanding of colonial historical processes in the Indian Ocean? In Zanzibar, Swahili communities displaced from plantation areas built field walls, grew root crops, and dug wells in the coralline limestone bedrock, strategies that enabled community resilience beyond the areas that Omani planters transformed for commodified clove production. In Mauritius, enslaved and indentured people from East Africa and South Asia transformed the previously uninhabited island into a sugar colony; they displaced stones into rocky lines, pyramids, and walls and dug bore holes in the basalt bedrock. This process visibly delineated owned-land from non-property land, altering the very fabric of the island in the process. In both cases, stony landscapes mediated different approaches to agricultural production, land use, and community building. By tracing the material signatures of stony landscape modification we establish a methodology for comparative studies of small-scale adaptations to social and environmental change within the context of largescale processes of agro-capitalism, colonialism, and ecological transformation.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

From “Gray Literature” to “Big Data”: Synthesizing Archaeological Data in Washington, DC (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: From “Gray Literature” to “Big Data”: Synthesizing Archaeological Data in Washington, DC
Author: Lupu, Jennifer
Abstract: The vast array of technical reports produced through cultural resources management (CRM) archaeology are sometimes referred to as “gray literature,” due to their limited reuse after the project is completed. However, archaeologists working in CRM excavate the majority of sites in the United States, and these reports represent the collected findings of decades of archaeological excavation; they provide a valuable but complex dataset for addressing numerous research questions. As archaeologists continue to call for synthetic research and collections-based work, the under-examined data from the “gray literature” provides an opportunity for a “big data” approach to synthesizing archaeological findings. In this paper, I discuss methodological possibilities and obstacles for tackling this dataset. I use ArcGIS and R to experiment with approaches to data visualization and analysis. As a case study, I examine data from technical reports relating to 40 household refuse deposits, excavated within the city of Washington, DC. The dataset draws together artifacts discarded between 1850 and 1930, collected during archaeological projects that took place between 1980 and today. I discuss how I collected and “cleaned” the data from the reports, and present preliminary approaches to visualization and analysis.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

2023 SAROI Second Workshop on Data Visualization, Publication, and Archiving (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: 2023 SAROI Second Workshop on Data Visualization, Publication, and Archiving
Author: Carla Klehm
Abstract: The second in-person workshop for SAROI concentrates on visualization, publication, and archiving. Topics covered included: data integration and analytics, High Density Survey and Measurement (HDSM) protocols and thoughtful data management plans, data preparation, an introduction to tools and techniques for visualization, continued visualization and publication software demonstrations, post-product organization and metadata standards, publication strategies, and data storage and archiving for preservation and reuse. The workshop schedule is included as a supplemental document with this report.
Date Range: 08/06/2023-08/12/2023
Location: Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Primary URL: https://saroi.cast.uark.edu/structure/

Symposium · ADVENTURES IN SPATIAL ARCHAEOMETRY: A SURVEY OF RECENT HIGH-RESOLUTION SURVEY AND MEASUREMENT APPLICATIONS (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Symposium · ADVENTURES IN SPATIAL ARCHAEOMETRY: A SURVEY OF RECENT HIGH-RESOLUTION SURVEY AND MEASUREMENT APPLICATIONS
Author: Clay, Elizabeth
Author: Watson, Sara
Abstract: Geospatial technology is an increasingly integral component in the measurement and analysis of time, space, and form. The democratization of methods in high-density survey and measurement (HDSM), such as photogrammetry and laser scanning, creates new opportunities and challenges alike. Keeping abreast of rapid advances requires a regular survey of applications. Emerging, early career scholars are often among the most innovative of users. SAROI, the Spatial Archaeology Residential and Online Institute, an NEH-funded initiative hosted by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas, has provided training to 19 emerging scholars in HDSM. This session showcases the multiple ways that SAROI fellows engage with spatial data to analyze landscapes, sites, features, and objects. Fellowship projects address a wide range of time periods and are unified not just through the use of HDSM techniques but through their commitment to highlighting marginalized histories and through research and representation in the Global South. Applications of HDSM discussed in the session include 3D modeling using sUAS sensors, photogrammetry, and microCT, satellite and aerial imagery analysis, and geospatial database creation and analysis.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-annualmeeting/abstract/88th-annual-meeting-abstracts-(portland_or_2023).pdf?sfvrsn=b98cc9a3_4&_gl=1*zmyq0c*_ga*OTQzMzQzNjUwLjE2MTE3NzM1MzI.*_ga_6SSR7BY1NJ*MTcwMTEyMDI3My4yNS4xLjE3MDExMjA2OTcuMC4w
Conference Name: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting

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