Networking Archaeological Data
and Communities
An NEH Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities
Institute Format
Networking Archaeological Data and Communities is organized around four semesters devoted to specific themes: The Data Management Lifecycle (Spring 2023), Data for Professional Communication (Fall 2023), Data for Diverse Publics (Spring 2024), and Data for the Classroom (Fall 2024). Each semester includes three or four online, synchronous workshops, scheduled on Saturdays from 10:30am - 1:10pm and 1:45pm - 3:30pm eastern time. Participants will be asked to complete a bit of preparatory work before each workshop, which will itself consist of faculty-led lectures and learning activities that contribute to individual and collective outcomes.
In addition to these online workshops, members of the Core Team will host two, in-person, multi-day summer programs (July 24 - 28, 2023 and July 22 - 26, 2024) at the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley. These programs will offer participants opportunities for in person collaboration, learning, and networking with other institute participants and members of the institute's Core Team. Furthermore, these programs will help cultivate a sense of community and accountability among participants.
Between the time spent in the online workshops and the in-person summer programs, participants, Faculty, and Core Team members will be encouraged to keep the conversation going on the AAI/OC's Discord server. Moreover, at the conclusion of our formal curriculum, in Spring and Summer 2025, members of the Core Team, Advisors, and Faculty will finalize and publish the Data Literacy for Archaeologists Practice Guide and will support participants as they finish up and share their individual projects.
Curriculum
Last updated: August 26, 2024
Please note that the curriculum that follows is tentative; both schedule and scope are subject to change at the discretion of the Program Director or the members of the Faculty. To download this curriculum as a pdf, click here.
Spring Semester I: The Data Management Lifecycle
January - April 2023
Creating Clean Data and Cleaning Messy Data
January 21, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Melissa Cradic (Facilitator)
Leigh Anne Lieberman
Paulina F. Przystupa
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Kansa, S. W., L. Atici, E. C. Kansa, and R. H. Meadow (2020) “Archaeological Analysis in the Information Age: Guidelines for Maximizing the Reach, Comprehensiveness, and Longevity of Data.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 8 (1), 40-52. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2019.36.
Download & Install: Open Refine
Watch: Open Refine for Archaeology: Open Source Data Cleaning
Additional Resources
Dennis, L. Meghan and Paulina F. Przystupa. Cow-culating your Data with Spreadsheets and R. Data Story Tutorial. The Alexandria Archive Institute. 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M73N21HR.
Lincoln, Matthew D. "Tidy Data for the Humanities." Matthew Lincoln, PhD(blog), 26 May 2020, https://matthewlincoln.net/2020/05/26/tidy-data-for-humanities.html.
Rawson, Katie, and Trevor Muñoz. “Against Cleaning.” In Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019, 279–92. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
Rivard, Courtney, Taylor Arnold, and Lauren Tilton. “Building Pedagogy into Project Development: Making Data Construction Visible in Digital Projects.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 13, no. 2 (August 1, 2019). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/13/2/000419/000419.html.
Rosenberg, Daniel. “Data before the Fact.” In “Raw Data” Is an Oxymoron, 15–40. Infrastructures Series. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2013.
van Hooland, Seth, Ruben Verborgh, and Max De Wilde, "Cleaning Data with OpenRefine," Programming Historian 2 (2013), https://doi.org/10.46430/phen0023.
Participant Outcomes
Familiarity with attributes of data quality, including unique identifiers, controlled vocabulary, appropriate documentation, etc.
Experience finding and evaluating open archaeological data in online repositories.
Experience cleaning messy data with a program like OpenRefine.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated samples of clean archaeological data sets.
Next Steps
Practice cleaning messy data using the tool of your choice.
Continue to define (and refine) your project-specific needs and standards.
Data in the Field
February 11, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Anne Austin
Sarah Whitcher Kansa
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Faniel, Ixchel, Anne Austin, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Eric Kansa, Jennifer Jacobs, and Phoebe France (2021). “Identifying Opportunities for Collective Curation During Archaeological Excavations.” International Journal of Digital Curation 15, no. 1: 13. https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v15i1.699.
Consider: Kansa, Sarah Whitcher, Austin, Anne, Faniel, Ixchel M, & Kansa, Eric C. (2020). Specialist Agreement Template. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4346486.
As you consider the Specialist Agreement Template, how would you modify it for your own project? What’s missing? What would you cut? We’ll spend some time in our session reflection on these questions, so jot down some ideas and begin to adapt the template for your own context.
Prepare: If you have a current paper or digital data collection form for some aspect of archaeological field work, come ready to share that with the group, and be prepared to share an annotated version of that for our Data Literacy for Archaeologists Practice Guide.
Additional Resources
Ross, Shawn, Brian Ballsun-Stanton, Steve Cassidy, Penny Crook, Jens Klump, and Adela Sobotkova. “FAIRer Data through Digital Recording: The FAIMS Mobile Experience.” Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 5, no. 1 (2022): 271–85. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.96.
White, Roger (2009) “Data Collection by Excavation.” The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology, eds. Chris Gosden, B. Cunliffe, and R. A. Joyce. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press.
Participant Outcomes
Understanding of the ways that paper or digital data collection forms guide the types of data that are collected.
Create paper and/or digital data collection forms for individual research projects that incorporate attributes of data quality.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated samples that demonstrate how the Specialist Agreement Template can be adapted to fit a given project.
Annotated samples of paper and digital data collection forms for multiple aspects of archaeological field work (e.g.: excavation, survey, flotation, materials analysis, etc.)
Next Steps
Revise a specialist agreement to suit your project(s).
Revise the ways you collect data to make your data structures more resusable.
Produce or revise written guidelines for data collection for your project(s).
Legacy Data
March 18, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Anne Hunnell Chen
Sarah Whitcher Kansa (Facilitator)
Leigh Anne Lieberman
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Watch: this short video with reflections from NADAC faculty and friends. (Link to mp4 file here; Link to YouTube video with auto captions here; 25 minutes).
Create: a Wikipedia account so that you’ll be ready for our Wikidata exercise. If you’ve ever worked on Wikipedia, you can use that same account.
Complete: Wikidata Professional Development Training Modules. All of these modules should take about an hour and twenty minutes to complete, and are broken into 15-20 minute sections. If you need to prioritize, please be sure you have covered Introduction to Wikidata, Databases and Linked Data, Adding to Wikidata, and Querying Wikidata - SPARQL.
Think about your project and the legacy data you would like to integrate into it. In what format does the information currently reside? Are there traditional publications (i.e.: excavation reports) or other text-based resources that you have access to (i.e.: field notebooks)? Do you have old spreadsheets of data collected by previous projects? Do you have material like maps/photographs/drawings/plans that need to be digitized? If you can, bring a report, field notebook, spreadsheet, or static database to work with during our Saturday session. Don’t worry if nothing comes to mind or if you don’t feel comfortable working with your data yet. We’ll provide material drawn from our own projects such that all participants will be able to engage in the exercises, but we welcome you to experiment with data that are relevant to the specifics of your own project.
Additional Resources
Aspöck, Edeltraud. “Old Excavation Data. What Can We Do? An Introduction.” Edited by Edeltraud Aspöck, Seta Štuhec, Karin Kopetzky, and Matthias Kucera. Vol. 16. Old Excavation Data. What Can We Do? Wien, Austria: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2020. doi:10.1553/0x003bca0e. PDF.
Linked Open Data Management Systems Comparison Tool, cited in Nasarek, Robert, & Rossenova, Lozana. (2023). Linked Open Data Management Services: A Comparison (1.0.0) [Data set]. DHd2023 Open Humanities Open Culture (DHd2023), Trier and Luxembourg. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7738424.
Schmidt, Sophie C., Florian Thiery, and Martina Trognitz. “Practices of Linked Open Data in Archaeology and Their Realisation in Wikidata.” Digital 2, no. 3 (2022): 333–64. https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2030019. PDF.
Participant Outcomes
Understanding of the challenges of working with legacy data, especially with respect to data curation and data management.
Experience working through text-based, tabular, and visual resources in Wikidata.
Collective Outcomes
Reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of using a tool like Wikidata to process and publish legacy data.
Next Steps
Identify the kinds of legacy resources that you have to contend with (handwritten notebooks, photographs, reports, etc.) and brainstorm how you want to consistently process each type.
Continue to explore Wikidata (and other open vocabularies, gazetteers, etc.) to find resources that work for your project. Using SQID or querying, see if Wikidata would be appropriate for the kind of work you’re doing.
Play around with Wikidata in a very low stakes way by adding references to records about something you know.
Long- and Short-Term Access and Storage
April 15, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Ixchel M. Faniel
Eric Kansa
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Faniel, I.M., A. Austin, E. C. Kansa, S. W. Kansa, P. France, J. Jacobs, R. Boytner, and E. Yakel (2018) “Beyond the archive: bridging data creation and reuse in archaeology.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 6(2), 105-116. doi:10.1017/aap.2018.2. PDF.
Read: Nicholson, C., Kansa, S., Gupta, N., & Fernandez, R. (2023). “Will It Ever Be FAIR?: Making Archaeological Data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.40. PDF.
Additional Resources
Data Sharing, Part 1 of 3 - Request (Data management gone wrong!
Kansa, E. C., and Sarah Whitcher Kansa. “Promoting Data Quality and Reuse in Archaeology through Collaborative Identifier Practices.” PNAS 119 (2022): 43. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109313118. PDF.
Online services available to build a data management plan (DMP) - DMPTool and DMPonline.
SAA Guidance Regarding National Science Foundation Archaeological Data Management Plans (n.d.)
PARTHENOS DMP Research Template for Archaeological Datasets (n.d.)
Digital Curation Centre v1 (2011)
Digital Curation Centre v2 (2021) (NB: Found by searching under Funder Requirements on the DMPTool website)
Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management - Extended Edition (2021)
Research Data Management Organizer
Participant Outcomes
Familiarity with the attributes of a good data management plan (DMP).
Identification of a model for individual research projects’ DMP.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated samples of data management plans for archaeological research projects.
Next Steps
Using the DMP guidance documents shared above, start outlining a draft of your DMP. Keep a running list of your questions and concerns. Continue to identify and meet people you need to go to for help (e.g., librarians, stakeholders, collaborators, colleagues).
Summer Workshop I
July 2023
Networking Data
July 24 - 28, 2023
Berkeley, California, co-sponsored by the Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion
Faculty
Leigh Anne Lieberman
Sarah Whitcher Kansa
Eric Kansa
Melissa Cradic
L. Meghan Dennis
Paulina F. Przystupa
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Draft: an internally-facing DMP (BYO DMP) to bring to the Summer Workshop to share and review with fellow Scholars and members of the Institute’s Core Team.
Identify: an ontology, set of standard vocabulary, open data set, etc., to map their existing data structures to or to adapt for use in their projects.
Plan: a short presentation (no more than 10 minutes) that introduces the rest of the Institute to their project’s goals. This presentation should showcase one place where you've made progress on your project since the start of the program in January 2023. This presentation should also outline one challenge or difficulty that you'd like to get feedback on during the course of the Summer Workshop. What do you want feedback about from other members of this Institute? In other words, how can this group help you this week and beyond?
Additional Resources
Chavez, Felicia Rose. The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop : How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom. BreakBeat Poets Series. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books, 2021. Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
Lerman, Liz. Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process : A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert. 1st ed. Takoma Park, MD: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, 2003.
Participant Outcomes
Opportunities to network with other Scholars and Institute Core Team.
Data management plan for individual research projects drafted.
Plan to incorporate appropriate Linked Open Data ontologies, vocabularies, and other resources into their research data sets drafted.
Opportunity to present a brief update about progress since the start of the Institute.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated examples of Data Management Plans (DMPs) for archaeological research projects.
Annotated examples of why and how to integrate Linked Open Data (LOD) into general data management practices for archaeological research projects.
Annotated list of LOD resources and their potential uses.
Fall Semester I: Data for Professional Communication
September - December 2023
The Ethics of Data
September 9, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
L. Meghan Dennis
Eric Kansa
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Carroll, S.R., E. Herczog, M. Hudson, K. Russell, and S. Stall (2021). “Operationalizing the FAIR and CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Futures.” Scientific Data 8: 108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00892-0.
Read: Dennis, L. M. (2020). “Digital archaeological ethics: Successes and failures in disciplinary attention.” Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 3(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.24.
Read: Richardson, L.-J., (2018). “Ethical Challenges in Digital Public Archaeology.” Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 1(1), p.64-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.13.
Consider: The Data Hazards Project. Go through the Data Hazard labels and pick out three that you think could be issues for your project. What factors within your projects might cause these issues?
Consider: Creative Commons Licenses. Consult the About CC Licenses page and decide which license is most applicable to your project (You can use the License Chooser for a little help). Compare the license you’ve selected with the next most restrictive license, and next least restrictive license. What aspects of these two other licenses helped you make your decision?
Additional Resources
The Alan Turing Institute: This site has a wealth of information about data ethics. The blog, linked, offers short takes on major ethical issues related to data today.
The Archaeological Ethics Database (AED): The AED provides a general overview of resources and publications concerning archaeological ethics. Please note, articles after 2021 are not included, and the resource is focused primarily on dirt-in-the-skirt archaeological issues.
CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship
Mother Forkin’ Morals with Dr. Todd May - The Good Place: Dr. May provides a few short videos explaining the basics of different ethical systems. These are paired with examples and clips from the tv show The Good Place.
Participant Outcomes
- Familiarity with FAIR and CARE principles; different licensing requirements; and how to learn about local rules and regulations.
- Comprehensive working list of the ways in which individual research projects will put FAIR and CARE principles into practice.
Collective Outcomes
- Compilation of approaches where data-driven archaeological research and public engagement projects can align practices with FAIR and CARE principles.
Next Steps
- Make a list of actionable steps you can take to mitigate the ethical issues that may concern your projects.
- Determine your ethical framework and its theoretical basis.
- Review the ethical guidelines for any professional organizations you belong to.
- Choose a license for your project and write a short statement explaining the reasoning behind your choice.
Publishers and Publishing Data
October 21, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
William Caraher
Sarah Herr
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Caraher, William (2019) “Collaborative Digital Publishing in Archaeology: Data, Workflows, and Books in the Age of Logistics.” Critical Archaeology in a Digital Age, ed. K. Garstki. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 153-163. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vh9t9jq.
Read: Opitz, Rachel (2018) "Publishing archaeological excavations at the digital turn." Journal of Field Archaeology 43.sup1: S68-S82. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1505409.
Read; Strupler, Néhémie (2021) “Re-discovering Archaeological Discoveries. Experiments with reproducing archaeological survey analysis,” Internet Archaeology 56. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.56.6.
Read; Wallis, Lynley A., Susan O'Sullivan, May Nango, Djaykuk Djandomerr, Jillian Huntley, Brandi L. MacDonald, Clarry Nadjamerrek, and Justin O'Brien (2023) "Codesigned Archaeological Research in the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, Australia" Advances in Archaeological Practice 11(3): 274-288. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2023.10.
Skim: Various Authors (2020) “Archaeology in the Age of Big Data” Journal of Field Archaeology 45, Supplement 1: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yjfa20/45/sup1.
Surf: Cambridge Core: Read and Publish Agreements
Listen: Whenever I’ve thought about this topic (and this is Bill, btw), I’ve done so listening to Maria Schneider’s album Data Lords (2020). It’s not only fantastic, but impossible to share for some interesting and some incredibly conventional reasons. Here’s a link.
Consider: What are the practical, professional, and ethical considerations that shape the publication of archaeological knowledge? How do these change when we integrate digital data both to traditional publications and to our understanding of the publishing workflow?
Additional Resources
Caraher, William, R. S. Moore, and David K. Pettegrew (2014) Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town. 2014. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:11361/.
Cheng, C. (2023) “Root Seeking and Remote Sensing with the Bunun in the Mountains of Taiwan.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(3), 289-301. http://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2023.11.
Counts, Derek B., Erin Walcek Averett, Kevin Garstki, and Michael Toumazou (2020) Visualizing Votive Practice: Exploring Limestone and Terracotta Sculpture from Athienou-Malloura through 3D Models. 2020. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota. https://thedigitalpress.org/vvp/.
Cambridge Core: Waivers and Discounts
Manifold (and its instance at the University of Minnesota Press)
Marwick, B., & Pilaar Birch, S. E. (2018) “A standard for the scholarly citation of archaeological data as an incentive to data sharing.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 6(2), 125-143. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.3.
Opitz, Rachel, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato, eds (2016). A Mid-Republican House From Gabii. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9231782.
Pitblado, B., Cooley, D., Deere, B., Dudley, M., McLeod, A., Moore, K., & Palacios, H. (2023) “The Oklahoma Public Archaeology Network (OKPAN): Leveraging University Resources to Serve Historically Excluded Communities.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(3), 314-327. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2023.9.
Rose, Thomas; Klein, Sabine; Hanning, Erica K. (2020) Copper isotope fractionation during prehistoric smelting of copper sulfides: experimental and analytical data. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2020.013.
Selden, Robert Z. Jr., Butaric, L. N., Bergstrom, K., & Dennis, V. G. (2021) “Considerations for post-processing parameters in mixed-method 3D analyses: A mesolithic mandibular case study.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 9(4), 325-337. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2021.18.
Sinensky, R., & Farahani, A. (2018) “Diversity-Disturbance Relationships in the Late Archaic Southwest: Implications for Farmer-Forager Foodways.” American Antiquity, 83(2), 281-301. http://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2017.74.
University of Alberta, Indigenous Citation Styles
Van Dyke, Ruth M., and Carrie C. Heitman (2021) The Greater Chaco Landscape Ancestors, Scholarship, and Advocacy. Louisville: University Press of Colorado. Link.
Wade, Lizzie (2023) “Archaeology society spars over publishing photos of Indigenous burial offerings,” Science, Vo. 382, Issue 6668. Link.
Participant Outcomes
- Identification of methods (“green”, “gold”, “diamond”) and venues for open access publication related to individual research projects.
- Identification of data set to be integrated into open access publication related to individual research projects.
- Identification of key practical, professional, and ethical considerations that link the data production process in the field with data publication in traditional venues.
Collective Outcomes
- Annotated samples of digital publications that integrate research data.
Next Steps
- Identify traditional archaeological publishers that regularly publish data rich publications and consider the pros and cons of these venues for your project.
- Find publications that offer a model template suitable for the kind of digital information that you would integrate with your publication.
- Find complementary datasets to integrate with your data in order to expand both the impact of your data set and the contribute to the network of publish linked data
- Expand your list of actionable steps that you prepared in the last module to consider how various publishing priorities intersect with ethical issues that may concern your projects.
Authors and Publishing Data
December 2, 2023
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Angela Trentecosta
Kevin Garstki
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Lodwick, Lisa (2019) “Sowing the seeds of future research: data sharing, citation and reuse in Archaeobotany.” Open Quaternary, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/oq.62.
Read: Marwick, Ben, & Birch, Suzanne E. Pilaar (2018) “A standard for the scholarly citation of archaeological data as an incentive to data sharing.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 6(2), 125-143. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.3.
Read: Huggett, Jeremy (2018) "Reuse remix recycle: repurposing archaeological digital data." Advances in Archaeological Practice 6.2: 93-104. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.1.
Browse: Look through the collectively curated Linked Open Data (LOD) Resources list, the examples shared below, and the web to get an idea of how others are disseminating data relevant to your project.
Consider: In past workshops you have focused on why you are sharing data and with whom you want to share it. In this session, we will be thinking more about how to achieve this, and how to maximize the potential of data for future reuse.
Take some time prior to the workshop to think about some questions related to your own data:
- How do you envision these data being used after they are published?
- What are the barriers that could impede your target audience and other users from connecting with and re-using your data? Either on the side of the data publication or of the (re)user?
- What will the post-publication life and development of your data be like? Will they change after publication? How might this impact reuse?
Prepare: Select one or more examples of published data from the Linked Open Data (LOD) Resources list, the examples shared below, and the web that are most relevant for your data and your projects.
Examples of Archaeological Data Publication
General (and some repositories)
Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Internet Archaeology Data Papers
Journal of Open Archaeological Data
Pure3D - In Progress
The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR)
Instruction and Teaching
The Open Digital Archaeology Textbook
Reproducible Analysis
Ben Marwick's list of publications that include R code
R package with dataset included
Pozo, Jose Maria, et al. (2023) “Zoolog R Package: Zooarchaeological Analysis with Log-Ratios.” Quaternary International, Zooarchaeology in the Interconnected Mediterranean: Livestock Production and Biometric Change between the Metal Ages and Late Antiquity, Vols. 662–663: 4–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2022.11.006.
Proceedings from a 2-part workshop and conference teaching researchers to use the package and then publishing their own data with it: Trentacoste, A., Nieto-Espinet, A., Valenzuela-Lamas, S. “Zooarchaeology in the Interconnected Mediterranean: Livestock Production and Biometric Change between the Metal Ages and Late Antiquity.” Quaternary International, Zooarchaeology in the Interconnected Mediterranean: Livestock Production and Biometric Change between the Metal Ages and Late Antiquity, Vols. 662–663:1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2023.06.001.
Excavation data
Opitz, Rachel, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato, eds. (2016). A Mid-Republican House From Gabii. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9231782.
3D data
Counts, Derek B., Erin Walcek Averett, Kevin Garstki, and Michael Toumazou (2020) Visualizing Votive Practice: Exploring Limestone and Terracotta Sculpture from Athienou-Malloura through 3D Models. 2020. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota. https://thedigitalpress.org/vvp/.
Štular, Benjamin, et al. (2015) 3D Archaeology: Early Medieval Earrings from Kranj. Institute of Archaeology ZRC SAZU, ZRC Publishing. Apple Books link.
Douglass, M., Lin, S., & Chodoronek, M. (2015). “The Application of 3D Photogrammetry for In-Field Documentation of Archaeological Features.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 3(2), 136-152. https://doi.org/10.7183/2326-3768.3.2.136.
Landscape data
Archaeological LiDAR: Miren-Kostanjevica (Slovenia) case study
Additional Resources
Garstki, Kevin (2022) “Teaching for Data Reuse and Working toward Digital Literacy in Archaeology.” Advances in Archaeological Practice, 10(2), 177-186. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.3.
Gupta, Neha, et al. (2023) "The CARE Principles and the Reuse, Sharing, and Curation of Indigenous Data in Canadian Archaeology." Advances in Archaeological Practice 11.1: 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.33.
Marwick, Ben, Li-Ying Wang, Ryan Robinson, and Hope Loiselle (2020) "How to use replication assignments for teaching integrity in empirical archaeology." Advances in Archaeological Practice 8, no. 1: 78-86. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2019.38.
Tringham, Ruth (2022) "On the Digital and Analog Afterlives of Archaeological Projects." Critical Archaeology in a Digital Age, ed. K. Garstki. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 185-200. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vh9t9jq.
Transforming Data Reuse in Archaeology (TETRACHs)
Participant Outcomes
- Comprehensive working list of the ways in which data sets related to individual research projects can be published and reused, as well as specific measures that will help promote reuse.
Collective Outcomes
- Principle ways in which archaeological research data sets can be reused together with good practices that facilitate data reuse.
Next Steps
In this session, as well as the previous workshop, you touched on traditional archaeological publishers that regularly publish data rich publications and considered the pros and cons of these venues for your project. Now, using the information and alternative publishing models discussed, solidify a list of platforms that will be suitable to publish your data.
Refine your reasoning for why you’re publishing your data, as well as other factors that will affect you publishing these data in traditional ways.
Reflect on the many communities that could interact and/or be affected by the publication of your data.
List ways that your data in particular should be alternatively structured for diverse learners.
List ways that your data (and research) have been shaped by colonial perspectives, structures, and institutions.
Consider if there are boundaries to stakeholders/interested parties in accessing and understanding your data.
Spring Semester II: Data for Diverse Publics
January - May 2024
Decolonizing Data
January 20, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Neha Gupta
Edward González-Tennant
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Montgomery, Lindsay M., et al. “Advocating for Archaeology’s New Purpose.” Sapiens, March 15, 2023. Link.
Read: Rizvi, Uzma Z. “Decolonizing Archaeology: On the Global Heritage of Epistemic Laziness.” In Two Days after Forever: A Reader on the Choreography of Time: The Cyprus Pavilion Biennale Arte 2015, edited by C. Panayiotou and O. Kholeif. London, UK: Sternberg Press, 2015.
Prepare: After reading the two assigned articles, write a short piece (one or two paragraphs) on how the concepts presented in those articles relate to your NADAC research. Be prepared to share your writing during our workshop.
Additional Resources
Rhodes Must Fall Goes Global, 2020, YouTube, https://youtu.be/g9hzWsXUoKI?feature=shared
UCT Rhodes Must Fall Movement, 2015, https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/assets/documents/events/UCT-Rhodes-Must-Fall-Statement.pdf
African Digital Heritage, 2024, https://africandigitalheritage.org/
Native-Land Digital, 2024, https://native-land.ca
Open Restitution Africa, 2024, https://openrestitution.africa/
An Unofficial Guide to the Disputed Artefacts of the British Museum, 2024, https://theunfilteredhistorytour.com/
Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD), 2024, https://rradnagaland.org/
Land-Grab Universities, 2024, https://www.landgrabu.org/
Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal (built on Mukurtu), 2024, https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/
Reciprocal Research Network, 2024, https://www.rrncommunity.org/
Local Contexts, 2024, https://localcontexts.org/
Digging Up the Rez: Piikani Historical Archaeology, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zhx9WaU9go
Indian Community Cookbook Project, 2024, https://www.indiancommunitycookbookproject.com/
Black Cemetery Network, 2024, https://blackcemeterynetwork.org/
Rosewood Heritage & VR Project, https://www.virtualrosewood.com/
Ali, Syed Mustafa. 2016. “A Brief Introduction to Decolonial Computing.” XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 22 (4): 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1145/2930886.
Bhambra, Gurminder K. 2014. “Postcolonial and Decolonial Dialogues.” Postcolonial Studies 17, no. 2: 115–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2014.966414.
González-Tennant, Edward. 2014. ¨The “Color” of Heritage: Decolonizing Collaborative Archaeology in the Caribbean.¨ Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 3(1):26-50.
Gupta, Neha. 2013. “Cultural Continuity, Identity and Archaeological Practice in the Indian Context”. In Human Expeditions: Inspired by Bruce Trigger edited by Stephen Chrisomalis and Andre Costopoulos, pp. 102-115. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. url: https://zenodo.org/record/822835
Haber, Alejandro. 2016. “Decolonizing Archaeological Thought in South America.” Annual Review of Anthropology 45 (1): 469–85. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095906
Wylie, Alison. 2015. “A Plurality of Pluralisms: Collaborative Practice in Archaeology.” In Objectivity in Science, edited by Flavia Padovani, Alan Richardson, and Jonathan Y. Tsou, 310:189–210. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14349-1_10n
Brainstorming Breakout Groups
What logistical, practical, technical and psychological things do you need to identify your audience and to share data and findings with them? What are specific issues you anticipate eg. sensitive data, mistrust with communities, no direct relationship/means to talk with them, etc.?
What skills do you have that can help you decolonize your practice? What capacities, skills do you still need?
Positionality Statements
Here are some things to include in your positionality statement:
- Identity characteristics (e.g., age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, social class, disability status, citizenship, immigration status, religion, marital status etc.)
- Life experiences (previous or current job, volunteering activities, membership in advocacy groups etc.)
- Political, philosophical and theoretical beliefs (lens through which you view and interpret the world)
- Relationship to phenomena of interest (insider and/or outsider status)
Examples from A Note on Reflexivity and Positionality.
- I position myself as a bricoleur, layering feminist standpoint theory and postcolonial theory, and propose the collaborative data collection and analysis techniques, with particular attention to ethical and cultural sensitivity, using a social constructivist approach to grounded theory…In light of postcolonial critiques of Western researchers and international development, I have often wondered: Am I doing more harm than good? The privilege that accompanies my social location as a White, upper class, Canadian, academic woman means that, despite good intentions, my efforts to support education in postcolonial contexts risk being patronizing, insulting, threatening, imperialist, and recolonizing (Vanner, 2015, p. 1-2)
- Canada is not my birthplace and English is not my first language. I was born in Nigeria in the 90s and came to Canada as a very young child who spoke no English at all, but rather who conversed fluently in my native Igbo. As far as citizenship, I hold a Nigerian and Canadian passport. If identity is to be so simply ascribed, one would say that I am a Black, Igbo, Nigerian-Canadian woman…The simplicity of identities is also what hides the complexity of bellowing and the illusion of agency in determining the totality of who it is that we are (Odozor, 2020, p.43)
Participant Outcomes
Examples and discussions will promote a deeper understanding of decolonization as an active practice.
Outline for potential applications that prioritize engagement with diverse communities around individual projects.
Statements for decolonizing project goals, data collection, and public outreach efforts.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated list of potential applications that prioritize engagement with diverse communities around individual research projects.
Next Steps
Apply to your own project:
How would you contextualize your research?
Consider breaks/fractures, inconsistencies or how your research ‘doesn’t quite fit’ in traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Refine your reasoning and motives for why you are pursuing the research question, as well as your positionality statement.
Consider the current social relations in the context(s) that you work in, and what power imbalances are interwoven (and require your embodied awareness and care) within institution, workplace, in community, in scholarship.
Create a list of potential ways that you might engage with research and research data using and through different mediums - is a traditional publication the only way? And best one for non-academic partners?
Diverse Learners and Diverse Media
February 24, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Sarah Miller
Paulina F. Przystupa
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Abby the Apprentice
Browse: Learning from Loss (Check out the Outputs listed on the homepage, especially the Project Video and the Learning from Loss Climate Stories. Under Programme Links on the right-side bar, check out the Coastal Heritage links, especially the Interactive Sites at Risk Map of Scotland and the Historic Cemeteries and Sea Level Rise in Florida viewer.)
Play: FAIR Finds (An interactive fiction/video game; Password: FPAN2023!)
Additional Resources
Archaeology Books for Fun Podcast
Paulina’s talk about Archaeology and Comics
Women Write About Comics - Archaeology Articles
Participant Outcomes
Draft of a pathway to collaboration and/or engagement levels for individual research projects with relevant community stakeholders, especially those with Indigenous, BIPOC, low-income, diaspora, refugee, and other underserved communities, where appropriate.
Identify the engagement media or pathway for those communities that you would like to focus on currently.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated samples of various pathways to collaboration and/or engagement levels for individual research projects with relevant community stakeholders, especially those with Indigenous, BIPOC, low-income, diaspora, refugee, and other underserved communities.
Annotated samples of diverse medias within and outside of archaeology that provide good and bad examples of engagement.
Next Steps
Develop your own engagement pyramid for your project and flesh out the actions and metrics for each level.
As Marcy Rockman stated in her presentation, every place has a story. Think about the And But Therefore (ABT) format and the four questions posed in her presentation. If you were to write a story, what place would it be? Similar to the four themes that Marcy developed for her climate stories, adapt or develop one theme to guide your story. Try your hand at writing an ABT statement. More examples of this can be seen in the Learning From Loss page as well.
Building Community in Museums
March 16, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Melissa Cradic
Michelle Lefebvre
Sarah Whitcher Kansa (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Read: Bria, R.E. and Casanova Vasquez, E. 2023. “Digital Archaeology and Storytelling as a Toolkit for Community-Engaged Archaeology.” pp. 49-65 in Kevin Gartski (ed.) Critical Archaeology in the Digital Age. UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Digital Archaeology Series 2.l https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vh9t9jq#page=64
Browse: Norton, B., Cradic, M., and Johnson, J. 2022. “New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia.” Bade Museum of Biblical Archaeology at Pacific School of Religion. https://arcg.is/0y9bnb.
Prepare: Please write short responses to the following two sets of questions. Be prepared to share your responses during the workshop.
Communities: Do you think your project engages community? If so, do you already have a community engagement component of your project? How does your project define “community"?
Museums: What is a museum? What does a museum include? In your experience, what is the relationship between museums and data?
Additional Resources
Cradic, M. and Pfister, S. 2022. “Unsilencing the Archives: The Laborers of the Tell en-Nasbeh Excavations (1926-1935).” Bade Museum of Biblical Archaeology at Pacific School of Religion. https://arcg.is/1f8vnr0.
Durgun, P. (2021) “Digging Digital Museum Collections Blog Series.” https://alexandriaarchive.org/digging-digital-museum-collections/.
Hackbart-Dean, P., Barcelona, L., and Hamilton-Brehm, A.M. 2023. “Emerging Best Practices for Managing Online Exhibits: Survey Report.” American Archivist 86(2): 595-616.
Montgomery, L.M. and Fryer, T.C. 2023. “The Future of Archaeology is (Still) Community Collaboration.” Antiquity 97(394): 795-809. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.98
Participant Outcomes
Outline for potential collaborative didactic and/or program with museum and/or archaeological site personnel that prioritizes engagement with diverse communities around individual research projects.
Define your project’s communities (intentional; current; unanticipated; future; data producers and consumers; traditional, self-identified, and/or historic ties to datasets, collections, places, etc.).
Define the resources you might need to engage different communities.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated list of potential collaborative didactics and/or programs with museums and/or archaeological site personnel that prioritize engagement with diverse communities around individual research projects.
Annotated list of examples or platforms that use archaeological narratives as community-driven tools for engagement.
Compile good practices for museums to make online collections better support multiple forms of public engagement.
Next Steps
Refine your project’s messaging for community engagement and the possible role(s) of your data.
Outline how digital storytelling or curation of your project’s data can be a tool for engagement, collaboration, and/or community building.
Outline a plan for developing or revising a public-facing presence for community engagement.
Inclusive Data
May 11
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Desireé Reneé Martinez
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Complete: FAIR + CARE Cultural Heritage Network Survey. This survey will take about 30 minutes to complete.
Additional Resources
CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. https://www.gida-global.org/care
DeHass, Medeia Csoba, et al. Under Review. Ethical Considerations in the Use of 3D Technologies to Preserve Indigenous Heritage.
Martinez, Desireé Reneé. 2020. "Indigenous archaeologies." Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer International Publishing, Pp. 5642-5647. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1.
Yua, Ellam, Julie Raymond-Yakoubian, Raychelle Aluaq Daniel, and Carolina Behe. 2022. “A Framework for Co-Production of Knowledge in the Context of Arctic Research.” Ecology and Society 27 (1): art34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12960-270134.
Participant Outcomes
Understand what it means to be inclusive.
Understand Tribal Sovereignty and its implications for data.
Identify strategies by which individual research projects can prioritize transparency and showcasing diverse perspectives.
Collective Outcomes
List of strategies by which individual research projects can prioritize transparency and showcasing diverse perspectives.
Next Steps
Consider intersectionality to identify the most vulnerable groups.
Make the best use of the data you have.
Call for data that is collected to be open and accessible.
Invest in capacity building of users.
Summer Workshop II
July 2024
Networking Communities
July 22 - 26, 2024
Berkeley, California
Faculty
Sarah Whitcher Kansa
Eric Kansa
Melissa Cradic
Paulina F. Przystupa
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Virtually)
Pre-Workshop Assignment
Draft: a roadmap for a community engagement outcome of your project to share with the group.
Plan: a short presentation (no more than 10 minutes) that reintroduces the rest of the Institute to their project’s goals. This presentation should: flag some of the key challenges and/or major accomplishments of your project since we began the NADAC program in January 2023; and may preview some ideas that you’d like to focus on during the Summer Workshop.
Participant Outcomes
Network with other Scholars and Institute Core Team.
Opportunity to present a brief update about progress since the start of the Institute.
Draft and workshop a roadmap for a community engagement or public-facing outcome for individual research projects.
Identify a challenging project area to workshop within a NADAC community of practice.
Refine project’s Data Management Plan; refine Linked Open Data ontologies, vocabularies, and other resources incorporated into research data sets.
Collective Outcomes
Annotated resource lists generated by and for specialized NADAC Communities of Practice.
Annotated resource lists for community engagement outcomes in the following areas: Teaching with Narrative; Online Community Engagement; Community Engagement In the Field / Lab / Museum; Open-Access Repositories/Databases.
Fall Semester II: Data for the Classroom
September - November 2024
Data in and out of the Classroom
September 21, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Sydney Pickens
Beth Pruitt
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Bibliography
Cook, K. (2018) “Open Data as Public Archaeology: The Monumental Archive Project.” AP: Online Journal of Public Archaeology 3: 177-194. revistas.jasarqueologia.es/index.php/APJournal/article/view/152
Participant Outcomes
- A student-oriented, data-driven exercise that targets some aspect of archaeological data literacy using data from individual research projects.
Collective Outcomes
- Annotated collection of student-oriented, data-driven exercises that target some aspect of archaeological data literacy using data from individual research projects.
Classroom Data Exercises
October 19, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Tiffany Earley-Spadoni
Eric Poehler
Natalie Susmann
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Bibliography
Earley-Spadoni, T. (2017) “Spatial History, Deep Mapping and Digital Storytelling: Archaeology's Future Imagined through an Engagement with the Digital Humanities.” Journal of Archaeological Science 84: 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.003
Participant Outcomes
-Practice thinking critically about the digital data transformation process.
Collective Outcomes
-Collection of peer-edited digital datasets which can be adopted and adapted for classroom learning about geospatial software and/or database management and visualization.
Institutional Impacts around Teaching with Data
November 16, 2024
10:30am - 1:10pm / 1:45pm - 3:30pm Eastern
Online Workshop
Faculty
Pinar Durgan
Jennifer Zovar
Leigh Anne Lieberman (Facilitator)
Bibliography
Muir, S., and Y. Oliver, (2021) Strategies for Recruiting Students to the Humanities: A Comprehensive Overview. Washington, D.C.: National Humanities Alliance. https://nhalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Strategies_for_Recruiting_Students_to_the_Humanities_-_Final423.pdf
Participant Outcomes
- Understanding of the pedagogical impact of individual research projects.
Collective Outcomes
- Comprehensive working list of the ways in which data-driven exercises that target some aspect of archaeological data literacy fit in larger institutional, departmental, and disciplinary missions.
