Making Archaeological Collections More Findable and Accessible through Increased Coordination

Abstract

Archaeologists seek to improve our understanding of the past by studying, preserving, protecting, and sharing nonreplaceable archaeological resources. Archaeological collections hold information that can assist these aims as long as they are properly cared for, identified, and accessible. One of the most serious barriers is the lack of large-scale coordinated efforts to make archaeological collections findable and accessible. This article suggests that developing and implementing the use of a standardized set of attributes regarding collections provides solutions and strategies to find collections. These attributes can connect and standardize existing archaeological collections from a variety of sources (federal and state agencies, CRM firms, Indigenous and descendant communities, and academic departments), serving the profession in multiple ways. Most critically, the baseline data can be synthesized to inform and direct priorities for future fieldwork, thereby decreasing redundancy in archaeological collections and improving curation efforts nationwide. Such efforts would also provide a resource to students and researchers looking to understand and interpret the past at multiple scales by encouraging more collections-based research and less archaeological site destruction. Access for descendant communities will also be improved with information about their cultural heritage. This, in turn, encourages transparency and collaboration between those communities and archaeologists.

A Systems-Thinking Model of Data Management and Use in US Archaeology

“…Equally important is adding cultural metadata to datasets so that information on the cultural provenance, permissions, and protocols associated with data are shared with a data user (Anderson and Hudson 2020;Gupta et al 2023). Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, tribal communities, and other descendant communities need to be able to find, access, and maintain control over archaeological data that are about them and that are recovered on their lands (Neller et al 2024). Developed for use and sharing of Indigenous data, cultural metadata can enable archaeologists to "reconnect" a community with data related to it.…”