Advancing archaeological synthesis through the digitization and interoperability of ceramic data

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This award was provided as part of NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government.

SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal.

Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Kostalena Michelaki-Schwartz at Arizona State University and Dr.

Andrea Berlin at Boston University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist seeking to revolutionize the publication and accessibility of ceramic data. This research will both advance the theory and method of archaeology and create a common tool for the dissemination and interoperability of data related to ceramic manufacture from the advent of pottery through the Historic Period—the Pan-American Archaeological Ceramic Database (PAACD).

This open-access, digital repository will provide the general public and archaeologists with a virtual resource of curated reference materials. By eliminating the complications of gaining access to physical collections and paywalled publications, or deciphering inconsistent terminology across languages, this project will increase the breadth, depth, and speed of research, and facilitate the inclusion of prehistoric material culture in educational resources.

Inspiration for the PAACD derives from the Fellow’s own research on the influence of social identification and collective action on the growth and decline of Epiclassic (600-900 CE) polities. Determining how closely these polities interacted and what forms their interactions took is currently hampered by a lack of regional-scale datasets. Therefore, building upon her previous research, the Fellow will complete an integrated database of ceramic types and attributes that will allow for synthetic research to be conducted.

Thus, it offers an ideal foundation upon which to construct the PAACD. This work involves: (1) review and verify the existing attribute data on 238 types from 15 sites and one survey area and collect data from seven new collections; (2) conduct a technological analysis of a ceramic assemblage; and (3) integrate ceramic attribute data using the software and ontological framework of the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR.org).

The subsequent design and development of the PAACD will then involve consultation with a network of experts in ceramic technology and compositional methods that the Fellow has curated, as well as key stakeholders to ensure the functionality of the PAACD for all potential users. Several workshops will be organized to introduce the website to potential contributors and/or provide opportunities for mass data uploads to the site.

The digital infrastructure of comparable and accessible data within the PAACD should be implemented in other regions of the world and replicated across other social science disciplines.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.