What is SPARC?
SPARC is an NSF-funded program at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) dedicated to promoting geospatial research in archaeology. SPARC offers direct support to archaeological projects through awards in three categories:
In addition, you can learn about the latest technologies and their archaeological applications through residencies at CAST or through our online resources and periodic webinars. You can also connect with potential collaborators or develop projects in partnership with SPARC.
Recent News
Congratulations to the BosLand team on their new publication: ( 04/03/19) In summer 2017, SPARC supported Carla Klehm and the BosLand team in the project, “Bosutswe Landsca... More Info
Upcoming online SAA Seminar with Fred Limp: Newer Developments in Technologies for the Measurement of Form and Space in Archaeology: Part II: ( 11/27/18) December 6, 2018 2-3pm EST More than 60 years ago, Gordon Willey famously stated... More Info
NSF support for SPARC renewed!: ( 09/25/18) Building on five years of continuous investment, the National Science Foundation has renewed funding... More Info
What is Spatial Archaeometry?
Spatial Archaeometry is the application of scientific techniques to measure properties of archaeological materials at all scales, including objects, sites and landscapes, wherein the spatial properties of the measurements are central to their analysis and interpretation.
What we do.
We help you learn about spatial archaeometry, develop your ideas through collaborative project proposal writing, apply your research plans through SPARC research support awards, and collaborate your results and experience with the archaeological community.
Why we do it.
Collaborating on research, sharing equipment and resources, and facilitating knowledge exchanges and best practices will promote the use of remote sensing methods and geospatial in archaeological research and assist researchers in meeting their project's goals.
SPARC Areas of Expertise
Funded Projects » See All Funded Projects
Vulci 3000
Vulci 3000 is a multidisciplinary project of archaeological research, training and digital communication focused on the Etrus... More Info
FUNDED: Vulci 3000
Vulci 3000 is a multidisciplinary project of archaeological research, training and digital communication focused on the Etruscan site of Vulci in central Italy. At many Etruscan sites archaeological research has focused on the necropoleis and funerary contexts. This research orientation has broadly led to a mystical image of Etruscan cities, primarily understood as “cities of dead” rather than living cities, complex settlements and social organisms. At Vulci, the Vulci 3000 Project will be pursuing an alternative line of research, focused on the organization of the ancient territory, population, and city plans – the living city. The research, to be carried out over five years will focus on the diachronic relationships between the ancient city and its landscape, and the organization of the urban center, will provide a different view of urbanism in central Italy, as Vulci emerges as a city is transformed through encounters with neighboring cultures and an expanding Roman state . Dr. Maurizio Forte and Dr. Nevio Danelon will collaborate with SPARC PIs to undertake topographic and architectural survey through terrestrial laserscanning, data that will aid in the contextualization and analysis of previously collected geophysical survey data, and form an integral part of the multi-source dataset supporting the project’s larger research agenda. The collaborative research project supported through SPARC will emphasize the analysis and interpretive characterization of the TLS data, pursuing innovative ways to use this type of data to support archaeological interpretation within an integrated multi-sensor dataset.
Archaeological data post-processing for Vulci is supported by the Bass connection grant (Duke University) and by the research team of the Dig@Lab and Media+Art and Sciences (Duke University). A new endowment for archaeological fieldwork recently established in the Department of Classical Studies (Duke) will partially support the project for the next three years.
- PI: Dr. Maurizio Forte
- Institution: Duke University
- Co-PI: Dr. Nevio Danelon
- Instituion: Duke University
- Region: Mediterranean Europe
Biodiversity as a Social Process: Land Use, Resource Consumption, and Near-surface Geophysical Explorations at South Indian Iron Age-Early Historic Settlements
Dr. Andrew Bauer of the University of Illinois will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to carry out near-surface mapping of m... More Info
FUNDED: Biodiversity as a Social Process: Land Use, Resource Consumption, and Near-surface Geophysical Explorations at South Indian Iron Age-Early Historic Settlements
Dr. Andrew Bauer of the University of Illinois will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to carry out near-surface mapping of magnetic anomalies as part of a broader interdisciplinary project designed to examine the related social and natural histories of the understudied inselbergs (island mountains) of the peninsular interior of South India. This research will improve our understanding of the development of social distinctions in ancient South India and to establish the inselbergs' ecological histories. The planned geophysical explorations have the strong potential to identify structures and activity spaces for forthcoming excavations of habitation and metals production locales at two sites of this type, Kadebakele and Maski, where artifact surface distributions and early textual sources suggest specialized extraction and production of iron and gold occurred. Identifying the location of metalworking facilities at Early Historic Kadebakele through the geophysical survey would enable an evaluation of the scale and degree of metallurgical production within a settlement context. Reliance upon iron blooms smelted 20 km. from the settlement would have had both profound implications for the regional political economy as well as the ecology of the adjacent inselberg hills, where fuel demands for smelting vs. smithing would have had vastly different implications for plant and animal communities, soil erosion, and additional human land-use practices. At Maski the geophysical survey will enable us to identify important temporal shifts in production and the degree to which manufacturing activities were socially specialized, centralized, or more evenly distributed among ancient inhabitants, and likewise the degree to which production and consumption of certain materials and artifact forms contributed to the creation and maintenance of social distinctions. Furthermore, the intensity of production activities and careful documentation of fuel usage in various stages of metallurgical production at Maski will allow us to link production activities with the results of ongoing stratigraphic paleoecological assessments of the hill's vegetation history. Overall, the geophysical research will provide a critical bridge between pedestrian survey and paleoecological sampling analyses and the excavation of subsurface contexts where sociocultural production and consumption activities can be evaluated.
- PI: Andrew Bauer
- Institution: University of Illinois
- Region: India
Important Dates » Applications for Projects 2018-2019
How to Apply
Step 1: Contact SPARC
If you are considering a project proposal to SPARC, and you have not already done so, you are encouraged to contact the SPARC staff via e-mail at sparc@cast.uark.edu staff to set up a (video) conference call or phone call to discuss your project. They will be able to assist you in determining whether or not the Center can be of support or collaborate on your project– and what types of collaboration or support are possible. In addition you should also consider participating in a SPARC webinar, accessing the various resources the Center has on equipment and workflows at The GMV, or check SPARC’s FAQ. You can contact us to set up this preliminary chat before applying.
Step 2: Determine your Application Type
There are a number of different types of awards and collaborations that are possible.
- Fieldwork Awards. In this type of effort SPARC staff and/or equipment is made available to the project to record data in the field. Additional information on this type of application is available HERE. (Application Questions)
- Data & Analytics Awards. In this type of effort SPARC staff and/or facilities and/or software are made available to the project to draw out details and subtleties in the dataset or to integrate them with other data. Additional information on this type of application is available HERE. (Application Questions)
- Publication Awards. Many archives are poorly prepared to receive large, complex digital datasets. SPARC will endeavor to work with project directors and the staff of their archive of choice to find a solution, or will help projects to identify appropriate archives for their data. Additional information on this type of application is available HERE. (Application Questions)
- SPARC Residency. To support the development of geospatial expertise within the archaeological research community, SPARC supports a visiting researcher residency program. Through this program, individual researchers can undertake a period of intensive study or project development at the Center in collaboration with resident staff. Additional information on this type of application is available HERE.
- Collaborative proposals to external agencies. In addition to providing support awards directly to projects, SPARC works collaboratively with projects to develop proposals for joint submission to external funding agencies. Additional information on this type of application is available HERE.
Step 3: Submit your Application
You can start your application process by registering for an account. You must register for an account to gain access to the application forms. You can apply in one or more of the following categories:
- Fieldwork support. Start a Fieldwork Award application.
- Data & Analytics. Start a Data & Analytics Award application.
- Archival preparation and publication. Start a Publication Award application.
- SPARC residency. Start a Residency application.
- Collaborative proposal to external agencies. Contact SPARC to develop a collaborative proposal.
Calendars explaining the timeline for each type of application are available on the pages under the APPLY tab.
Step 4: Application Review
Applications for Fieldwork Awards, Data & Analytics Awards, and Publication Awards are competitively funded based on a review and ranking process by the Center’s Advisory Committee and the Directors of the SPARC Program. Applications for residency and collaborative proposal development are evaluated by the SPARC Directors.
Step 5: Notification
After review applicants will be informed about the status of their application. Projects may be accepted directly, put on a wait list of projects which may be partially supported should the means become available, or declined. Applicants may request feedback on their applications by emailing sparc@cast.uark.edu. Information on notification timelines is available for each type of application, under the APPLY tab.
Recent News
Congratulations to the BosLand team on their new publication 04/03/19
In summer 2017, SPARC supported Carla Klehm and the BosLand team in the project, “Bosutswe Landscapes Regional Survey: Building a Predictive GIS Model of Archaeological Sites in the African Interior.” This built off of a previous (2014) SPARC award, “Bosutswe Landscapes: Exploring early African towns through geophysics and photogrammetry.” The BosLand team and SPARC collaborators recently published the results of this work in an article, “Toward Archaeological Predictive Modeling in the Bosutswe Region of Botswana: Utilizing Multispectral Satellite Imagery to Conceptualize Ancient Landscapes,” in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. In the article, the authors describe how they used an algorithm to classify satellite imagery into 60 different categories and then interpreted the categories to identify probable archaeological sites of interest to the BosLand project, which focuses on the precolonial cities and kingdoms that arose in the African interior around the 1st millennium AD. The article is available here. Congratulations to authors Carla Klehm, Adam Barnes, Forrest Follett, Katie Simon, Christopher Kiahtipes, and Sarah Mothulatshipi!
Created by: Carolin Ferwerda
Upcoming online SAA Seminar with Fred Limp: Newer Developments in Technologies for the Measurement of Form and Space in Archaeology: Part II 11/27/18
December 6, 2018 2-3pm EST More than 60 years ago, Gordon Willey famously stated that the objectives of archaeology are “approached by the study and manipulation of three basic factors: form, space and time.” Since then, we have seen the huge impact that improved technologies for the measurement of time have had on the field. We are currently in the midst of a similar revolution in the methods for the measurement of space and form. This lecture updates one first offered by SAA in 2014 and is designed as a state-of-the-art introduction to these developments, specifically for archaeology students. As a two-part series, Part II of this course examines analysis, display, and dissemination of High-Density Survey and Measurement (HDSM) data. Building on Part I, this lecture also provides further considerations and strategies for choosing the “best” approach in using these technologies. *FREE for individual SAA Members. Not available for SAA Nonmembers. Registered Professional Archaeologists will receive 1 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for this course. Register HERE
Created by: Carolin Ferwerda
NSF support for SPARC renewed! 09/25/18
Building on five years of continuous investment, the National Science Foundation has renewed funding for the Spatial Archaeometry Research Collaborations program, an initiative through the University of Arkansas, Dartmouth College and the University of Glasgow that acts as a national hub for geospatial research in archaeology. The $188,545 grant supports the SPARC program, which provides research and technical expertise to archaeological research projects working with a variety of technologies, including 3-D survey and modeling, geospatial analysis and visualization, and geophysical and airborne remote-sensing. Building on successful collaborative research projects, in 2017-2018 recipients of SPARC awards, together with their collaborators from the SPARC team, published the results of innovative spatial archaeometric work in Geosciences and the Journal of Field Archaeology. The SPARC team also began an initiative to make completed project’s data accessible via publication on Zenodo, an effort that will continue in the coming year. Looking to future work, SPARC is collaborating with the MicroCT Imaging Consortium for Research and Outreach (MICRO) at the University of Arkansas to support projects undertaking high resolution imaging of objects and samples, growing the program’s capacity to support data and analytics projects. The SPARC program was created by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies and the Archaeo-Imaging Laboratory with a $250,000 grant from the NSF in 2013. The program offers direct support to archaeological projects through awards in fieldwork, data and analytics, and publication. In addition to collaborating on research projects directly, SPARC helps researchers learn about the latest technologies and their archaeological applications through residencies at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies or through online resources and periodic webinars. For many decades, space has been viewed as one of the central dimensions of archaeological study, from artifacts to landscapes, and SPARC supports a wide variety of collaborators and projects around the world. Researchers at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies have collaborated on 29 projects worldwide, including working with Michael Harrower to conduct geophysical survey in Oman, with Steve Wernke and Parker VanValkenburgh to develop the GeoPACHA platform (Geospatial Platform for Andean Colonial History and Archaeology), and Andrea Brock to model the ancient topography of the Roman Forum Boarium . A full list and complete descriptions of recent awards can be found on the SPARC website. Recent publications resulting from SPARC Projects include: Dolan, Patrick, Colin Grier, Christine Markussen, and Katie Simon. "Magnetic Gradient Survey of the Marpole Period Dionisio Point (DgRv-003) Plankhouse Village, Northwest Coast of North America." Journal of Field Archaeology 42, no. 5 (2017): 437-449. Wiig, Frances, Michael Harrower, Alexander Braun, Smiti Nathan, Joseph Lehner, Katie Simon, Jennie Sturm et al. "Mapping a Subsurface Water Channel with X-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar at the Iron Age Archaeological Site of ‘Uqdat al-Bakrah (Safah), Oman." Geosciences 8, no. 9 (2018): 334.
Created by: Rachel Opitz
Funded Projects
Vulci 3000
- PI: Dr. Maurizio Forte
- Institution: Duke University
- Co-PI: Dr. Maurizio Forte
- Institution: Duke University
- Project Type: Fieldwork
- Region: Mediterranean Europe
Vulci 3000 is a multidisciplinary project of archaeological research, training and digital communication focused on the Etruscan site of Vulci in central Italy. At many Etruscan sites archaeological research has focused on the necropoleis and funerary contexts. This research orientation has broadly led to a mystical image of Etruscan cities, primarily understood as “cities of dead” rather than living cities, complex settlements and social organisms. At Vulci, the Vulci 3000 Project will be pursuing an alternative line of research, focused on the organization of the ancient territory, population, and city plans – the living city. The research, to be carried out over five years will focus on the diachronic relationships between the ancient city and its landscape, and the organization of the urban center, will provide a different view of urbanism in central Italy, as Vulci emerges as a city is transformed through encounters with neighboring cultures and an expanding Roman state . Dr. Maurizio Forte and Dr. Nevio Danelon will collaborate with SPARC PIs to undertake topographic and architectural survey through terrestrial laserscanning, data that will aid in the contextualization and analysis of previously collected geophysical survey data, and form an integral part of the multi-source dataset supporting the project’s larger research agenda. The collaborative research project supported through SPARC will emphasize the analysis and interpretive characterization of the TLS data, pursuing innovative ways to use this type of data to support archaeological interpretation within an integrated multi-sensor dataset. Archaeological data post-processing for Vulci is supported by the Bass connection grant (Duke University) and by the research team of the Dig@Lab and Media+Art and Sciences (Duke University). A new endowment for archaeological fieldwork recently established in the Department of Classical Studies (Duke) will partially support the project for the next three years.
Biodiversity as a Social Process: Land Use, Resource Consumption, and Near-surface Geophysical Explorations at South Indian Iron Age-Early Historic Settlements
- PI: Andrew Bauer
- Institution: University of Illinois
- Co-PI: Andrew Bauer
- Institution: University of Illinois
- Project Type: Fieldwork
- Region: India
Dr. Andrew Bauer of the University of Illinois will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to carry out near-surface mapping of magnetic anomalies as part of a broader interdisciplinary project designed to examine the related social and natural histories of the understudied inselbergs (island mountains) of the peninsular interior of South India. This research will improve our understanding of the development of social distinctions in ancient South India and to establish the inselbergs' ecological histories. The planned geophysical explorations have the strong potential to identify structures and activity spaces for forthcoming excavations of habitation and metals production locales at two sites of this type, Kadebakele and Maski, where artifact surface distributions and early textual sources suggest specialized extraction and production of iron and gold occurred. Identifying the location of metalworking facilities at Early Historic Kadebakele through the geophysical survey would enable an evaluation of the scale and degree of metallurgical production within a settlement context. Reliance upon iron blooms smelted 20 km. from the settlement would have had both profound implications for the regional political economy as well as the ecology of the adjacent inselberg hills, where fuel demands for smelting vs. smithing would have had vastly different implications for plant and animal communities, soil erosion, and additional human land-use practices. At Maski the geophysical survey will enable us to identify important temporal shifts in production and the degree to which manufacturing activities were socially specialized, centralized, or more evenly distributed among ancient inhabitants, and likewise the degree to which production and consumption of certain materials and artifact forms contributed to the creation and maintenance of social distinctions. Furthermore, the intensity of production activities and careful documentation of fuel usage in various stages of metallurgical production at Maski will allow us to link production activities with the results of ongoing stratigraphic paleoecological assessments of the hill's vegetation history. Overall, the geophysical research will provide a critical bridge between pedestrian survey and paleoecological sampling analyses and the excavation of subsurface contexts where sociocultural production and consumption activities can be evaluated.
Evaluating Competition Beween Chaco-Style Great Houses in the Southern Cibola Region of West-Central New Mexico
- PI: Kristin Safi
- Institution: Washington State University
- Co-PI: Kristin Safi
- Institution: Washington State University
- Project Type: Fieldwork
- Region: North America
Kristin Safi's project aims to investigate the social mechanisms operating within great house community organization and inter-community interaction that served to integrate and differentiate multi-ethnic communities in the southern Cibola region of west central New Mexico. With SPARC support, she will collect geophysical and airborne thermographic survey data to identify key structures and better understand the organization of the Largo Gap great house. This data will help address the extent to which local great houses in the southern Cibola region maintain a suite of “Chaco” characteristics, or incorporate both Puebloan and Mogollon architectural conventions as a reflection of its multi-ethnic community constituents, with broader implications for our understanding of Chacoan great house communities in the American Southwest and the role of local, inter-community competition in structuring group formation and the negotiation of group identity within the increasingly heterogeneous social landscape of this region during the 11th century.The Largo Gap Community Project is supported by the National Science Foundation through a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (#1340542), the National Geographic Society (Grant #9323-13), and a research grant by the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society.
Bosutswe Landscapes: Exploring early African towns through geophysics and photogrammetry
- PI: Carla Klehm
- Institution: University of Washington St. Louis
- Co-PI: Carla Klehm
- Institution: University of Washington St. Louis
- Project Type: Fieldwork
- Region: Africa
Drs. Klehm and Ernenwien will be using geophysical and airborne thermographic survey to study three small rural sites in Botswana, with the aim of expanding our understanding of the local social, political, and economic landscape around the polity site of Bosutswe, the central site for this area. Low-altitude aerial remote sensing of the hilltop site of Mmadipudi Hill, two small grounds sites (Queen’s Site and Queen’s House Site) is planned to try and detect subsurface features at known sites and identify new, unknown sites. This work will be complemented by on-the-ground geophysical methods (EMI, magnetometry, and GPR) to characterize the subsurface at known and newly discovered sites in order to understand their spatial layout. The end products from the geophysical and aerial remote sensing surveys will be integrated to understand intra-site spatial patterns and spatial relationships between sites in the region.
The Gault Site 41BL323
- PI: Dr. Michael Collins
- Institution: University of Texas at Austin
- Co-PI: Dr. Michael Collins
- Institution: University of Texas at Austin
- Project Type: Fieldwork
- Region: North America
The Gault Site (421BL323) is a multi‐component site with virtually every interval in the regional prehistoric record represented. Deposits in different parts of the site result from various mixes of anthropic and geologic processes (fluvial, colluvial, aeolian) as well as pedogenesis. At this site, Dr. Michael Collins and Dr. Bruce Bradley will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to undertake high‐resolution scanning and photogrammetric documentation of an exposed stratigraphy in a 3-m thick section significant for its long archaeological record and particularly for the presence of a substantial pre-Clovis component , situated stratigraphically below Clovis and dated with OSL on aeolian grains from ca. 16,000 to 13,200. As is true of all sites claiming to have evidence for older‐than‐ Clovis occupation, Gault will be subjected to intense scrutiny, and supporting future independent research on the evidence is seen as essential by the co-PIs. Site formational processes are at the heart of the evidence for integrity of the stratigraphic section, with its pre-Clovis component underlying its Clovis component. Therefore the morphology and topography of the excavated area must be recorded carefully, as part of an effort to create the fullest and most detailed possible documentation of the site’s stratigraphy. The results of this project will form the primary framework for integrating all of the broader project’s geologic observations and sampling results as the analysis and reporting of this section proceeds. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation, Abell-Hanger Foundation, ExxonMobil Foundation, Archaeological Institute of America, Summerlee Foundation, and Texas Historical Foundation along with numerous individuals.
Using Total Viewsheds to Evaluate Visibility in the Placement of Chacoan Monumental Architecture
- PI: Katherine Dungan
- Institution: Archaeology Southwest
- Co-PI: Katherine Dungan
- Institution: Archaeology Southwest
- Project Type: Analytics
- Region: North America
This project seeks to answer a series of questions related to the visual environment of Chacoan monumental architecture. The projects key questions are: 1) To what extent were great houses and other Chacoan structures positioned to maximize their visibility within local landscapes? 2) Did the choices about visibility made by the builders of great houses change over time and/or differ among regions? The project will approach these questions through the use of total viewsheds, building on work done as part of the Chaco Social Networks (CSN) Project. The project gratefully acknowledges support from the Chaco Social Networks Project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (grant numbers 1355374 and 1355381) and the Chaco Research Archive, which supplied essential data.
Understanding Rejolladas and Examining their Potential for Predicting Settlement Location at Tahcabo
- PI: Patricia McAnany
- Institution: UNC Chapel Hill
- Co-PI: Patricia McAnany
- Institution: UNC Chapel Hill
- Project Type: Analytics
- Region: Central America
Professor Patricia McAnany and Maia Dedrick of UNC Chapel Hill and Dr. Adolfo-Iván Batún-Alpuche (AGEY) will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to seeks to identify the size and distribution of rejolladas (limestone solution sinkholes) on commonly held ejido land surrounding the town of Tahcabo, Yucatán, México. Rejolladas are significant landscape features because they generally contain deep soils and are characterized by high humidity, in contrast to their surroundings, characterized by shallow surface soils that mean that in northern Yucatán many culturally important tree crops—such as cacao—can only be grown in rejolladas. Further, this difference in soils means that long occupational sequences and information on changes in land use and crop regimes will likely come from rejolladas rather than shallow surface excavations. In this project the collaborators will use remote sensing data to identify and characterize the rejolladas in the area around Tahcabo and to use the results of the mapping exercise to construct a predictive model of settlement location. Further study will examine the attractiveness of rejolladas, and whether such attractiveness was spatially or temporally contingent. The research will also support archaeobotanical and ethnobotanical research by the co-PIs.
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