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.

1. 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)
2. 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)
3. 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)
4. 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.
5. 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:

1. Fieldwork support. Start a Fieldwork Award application.
2. Data & Analytics. Start a Data & Analytics Award application.
3. Archival preparation and publication. Start a Publication Award application.
4. SPARC residency. Start a Residency application.
5. 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.

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!

The team undertook excavations at Prospective Site 9 to verify that the identification of surface materials in imagery classification corresponded to the presence of subsurface cultural materials.

Klehm and the field crew at Prospective Site 9

The BosLand team worked with SPARC staff at the CAST lab to evaluate the satellite imagery classification to locate probable new hilltop and open-air sites, which were then validated with field surveys.

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