FUNDED: Remembering ichaskhah (Camp Creek)

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This project is part of a larger research program aimed at understanding the complex occupational histories of lands allotted to Native Americans after 1887. Despite U.S. Federal efforts to destroy their culture, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes persisted, continuing their practices of camping, building grasshouses and arbors, and using dance grounds as community gathering spaces on family allotment lands around Anadarko, Oklahoma. This project focuses specifically on the ichaskhah site that was used from the 1930s until 1963. Here Tribal members camped, gathered every Sunday to share meals, play games, dance, and sing traditional songs. Today, portions of the camp and dance ground are covered in trees and brush that impede terrestrial geophysical equipment. The SPARC award will support sUAS ("drone") remote sensing techniques, specifically LiDAR and multispectral imaging to identify key features at the site. These data will be used to build a detailed GIS model of ichaskhah and the surrounding landscape. With this information we will also be able to reconstruct the layout of the site and its boundaries, as well as identify areas for future work. Additional Funding: Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office Survey and Planning Grant; Bureau of Land Management Cultural and Paleontological Resources Management Grant

• PI: Brandi Bethke
• Institution: Oklahoma Archaeological Survey
• Co-PI: Sarah Trabert; Scott Hammerstedt; Gary McAdams
• Instituion: University of OK; OK Archaeological Survey; Wichita & Affiliated Tribes
• Region: North America (Southern Great Plains)

FUNDED: UAV LiDAR Collection to Model Contemporary Erosion and Landform Change on the Pinson Landscape, TN, USA

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Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park (PMSAP) in West Tennessee, USA maintains the largest archaeological site constructed by Middle Woodland societies (ca. 200 BCE – 500 CE) in the American Southeast. However, the broader Pinson Landscape includes associated sites (e.g., Johnston and Elijah Bray) that exhibit numerous pre-Contact Indigenous earthen monuments and associated subsurface features along the South Fork of the Forked Deer River (SFFDR), a tributary of the Mississippi River. Channelization efforts of the SFFDR by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1917, and subsequently, has triggered significant upstream erosion and degradation of upland land forms, causing significant loss of the archaeological record on upland terraces across the Pinson Landscape. In collaboration with SPARC, we will conduct UAV LiDAR surveys of terraces adjacent to known archaeological sites to compare with existing state-collected LiDAR data in order to model rates and amounts of land-loss from erosion on the Pinson Landscape over the last decade. Our project seeks to identify where archaeological resources on the Pinson Landscape are under the greatest danger of loss within current environmental conditions.

• PI: Edward Henry
• Institution: Colorado State University; Center for Research in Archaeogeophysics and Geoarchaeology
• Region: North America (American Southeast)

FUNDED: Sinop Regional Archaeological Project

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SRAP is a regional transdisciplinary program that is investigating the evolving relationship between one of the most important ports in the Black Sea region and its surrounding hinterland from the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2300 BCE) through Ottoman times (early 20th c. CE), itself the pivot of Eurasian trade and politics over at least four millennia. Systematic archaeological survey, environmental research, and excavations at the citadel of Sinop Kale over the past 26 years have brought together a rich variety of data (e.g., satellite, historical imagery, LiDAR, site locations, artifact and features characteristics) that provide multiple perspectives and scales to approach urban development at Sinop. The SPARC-Sinop project focuses the integration of these data into a spatial framework. Training and mentorship in geodatabase design and management, metadata imagery sourcing and georeferencing, and LiDAR visualization will enable the SRAP faculty to better manage their data in the near- and long-term. SRAP's challenges with legacy data and the evolution of large-scale projects and personnel through time is a key challenge for archaeologists similarly wishing to unlock the potential of their data for academic research and public understanding.

• PI: Dr. Owen Doonan
• Institution: California State University Northridge
• Co-PI: Dr. Andrew Goldman, Dr. Jane Rempel, Dr. Alexander Bauer, Berk Suleyman,
• Instituion: Gonzaga University, University of Sheffield, Queen College CUNY, Istanbul T
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: The Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project/Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project: Urbanism and Political Complexity in South-Central Turkey

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The Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project has for several years been identifying ancient settlements and landscape features of all periods in Turkey’s archaeologically rich Konya Plain, famous especially for its Neolithic occupation and sites such as Çatalhöyük. Far less understood, however, is the region’s Bronze and Iron Ages, when, like much of the Near East, the area experienced massive scalar and social transformations with the rise of urbanism and complex political formations. Central to this phenomenon is the massive site of Türkmen-Karahöyük, being explored by the Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP). Surface collections have documented a mound 35m in height, 30ha in area, and a potential expanded areal extent of up to 125ha during the Late Bronze and Iron Age. In collaboration with SPARC, we will explore this lower settlement by means of large scale magnetometry in conjunction with aerial thermography and near-infrared photography. The project would like to also acknowledge the support of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation. (Map: Michele Massa)

• PI: Anthony Lauricella
• Institution: University of Chicago, Oriental Institute
• Co-PI: Michele Massa; James Osborne
• Instituion: University of Chicago, Oriental Institute
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Beyond the Oasis: The Ancient Cultural Landscape of Bat and the Sharsah Valley

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The Bat Archaeological Project is beginning a new phase of research on the Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2800-2000 BCE) cultural landscape of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat and its surroundings in the Sharsah Valley of northwestern Oman. The 4 square kilometers oasis site of Bat includes an array of UaN monuments—stone tombs and large tower platforms—interspersed amid areas of settlement, agricultural production, and hydraulic management. Together, these remains form the world’s most complete collection of settlements and tombs from the 3rd Millennium BCE and the largest archaeological site in Oman and the UAE. During this period, Bat was home to a series of resilient communities located in a hyper-arid environment. By conducting archaeological excavations, surveys, geomorphological and artifact analyses, the project studies the cultural processes and socio-ecological strategies practiced by the Umm an-Nar people and builds a case study for a persistent, thriving cultural landscape in an arid environment. The project's collaboration with SPARC will include implementing subsurface GPR and surface thermal imaging to identify relationships between ancient architecture, geological features, and land-use strategies. Research is conducted in collaboration with the Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Heritage and Tourism and with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, NYU Abu Dhabi, and the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania). Image credit: Bat Archaeological Project

• PI: Jennifer Swerida
• Institution: Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania
• Co-PI: Eli Dollarhide
• Instituion: New York University Abu Dhabi
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Remote Sensing at Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico

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The primary goal of the Picuris Collaborative Archaeology Project is to collect archaeological data that will directly address questions around past land use practices and exchange relationships among the people of Picuris Pueblo, located in northern New Mexico. Since the 10th century CE, Picuris has used a variety of water-control techniques including the construction of extensive rock alignments and terraces to harvest moisture throughout the year to benefit their agricultural efforts. Faculty and students from Barnard College, University of Arizona, and Southern Methodist University are collaborating with Picuris tribal members to record the extensive transformations of the Picuris landscape over the past thousand years. In collaboration with SPARC, we will collect UAV-borne multispectral imagery to map adobe-constructed architectural features in the old portion of Picuris Pueblo and UAV-borne LiDAR to record cut-and-fill terraced fields in wooded areas on Picuris Tribal lands that have not had systematic survey to date. Funding for the research is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF 2015968).

• PI: Michael Adler
• Institution: Southern Methodist University
• Co-PI: Severin Fowles; Lindsay Montgomery
• Instituion: Barnard College Columbia University; University of Arizona
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Testing Imperial Development on the Erbil Plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

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The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) has investigated the long-term landscape of the Erbil Plain in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2012. The project, co-directed by Jason Ur (Harvard University) and Nader Babakr (Erbil Directorate of Antiquities, Kurdistan Regional Government), has focused on the settlement patterns and infrastructure of civilizations from c. 8000 BCE to the present day. One of EPAS' primary research questions concerns the sudden extensive ruralization of the plain during the Neo-Assyrian period, concurrent with the rise and expansion of the Assyrian Empire. Dr. Ur is collaborating with SPARC to further investigate Assyrian imperial settlements, specifically those established in rural, interfluvial zones. The SPARC collaboration uses geophysical remote sensing in tandem with the project's aerial remote sensing and field survey methods to explore the layouts of these single-period rural villages. This work will test current theories about who lived in these settlements and how they were established. By targeting multiple sites, we describe shared characteristics which may indicate strategies of imperial governance and its impact on the people being governed. EPAS has also been supported by the NSF, Harvard University, National Geographic, Dumbarton Oaks, Groningen University, and ASOR. The project would like to acknowledge the continuous support of the Kurdistan Regional Government, especially the General Directorate of Antiquities and the Erbil Directorate of Antiquities.

• PI: Jason Ur
• Institution: Harvard University
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Application of Remote Sensing to the South Kohala Field System, Hawaiʻi Island

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This project will investigate the ancient agricultural fields of the South Kohala Field System in the leeward (dry) uplands of South Kohala, Hawai‘i Island. A large portion of these fields do not overlap with the hypothesized ideal area for rainfed agriculture in Hawaiʻi, suggesting that Native Hawaiians used agricultural strategies to overcome natural landscape limitations. The primary modification strategy appears to be construction of water management features including flow irrigation ditches and check dams. Together with SPARC, we will conduct a low altitude UAS survey using LiDAR and heat detection devices to identify agricultural fields and water management features. These data will help us understand field placement strategies and the scale and extent of water management in the field system – allowing us to answer our larger research question of how natural and anthropogenic factors impact agricultural productivity in this marginal environment.

• PI: Michael Graves
• Institution: University of New Mexico
• Co-PI: Katherine Peck
• Instituion: University of New Mexico
• Region: Pacific Islands

FUNDED: 3D Scanning and Morphometrics

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This effort follows a recent social network analysis in which two Caddo landscapes of practice (north/south) were identified. Each landscape was further scrutinized, resulting in the identification of constituent communities based upon the co-presence of specific suites of Caddo material culture (diagnostic ceramics and arrow points). The goals of this study are to scan a large collection of Caddo bottles and leverage those data to assess morphological similarities and differences among the northern and southern communities of practice, to identify hybrid---or shared---attributes expressed in Caddo bottle morphology, and to collect a subset (n = 10 bottles) of the data from this sample using different scanning modalities (laser, structured light, and microCT) for use in a subsequent study of measurement error. Following this effort, the Caddo bottle data will be paired with published data from the Virtual Hampson Museum for the first macro analysis of prehistoric bottle morphology between adjacent culture areas, after which the focus will shift to more pointed analyses of local patterns in Nodena bottle morphology. Supplementary materials: https://aksel-blaise.github.io/bottle.traj/

• PI: Robert Selden
• Institution: Stephen F. Austin State University
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Identifying Structures related to Postbellum Industrial Convict Leasing in Southern Middle Tennessee

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Dr. Westmont and members from the SPARC team will collect drone-based LiDAR and thermal imaging remote sensing of the Grundy Lakes Valley, the site of a postbellum nineteenth century coal mining and coke producing industrial operation relied upon forced prison laborers, the majority of whom were African American, who were part of the American South’s convict lease system. Located in southern Middle Tennessee, the site consists of industrial and carceral remnants and landscape features. The goal of this work is to identify previously undocumented historic resources related to this historical period in order to better document the cultural landscape and provide a more complete understanding of the landscapes of convict leasing. Descendant community groups and students will be actively involved in this project. This project has been supported by the Center for Southern Studies at the University of the South, the South Cumberland State Park, and the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area grant program. Photo credit: Travis Turner and the William Ray Turner Collection, Tracy City, Tennessee.

• PI: Camille Westmont
• Institution: The University of the South
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Digital Storytelling: The Landscape of Sport at the Granada Japanese American Relocation Center

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The University of Denver’s (DU) community-based research at Amache, the site of a World War II Japanese American incarceration camp in Colorado, has produced a rich collection of archaeological data from survey and excavations over the course of six field seasons. These powerfully combine with oral histories and historic materials from community members and archives to paint a robust picture of the Japanese American experience during WWII. This SPARC project will produce an ESRI StoryMap on the heritage of sport at Amache, especially baseball, football and sumo wrestling. All were activities that brought the Amache community together despite their forced removal from the West Coast and unconstitutional incarceration. A series of teaching workshops will train DU Amache project members and students in digital storytelling to create an initial StoryMap and establish a system for future projects. The Amache Sports StoryMap integrates drone imagery, feature and artifact mapping, oral histories, and archival documents to produce this free, online educational resource that will allow the public to explore objects and stories about this important historical moment. Image credit: Historic color slides of both informal and formal sporting fields at Amache. Courtesy of the Amache Historical Society, Joseph McClelland Collection.

• PI: April Kamp-Whittaker
• Institution: University of New Mexico
• Co-PI: Bonnie Clark
• Instituion: University of Denver
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Quantifying pastoralist niche construction on southwest Madagascar using multi-sensor remote sensing (1600 – Present)

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This project will focus on the analysis of satellite imagery from the Namonte region of southwest Madagascar to clarify the interplay between pastoralist activities and environmental change over the past 400 years. This research addresses a critical need to understand how local people in SW Madagascar have adapted their traditional subsistence and landscape management practices over time to mitigate livelihood risks in one of the world’s most critically threatened biodiversity hotspots. We aim to develop a pre-processing protocol for combining medium-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery with high-resolution PlanetScope imagery for archaeological prospection research. We will use these data to train machine learning algorithms to identify anthropogenic signatures linked to the migration of cattle pastoralists into the region beginning in the 17th century. The arrival of pastoralists in the region has previously been studied from a historical perspective, and our project seeks to investigate the extent of likely significant transformations to landscape and local ecologies as pastoralists constructed a niche in the region. Parts of this project are further supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, the Explorers Club, the American Philosophical Society, and the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. Captions: The photograph shows the herding of zebu in this region, where pastoralism is still commonly practiced by local communities. The map depicts the location of the Namonte Region in Southwest Madagascar where the project will focus.

• PI: Dylan Davis
• Institution: The Pennsylvania State University
• Co-PI: Kristina Douglass
• Instituion: The Pennsylvania State University
• Region: Africa

FUNDED: All that Glitters: Spatial Archaeometric Approaches to Specularity

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This pilot ceramic analysis is part of a larger project using archaeological and linguistic evidence to reconstruct the history of pyrotechnologies across five millennia in south central Africa to understand the coproduction and politicization of emotions, senses, and materials’ technological underpinnings. The proof-of-concept study proposed here applies non-destructive methods from spatial archaeometry (micro-CT; refitted RTI, hyperspectral imaging) to produce quantitative and qualitative evidence about ceramics’ sensory effects. Some pottery from the region was decorated through a process that applied ground mica to the surface, yet this decorative technique has generally gone unrecognized in the literature. Other sherds’ specularity results from a high proportion of mica in the paste (natural or added as temper). A combination of methods of analysis allows for the simultaneous comparative study of mica as an inclusion and as a decorative device added to the surface. This pilot project tests methods to (1) measure the specular effects of micaceous pottery to identify changing patterns of specularity across time and space; (2) reconstruct the methods by which potters created particular effects through paste recipes, clay sources, and decorative and temper processing techniques; and (3) identify the effects of use-wear and post-depositional processes on surface specularity. Given mica’s plated, crystalline structure, the project explores non-destructive methods for identifying patterning in the chemical make-up and density of micaceous inclusions and decorative slips in order to identify patterning possibly indicative of mica type and/or chemical signatures relating to mica source, paste geochemistry, and/or depositional contexts.

• PI: Kathryn de Luna
• Institution: Georgetown University
• Region: Africa

FUNDED: 3D GPR Survey at the Poverty Point World Heritage Site

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Ultra-high resolution 3D ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology will be used in a test application at the Poverty Point World Heritage Site (WHS). Located in northeastern Louisiana, the site consists of a vast, integrated complex of earthen monuments, constructed 3,700-3,100 years ago by hunter-fisher-gatherers. The multichannel GPR survey will focus on a broad topographic high within the site’s plaza known as the West Plaza Rise (WPR). Although not formally recognized as such, the WPR may be an anthropogenic feature purposefully constructed by loading fill soils on top of a truncated original soil. The GPR survey will be used to map the complex stratigraphy of the WPR as well as archaeological features within and surrounding it. A high-resolution RTK GPS system awarded through this SPARC fieldwork grant will provide positioning accuracy of ±5 cm. Photo Credits 3D Radar System in use in Norway. Arne Anderson Stamnes, The NTNU University Museum LiDAR map of the Poverty Point World Heritage Site and the West Plaza Rise. Diana Greenlee, University of Louisiana Monroe; LiDAR data courtesy of FEMA and the state of Louisiana; data distribution courtesy of “ATLAS: The Louisiana Statewide GIS,” LSU CADGIS Research Laboratory, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Funding Sources This project is supported by a 2019 Preservation Technology and Training Grant for $29,577 from the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Matching funds come from Minnesota State University Moorhead and the Advocates for Poverty Point. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.

• PI: Rinita Dalan
• Institution: Minnesota State University Moorhead
• Co-PI: Diana Greenlee; Arne Anderson Stamnes
• Instituion: University of Louisiana Monroe; NTNU University Museum (Norway)
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Mapping Chacoan Roads in SE Utah Woodlands

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A team of archaeologists and SPARC researchers will use drone-based sensors to map roads dating to the A.D.1100s and 1200s in the Cedar Mesa area of southeastern Utah. Such roads are thought to represent extension of a regional socio-religious network centered at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico over 250 km away. Elsewhere in the Southwest, these roads have been mapped in open shrublands, but the mature pinyon-juniper woodland in the area impedes the visual interpretation of aerial imagery. Using drone-based LiDAR and multispectral imagery will allow researchers to penetrate the tree canopy and detect possible road traces. The masonry rubble mound in the photo is part of the Et Al site, which has on-site road traces, and shows Chacoan architectural traits. Photo credit: Adriel Heisey

• PI: William Lipe
• Institution: Washington State University
• Co-PI: R. G. Matson; Winston Hurst; Jonathan Till
• Instituion: University of British Columbia; Independent; Edge of the Cedars SP Museum
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Measuring the Influence of Royal Centers in the Early States of Ancient Hawaii

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Together with SPARC researchers, Drs. McCoy and Ladefoged, and Mr. Johnson, will use UAV-based LiDAR to map settlements along the coast of Hawaiʻi Island. Working with local Native Hawaiian (Kānaka Maoli) stewards, and the State Parks of Hawaiʻi, the team will examine what influence royal centers had on the larger settlement pattern outside of the clearly defined boundaries of sacred precincts. While much of what set Hawaiian early states apart from the more commonplace chiefdoms found elsewhere in Polynesia happened at royal centers, we know remarkably little about the differences in population density or social inequality near centers versus out in agricultural hinterlands. This first use of UAV-based LiDAR to map the archaeological landscape has broader implications for recent debates regarding the relationship between early state formation and urbanization.

• PI: Mark McCoy
• Institution: Southern Methodist University
• Co-PI: Thegn N. Ladefoged; Adam M. Johnson
• Instituion: University of Auckland; Southern Methodist University
• Region: Oceania

FUNDED: Geophysical investigations of 9th- to 14th-century AD occupation mounds in the Basanga Region of western Zambia: Research at Mwanamaimpa

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This project will use a range of geophysical survey tools to explore a settlement mound in the Kafue River floodplain of south central Africa in Zambia. These mounds were occupied continuously from the late first to second millennium AD, with domestic and other debris accounting for more than five meters of cultural deposits. The mounds were nodes on an extensive landscape where people lived, traded, and carried out craft production. The geophysical investigations will allow us to understand the composition of the mounds as well as to map subsurface anomalies to be tested through excavation. These will be the first known geophysical surveys in Zambia. This work is part of a multi-year project using to archaeology and historical linguistics to explore the history of mobility and rootedness in the region, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, entitled ‘The Demographics of Pre-History: South Central Africa through Archaeology and Linguistics.’

• PI: Jeffrey Fleisher
• Institution: Rice University
• Co-PI: Matthew Pawlowicz; Kathryn de Luna
• Instituion: Virginia Commonwealth University; Georgetown University
• Region: Africa

FUNDED: Locating the Oneota Landscape at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

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Since 2016, Dr. Madeleine McLeester and her colleagues have been excavating at a 17th century Native American village located at the former Joliet arsenal, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, in northern Illinois. The site is currently defined by a series of subterranean storage features; however, a recent analysis of historical aerial photographs and drone-acquired thermal imagery suggests that the site may be much larger and contain housing and ritual areas currently only detected through geophysics. Dr. McLeester is collaborating with SPARC to further explore the extent, spatial layout, and archaeological features of this village. This work will provide needed texture to village life during the terminal pre-European era, for which few sites near Chicago remain. This project is also essential to the preservation of these archaeological features due to restoration, earth-moving projects that may threaten the archaeological record. The PI would also like to acknowledge the Forest Service, USDA, for their support for the project.

• PI: Madeleine McLeester
• Institution: University of Notre Dame
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Ancestral Pueblo Occupation on the Mesa Verde North Escarpment

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(Image credit: Sean Field) Dr. Reese and SPARC collaborators will use UAV-based LiDAR and thermal imaging data collection to help document the extent of Ancestral Pueblo occupation and use of the Mesa Verde North Escarpment from A.D. 600–1300. The data will be used to create a detailed bare earth terrain model, which will help to identify habitation, civic-ceremonial, and ritual architecture, along with water management features that supported the population in this mostly unrecorded area. The PI (Reese) would like to also acknowledge the support of the Bureau of Land Management.

• PI: Kelsey Reese
• Institution: University of Notre Dame
• Region: North America

FUNDED: The Altiplano Agriculture and Communities Project

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Dr. Brieanna Langlie is collaborating with the SPARC team to map and study past and present-day agricultural terraces in the Lake Titicaca Basin. This extensive landscape study is essential to Dr. Langlie's archaeological and ethnobotanical project in the to examine the past, present, and future of terrace agriculture in the Altiplano. The team is developing a GIS to integrate data on terrace configuration and location, relationships with regional archaeological settlements, and aspects of the local topography that may affect cultivation potential. Pinpointing regional processes of agricultural intensification is imperative to understanding the dynamic prehistory of the region, and answering larger anthropological questions about the motivations and consequences of agricultural intensification.

• PI: BrieAnna Langlie
• Institution: Binghamton University
• Region: South America

FUNDED: Developing GeoPACHA: Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History, and Archaeology

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This project will contribute to the development of GeoPACHA (Geospatial Platform for Andean Colonial History and Archaeology), a geospatial database and interface for producing thematic and analytical maps, currently being created by the PIs with support of the NEH (award #HD-229071-15) and Mellon Foundation. The SPARC collaboration will support adding the ability to crowdsource the locations of previously unmapped reducciones in the territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru through “virtual archaeological survey” using high resolution satellite imagery. The project will focus on using free and open source software in creating the geospatial infrastructure, enhancing the reproducibility of the approach.

• PI: Steven Wernke
• Institution: Vanderbilt University
• Co-PI: Nathaniel (Parker) VanValkenburgh
• Instituion: Brown University
• Region: South America

FUNDED: Bosutswe Landscapes Regional Survey: Building a Predictive GIS Model of Archaeological Sites in the African Interior

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(Image credit: Mica Jones) The Bosutswe Landscapes Regional Survey (BosLand) began in 2014 to works towards a better understanding of the precolonial cities and kingdoms that arise in the African interior around the 1st millennium AD. This project focuses on building a GIS to integrate extensive, newly acquired, satellite imagery for the study region with data collected from previously collected geophysical and close-range aerial data. The project's GIS will also bring together information on sites with that on local water systems. The project also aims to develop a predictive model for sites in other nearby areas. The PI (Klehm) would like to acknowledge the DigitalGlobe Foundation for their support in the upcoming project through an Imagery Grant. The SPARC Analytics project uses, in part, previously collected survey and excavation data in 2014. To this effect, the PI would also like to acknowledge the support of East Tennessee State University (under a RDC Major Research Grant) and, jointly, the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at University of Arkansas and National Science Foundation (through a SPARC Fieldwork Grant). The geophysical component of this previous field research was led by Dr. Eileen Ernenwein East Tennessee State University, the aerial survey by Katie Simon at University of Arkansas, under the direction of Carla Klehm and with archaeological assistance from the University of Botswana and the National Museum of Botswana. The 2014 data were collected under Republic of Botswana Ministry of Environment, Wildlife, and Tourism Permit EWT8/36/4XXV(62).

• PI: Carla Klehm
• Institution: Washington University in St. Louis
• Region: Africa

FUNDED: Using Total Viewsheds to Evaluate Visibility in the Placement of Chacoan Monumental Architecture

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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.

• PI: Katherine Dungan
• Institution: Archaeology Southwest
• Co-PI: Sylviane Déderix and Kristin Safi
• Instituion: University of Arizona and Oak Ridge National Lab
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Stagville Landscapes via LiDAR

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The Stagville Landscapes project will examine the nearly 20,000 acres of plantation lands owned by the Cameron family of North Carolina from 1776 through the middle of the 20th century. The project represents an important opportunity to examine a single plantation complex in its entirety. The results, based on a combination of LiDAR analyses and archival research, will contribute to our understanding of the social relations and human-environment relations that characterized plantations—networked spaces of labor.

• PI: Anna Agbe-Davies
• Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Mapping the Iron Age Metalworking Site of As-Safah (Oman)

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This project will use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to transform understanding of Iron Age metallurgy in Oman, looking specifically at the metalworking site of As-Safah – located at the edge of the Rub’ Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Arabia. The geophysical investigations will address questions like the size and spatial layout of As-Safah, if people there lived in tents or more permanent structures potentially recognizable in GPR and water and fuel availability. The broader impacts of this work include understanding how societies of the past adapted to harsh arid environments and developed technologies to produce valuable tools and trade goods from relatively rare natural resources such as copper.

• PI: Michael Harrower
• Institution: John Hopkins University
• Co-PI: Frances Wiig and Ioana Dumitru
• Instituion:
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Architectural Sequences in the Shire Region

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Together with SPARC researchers, Drs. Wendrich and Barnard and Ms. Moy will undertake geophysical survey and analysis of archaeological remains dating to the Aksumite Period across an occupation area around the sites of Mai Adrasha and Mezebar Adimenabr (Ethiopia). The material culture of this period and region is relatively unknown, and the results of the project will provide essential basic archaeological data. The team plans to focus their investigations on the variability of domestic architecture. Patterns and distributions of domestic architecture types will be used to elucidate differences in identity or activities within the context of a community developing new agricultural practices and in the process of urbanization.

• PI: Willeke Wendrich
• Institution: University of California – Los Angeles
• Co-PI: Hans Barnard and Rachel Moy
• Instituion: University of California – Los Angeles
• Region: Africa

FUNDED: Turning the Landscape into a Stela: The Mechanics of Egyptian Royal Rock Inscriptions

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Photo Credit: A.D. Riddle

Ms. Thum will collaborate with researchers from CAST to create detailed and georeferenced 3D models of Egyptian inscriptions carved into the stone and their immediately surrounding landscapes in a variety of locations in the Middle East and North Africa that fall within the sphere of Egyptian influence. Through this analysis the research team will investigate potential cultural, religious, and military motivations behind the placement of living-rock monuments on particular outcrops and in the wider landscapes around them and to assess whether spatial language within the texts of living-rock monuments might have played a role in articulating their positions in the landscape.

This project gratefully acknowledges the support of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), and the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

• PI: Jennifer Thum
• Institution: Brown University
• Co-PI: Parker Van Valkenburgh
• Instituion: Brown University
• Region: Near East and North Africa

FUNDED: Mapping the growth of land-route networks across Anatolia

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Mr. Stephens will collaborate with the CAST team to undertake high resolution path modeling and network analysis to investigate routeways emerging and in use in Anatolia in the Early Iron Age (ca. 1100-800 BCE), following the collapse of the Hittite state ca. 1200 BCE. This work will support the PIs ongoing research that seeks to understand the complex web of relationships that developed across Iron Age Anatolia through an integrated study of possible land-routes determined by topography and principles derived from network analysis. The results of the project will shed light on territorial issues of state formation and test the effects of large, dominant centers on the arrangement of evolving transportation networks.

• PI: Lucas Stephens
• Institution: University of Pennsylvania
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Modeling Royal Architecture at Sans Souci, Haiti: 3D Scanning and Photogrammetry at a UNESCO World Heritage Site

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CAST researchers will be collaborating with Dr. Monroe and Mrs. Rocourt to collect new 3D scanning and photogrammetric data of the standing architecture at San Souci, Haiti to generate a high resolution architectural and topographic plan of the site. The collection of this data is crucial to the PIs examination of the architecture of power in the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti (1811-1820), which emerged in the years following the Haitian Revolution. The new project builds on an earlier program of geophysical survey centered on the main palace, and supports the completion of the preliminary study of the site, generating baseline data with which to begin to ask broader questions about the organization of space at this important and under-studied site, and the social dynamics expressed and created by the spatial arrangements.

• PI: Cameron Monroe
• Institution: University of California – Santa Cruz
• Co-PI: Monique Rocourt
• Instituion: Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National
• Region: Caribbean

FUNDED: Craft Production and Technological Change at Fortress Sites in the South Caucasus, c. 1500-500 BC

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Through this collaborative project, Mr. Erb-Satullo and members of the SPARC team will carry out geophysical surveys at Mtsvane Gora (Republic of Georgia). The project aims to identify and understand the spatial distribution of metallurgy activities and extra-mural settlement at the site. The elucidation of these patterns will support Mr. Erb-Satullo’s research on the social context of early iron production, as reflected in the spatial relationships between domestic areas, workshops, and public areas. The results of this research will contribute to the PIs broader work on control of metal production, technological change, social hierarchy and settlement in the context of the Bronze Age – Iron Age transition in Georgia.

• PI: Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
• Institution: Harvard University
• Co-PI: Dr. Jason Ur
• Instituion: Harvard University
• Region: Caucasus

FUNDED: Reconstructing the Environment and Topography of the Forum Boarium in Rome

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Together with SPARC researchers, Ms. Brock will use newly acquired data from her coring survey to build a digital model of the temple complex at Sant’Omobono (Rome, Italy) and the adjacent Tiber River harbor. By reconstructing the natural and built environment of this area, the team will explore the development of Rome’s river harbor in the context of an emerging city. The modeling process will support research on the role of the environment and human adaptation in prehistoric urban systems, and the results will provide an effective way to communicate the new picture of the Forum Boarium.

• PI: Andrea Brock
• Institution: University of Michigan
• Region: Mediterranean Europe

FUNDED: Marzuolo Archaeological Project: Crafting Innovation and Community in The Roman Countryside

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Drs. Vennarucci, Van Oyen and Tol will work with SPARC researchers to implement a digital recording system for the excavations at Marzuolo, a rural production site located in Tuscany, Italy. Supported through pre-fieldwork and on-site collaboration, the team at Marzuolo will establish a method for creating detailed georeferenced 3D models of their sites stratigraphy, integrated with the projects broader GIS and descriptive data. By enabling accurate and thorough spatial recording, the collaboration will aid the PIs in their investigation of the spatial organization of the site and its production activities, particularly those linked to the experimental and later standardized production of Terra Sigillata Italica pottery.

• PI: Rhodora Vennarucci
• Institution: University of Arkansas
• Co-PI: Astrid Van Oyen and Gijs Tol
• Instituion: Cambridge University and University of Groningen
• Region: Mediterranean Europe

FUNDED: Five Lands Geospatial Project

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Dr. Carter, together with Ms. Santini and Mr. Davenport, will collaborate with SPARC researchers to study the relationships between terrain, routeways, and evolving settlement patterns in the Five Lands region during the Classic period of Maya culture history. The project will assess the relationships between intervisibility and visual position, travel cost, and regional settlement structure in a rugged yet highly interconnected landscape. Specifically, the locations chosen for the establishment of new capitals will be considered in light of existing settlements and the need for access to and control over travel routes that allow for participation in the trade of prestige goods. The team will acquire relevant topographic and land cover data, integrate information on the locations of known sites and economic connections, and carry out visibility and cost-surface analyses.

• PI: Dr. Nicholas Carter
• Institution: Harvard University
• Co-PI: Ms. Lauren Santini, and Mr. Bryce Davenport
• Instituion: Harvard University and Cultural Site Research and Management
• Region: Central America

FUNDED: Geospatial Analytics at Gast Farm, a Multicomponent Site in the Upper Mississippi River Valley

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Drs. Green, Whelan, Doershuk, and Swanson will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to develop a GIS and integrate the diverse data collected through their ongoing investigation of Gast Farm, a 13-hectare prehistoric site complex located in southeast Iowa. This site is important for the understanding of Middle and Late Woodland settlements’ spatial organization, ritual behavior, regional interaction, and social complexity. The project will bring together information from vertical and oblique air photos, airborne lidar data, surface survey, excavation and geophysical surveys. Students will be actively involved in this project, receiving training in GIS design and geospatial analysis.

• PI: William Green
• Institution: Beloit College
• Co-PI: Susan Swanson, Mary Whelan, and John Doershuk
• Instituion: Arizona State University, University of Iowa
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Data-fusion of a multi-instrument geophysical survey of an Iron Age Iberian/Roman settlement

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Wendy Cegielski (ASU), with co-PIs Justin Rego and Ignacio Grau-Mira will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to investigate the structure and organization of the urban, Iberian fortified settlement of Mariola in Eastern Spain. Mariola’s occupation spans the 2 and 1 centuries BC, a period marking the first stage of Roman control of Eastern Iberia, before the direct implantation of Roman Towns in the 1 century AD. This project’s The coPI’s have collected a large, multi-instrument dataset including gradiometry data with almost full coverage of the site area supplemented by sampled conductivity and susceptibility data. The PIs will work with SPARC researchers to pursue advanced datafusion techniques and the integration of LiDAR imagery. The aim is to improve current methods for distinguishing features of interest on Iberian fortress sites, and to undertake a more elaborate analysis of the data available, to identify of household structures and other traces of the urban plan, and to interpret their incorporation of Roman and Iberian structural features. These results will be compared to the settlement plans of other Iberian fortresses in the region in order to increase our understanding of the process of Roman Imperialism in Iberia.

We would like to acknowledge the University of Alicante Spain, the Museu Arqueològic Municipal in Alcoi Spain, Dr. Ignasi Grau-Mira, and the 2014 Mariola Field School as hosts and assistants with the geophysical survey. We also thank Geoscan Research and Dr. Lew Somers for technical assistance and supplies and Dr. Jay K. Johnson from the University of Mississippi for the geophysical instrumentation.

• PI: Wendy Cegielski
• Institution: Arizona State University
• Co-PI: Justin Rego and Ignacio Grau-Mira
• Instituion: University of Alicante
• Region: Mediterranean Europe

FUNDED: Vulci 3000

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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

FUNDED: The Gault Site 41BL323

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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.

• PI: Dr. Michael Collins
• Institution: University of Texas at Austin
• Co-PI: Dr. Bruce Bradley
• Instituion: Texas State University
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Malthi Mapping and Digitization Project

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Malthi provides a nearly unique example of a fully excavated Middle Hellenic (MH) settlement. The excavated remains include a series of houses, storage facilities, entrance ways, and possible public architecture, enclosed by a settlement wall. Malthi is perhaps the first MH site at which a major restructuring of the settlement architecture was observed, as proposed by Valmin. The PIs research focuses on the socio-cultural motivations for the decision to make substantial revisions to the urban layout, as well as impacts on the life of the settlement and the surrounding area. PIs Rebecca Worsham, Prof. Donald Haggis, and Prof. Michael Lindblom will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to produce an accurate and analysis-ready plan of the exposed standing remains and a digital elevation model (DEM) of the settlement at Malthi, using a combination of scanning and structure from motion techniques. This work in embedded in a larger project, and aims to reconsider the architecture of the site including prior identifications of room types (by Valmin), and to attempt to identify coherent buildings. This improved survey, mapping and interpretation exercise will support a rethinking about the settlement’s organization, and re-organization, as a whole. The production of a local DEM of the site will aid in a consideration of access routes and forms a starting point for establishing the role of Malthi in the larger Soulima Valley network, which may function as a major corridor.

This research is supported by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP), the Swedish Institute at Athens, the Univeristy of Uppsala, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. .

• PI: Rebecca Worsham
• Institution: UNC Chapel Hill
• Co-PI: Donald Haggis and Michael Lindblom
• Instituion: UNC Chapel Hill and Uppsala University
• Region: Mediterranean Europe

FUNDED: Understanding Rejolladas and Examining their Potential for Predicting Settlement Location at Tahcabo

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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.

• PI: Patricia McAnany
• Institution: UNC Chapel Hill
• Co-PI: Maia Dedrick
• Instituion: UNC Chapel Hill
• Region: Central America

FUNDED: Measuring Household Economies in Iron Age Southwest Jordan: An Archaeological Case Study from Edomite Busayra

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Anthropological archaeologists have long sought to document and explain how the economies of past societies responded to imperial rule. Scholars have paid particular attention to the ways indigenous economies reacted under the stress of imperial demands for tribute and market demands for new or more products. Producers, either on their own or with assistance from imperial sponsorship, could intensify the organization of their economies in order to increase output and meet these new demands. This project investigates questions of how producers in semi-arid zones create sustainable economies that meet their precarious subsistence requirements while achieving the demands of empires and new markets. In this project Dr. Porter will collaborate with SPARC researchers to carry out geophysical survey at Busayra to map sub-surface features in order to characterize the overall architectural layout of the settlement as well as identify domestic residences for additional sampling. The results of the geophysical survey will help target excavation, which in turn will concentrate on recovering inorganic and organic evidence from secure contexts in order to answer the project's principal research question concerning how household economies were reorganized, elucidating evidence for trends toward economic specialization to maximize output in a semi-arid environment.

This research is supported by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities al-Hima (http://www.alhima-jo.org/en), American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in 'Amman, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Berkeley's Archaeological Research Facility.

• PI: Benjamin Porter
• Institution: University of California, Berkeley
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: Biodiversity as a Social Process: Land Use, Resource Consumption, and Near-surface Geophysical Explorations at South Indian Iron Age-Early Historic Settlements

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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

FUNDED: Identification of Coarse Earthenware Potters on Production and Consumption Sites in Charlestown, Massachusetts Using Fingerprint Biometric Identification

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Joseph Bagley and Jennifer Poulsen of the Boston Landmarks Commission will be collaborating with SPARC researchers to use a structured light scanner to create detailed 3D models of ceramic artifacts featuring finger and hand prints from the Parker-Harris Pottery Site and Three Cranes tavern Site in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Fingerprints from redware vessels at both production and consumption sites will be analyzed. The goal of this proof-of-concept pilot project is to establish that biometric identifiers can be used to directly connect pottery from consumption sites with production sites when there is a known sale of product between production and consumption sites, tightly dated deposits that can limit association of pottery to specific potters, and there are a limited number of potters known to be producing these vessels. This project will also establish a visual reference collection of fingerprints with the potential for expansion into an automated fingerprint identification system of historic potters on both production and consumption sites in Charlestown and beyond. This type of database could establish previously-unknown associations and commercial networks of domestic redware potters across the eastern United States. With data as unique and personal as a fingerprint, the results of this analysis with bring a personal and evocative light to these significant assemblages, allowing the public to appreciate these forgotten and sometimes nameless potters through the intimate association of their hands.

• PI: Joseph Bagley and Jennifer Poulsen
• Institution: Boston Landmarks Commission
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Lidar data acquisition and landscape archaeology for the Caribbean island of Montserrat

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The Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project began in 2010, and Drs. Ryzewski and Cherry have been conducting pedestrian survey for four field seasons. The dense vegetation and steep terrain of this island preclude intensive, systematic survey and ground visibility is extremely poor - even standing remains are often hidden by dense tropical forest vegetation. Through their SPARC project, they will begin to use airborne lidar data to map potential cultural landscape features and other anomalies in the Centre Hills region of the island and guide future prospection strategies. This work will generate essential diachronic data and provide the foundations for research on broader questions of long term land-use, settlement history, strategies for risk management, and consequences of migrations and colonization, enabling the researchers to develop new insights into Montserrat’s past inhabitants and relationships with the wider Caribbean region.

This research is conducted with the kind collaboration of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and Montserrat National Trust.

• PI: Krysta Ryzewski
• Institution: Wayne State University
• Co-PI: John Cherry
• Instituion: Brown University
• Region: Caribbean

FUNDED: Etruria Before and After the Roman Conquest. The Landscape of Vulci.

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Over a thousand archaeological sites have been identified in the landscape around Vulci, located north of Rome in Italy through a variety of surveys and excavations. Through this SPARC supported project, researchers from SUNY Buffalo and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei - Rome will be bringing this information, together with environmental and topographic data and aerial imagery, to bear in a new study of the territory, aiming to better understand the military, social, and economic organization of the pre-Roman landscape, and the Etruscan response to Roman invasion— a critical period currently understood mainly from a Roman perspectives— and the Roman changes to the territory after the conquest of Vulci. Integrating and analyzing these complex data, the project will investigate questions of continuity and change, the organization of the local rural economy, the influence of the natural environment, and the value of a landscape approach to the study of the region's social structures.

This research project is conducted with the kind cooperation of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Etruria Meridionale, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana and the Riserva Naturale Selva del Lamone.

• PI: Orlando Cerasuolo, Erin Warford, Stephen Dyson
• Institution: SUNY Buffalo
• Co-PI: Luca Polcinelli
• Instituion: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei - Rome
• Region: Mediterranean Europe

FUNDED: Evaluating Competition Beween Chaco-Style Great Houses in the Southern Cibola Region of West-Central New Mexico

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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.

• PI: Kristin Safi
• Institution: Washington State University
• Region: North America

FUNDED: A 3D Digital Collection and Virtual Exhibit for Santa Ana Tavela's Community Museum

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Stacie King will be developing a workflow and protocol to model and virtually display objects from a community museum collection in Santa Ana Tavela, Mexico, using structure from motion style photogrammetry and an open source, lightweight approach to virtual museums. This project aims to bring information about the collection to a wider audience and provide the local community with a stake in presentation and interpretation of their heritage, while fulfilling national requirements regarding stewardship of archaeological materials. The project explores issues of how well digital media enhances and democratizes access to physical artifact collections and serves as a means of digital repatriation.

• PI: Stacie King
• Institution: Glenn A. Black Laboratory for Archaeology, Indiana University
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Modeling Long-Term Water Management Strategies on the Irrigated Plain of Miān-āb, in the Khuzistan Province of Iran. Type of Application:

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Mehrnoush Soroush's project attempts to understand the longue durée water management strategies on the irrigated landscape of Miān-āb, in the Khuzistan Province of Iran. Using historical aerial photographs and declassified Corona imagery she plans to create a historical DEM and carry out hydrology modeling to study the workings of a complicated irrigation system, which includes canals, dams, weirs, bridges, subterranean channels, and earthen enclosures, that extend over 4000 km2. The project aims to shed light on the dynamics of decision-making and community practices for the management of water resources of Miān-āb from antiquity until the onset of modern agricultural development. New insights into past irrigation and water management derived from this study have the potential to contribute to a more informed and sustainable strategy for the future of the landscape in Miān-āb.

• PI: Mehrnoush Soroush
• Institution: New York University
• Region: Near East

FUNDED: The economic organization of a pre-contact Northwest Coast village

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Patrick Dolan and Colin Grier will be using magnetometry survey to collect essential data on the organization of domestic space and households at the Dionisio Point Site in the Gulf Islands, British Columbia. This data will be used to support the broader study of economic indicators of household food production and consumption at a single plank house village in southwestern British Columbia. The SPARC supported phase of the project will generate baseline architectural and demographic data for this village by identifying hearths and other basic household features, part of a growing number of projects using geophysical research to investigate small-scale hunter-fisher-gatherer village economies and the development of social complexity.

This research is generously supported by NSF Grant No. 1062615 and an NSF-Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant No. 1342025

• PI: Patrick Dolan
• Institution: Washington State University
• Co-PI: Colin Grier
• Instituion: Washington State University
• Region: North America

FUNDED: Bosutswe Landscapes: Exploring early African towns through geophysics and photogrammetry

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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.

• PI: Carla Klehm
• Institution: University of Washington St. Louis
• Co-PI: Eileen Ernenwein
• Instituion: East Tennessee State University
• Region: Africa