Creating high quality 3D images of artifacts adds a new technique for preserving archaeological information. 3D scanning has many potential benefits for archaeology. Means and his team at the Virtual Curation Laboratory have scanned artifacts at many archaeological sites across Virginia. Means and members of his team brought their 3D scanner to Poplar Forest to create detailed images of some of the artifacts in our collection.ĭr. Means and student researchers from the Virtual Curation Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University. It is recommended that the decision to perform in-field analysis be made per project and that the DoD pursue efforts to improve the performance of in-field analysis.This is an animated 3D image of one of our Rosso Antico teapot fragments. Site interpretation based on these results was substantially less accurate and precise than interpretation based on laboratory analysis of the physical artifacts. Assessment of the results showed that both in-field analysis and digital photograph analysis routinely misidentified artifact types and attributes. ![]() Separate sets of trained specialists then analyzed the same artifacts in a laboratory setting using only digital photographs of the collected artifacts or the physical artifacts. At each of these sites, a sample of ceramic and lithic artifacts was analyzed in the field by two separate field crews. This project, funded by the Legacy Resource Management Program and sponsored by Fort Huachuca, consists of an experiment testing the accuracy and adequacy of in-field analysis at two sites-one on Fort Huachuca in southeastern Arizona and one on Fort Bliss in south-central New Mexico. The approach assumes that in-field analysis is comparable in quality to laboratory analysis and that future research and management decisions will not need access to artifacts. Throughout the western United States, limited or no-collection policies within the DoD have led to reliance on in-field analysis for analyzing most or all artifacts used to interpret a site. The study concluded with the following recommendations: (1) archaeological data and metadata on survey methods, recording techniques, and instrumentation should be regularly maintained and archived according to standardized formats (2) metrics illustrated in the study should be used to evaluate data quality on other military installations and (3) problems with the site concept should be addressed at DoD installations by focusing on regional patterns rather than specific site locations. Analytical tools suitable for use by military personnel for mission planning, training, and CRM purposes were discussed and explained. For each of the three issues, SRI illustrated the fallacy of obtaining “true” results and demonstrated the utility of using multiple observations to calculate precise estimates of numbers of sites, site locations, and site boundaries. SRI explored three data quality issues of major concern to DoD military installations: survey reliability, site location, and site boundaries. In addition, each installation implements standardized inventory and recording practices that are appropriate to regional characteristics of the archaeological record and the kinds of cultural resources requiring management. Installations in the eastern United States, for instance, typically use shovel-test pits to discover sites, whereas installations in the western United States rely mostly on pedestrian survey. The installations chosen for this project use a range of methodological approaches. ![]() The goals of this pilot project were to address the following questions: How good are cultural resource management (CRM) data on military installations? Does the quality of the data affect decisions critical to military activities? To address these goals, this project illustrated the use of analytical tools for assessing the effect of standardized inventory and recording practices on the quality of archaeological data. Goldwater Range (Arizona), China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (California), Eglin Air Force Base (Florida), Fort Bliss (McGregor Range, New Mexico), Fort Drum (New York), and the Utah Test and Training Range (Utah). The installations used as case studies were chosen to represent a variety of Services, regions, environments, and cultures. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and under subcontract agreement with Geo-Marine, Inc.-conducted this project using data from six installations. This project, funded by the Legacy Resource Management Program, explores the potential value and benefit to the DoD of establishing key quality indicators for archaeological data. Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes the need to ensure the quality of archaeological data used in planning efforts.
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