Conference Agenda

In 2020, two Defiance, Ohio librarians set out to relocate a forgotten Black cemetery. Established by Archibald Worthington, a freedman, Civil War veteran, and successful farmer, the cemetery served the needs of a small but lively Black community in northwestern Ohio from the 1850s to the 1890s. The search for the cemetery combined historical research, canine archaeological human remains detection (arcHRD) survey, and geophysical remote sensing methods. These efforts led to the location of the site in a cornfield in the nearby hamlet of Ayersville.

In this presentation, we describe the utility of this novel methodological approach. We also take stock of community engagement around the Worthington cemetery, considering the development of stakeholdership and meaning around a historic Black burial space within an overwhelmingly white community. Finally, we discuss ongoing efforts to preserve and commemorate the cemetery site.

Early efforts to date key events in the histories of the peoples of Oceania often relied on traditional narratives, oral histories, and genealogical dating. However, date determination based on historical and traditional accounts has recently given way to the use of scientific methods, primarily radiocarbon dating. Despite this shift, recent efforts combining historical, traditional, and scientific methods and narratives have been successful in making precise and consistent date determinations for key events and periods. This combined approach can add important context to the periods in question and inform archaeological interpretations. Here we provide examples of current and future research in the Cook Islands that illustrate the benefits of including diverse temporal data in date determination and chronology construction. We believe this approach can contribute to creating a fuller, more inclusive understanding of the Oceanic past and can lead to new avenues of research.

When identifiable, transfer-printed ceramics provide detailed chronological, trade, and other cultural information for historic sites. However, there are thousands of distinct patterns from hundreds of manufacturers, and archaeologically recovered examples are often so fragmentary as to limit the ability to identify them. Yet, with several provisos this paper considers, those with the same pattern are identical and should be identifiable even from fragments. This paper reports on the progress of a new application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to this task. In partnership with the Transferware Collector’s Club and its database of more than 18,000 patterns, our team has developed a model in which uploaded pattern images output a matching category label from database. This model is implemented as an Artificial Neural Network, building a vector index out of the feature vectors of all images in the database and then extracting feature vectors for a submitted image for comparison.

Many aspects of cultures change with location and time: language, ideologies, degrees of social complexity. I look here at the social logic of space that Hillier and Hanson (1984) argued is used universally to convey abstract social realms by physical systems that provided social solidarity. Geographers who study contemporary communities, their work is widely employed by engineers, urban planners, and mathematicians. Social solidarity is used in this argument to refer to both the organized and mechanical types of solidarity as defined by Durkheim. To investigate the possibility that space syntax has been used throughout the prehistoric and historic periods, I apply space syntax analysis to the earthen monumental structures at Poverty Point World Heritage Site with references to the Neolithic burial mounds of Brú na Bóinne in Ireland and the Carnac Megaliths in Brittany, France.

As photogrammetry becomes more prevalent in archaeology and heritage preservation, computational bottlenecks increase costs and limit project scopes. Depth Map generation, a crucial yet computationally intensive step, often struggles with reflective materials. While Multi-View Stereo (MVS) is the common method for these calculations, openly available Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) depth estimation algorithms now rival traditional MVS in both speed and accuracy with reflective surfaces. This study replaces MVS depth map generation in Agisoft Metashape with various openly accessible CNNs, comparing the resulting models based on generation speed and visual acuity. To showcase the potential heritage applications of this CNN-based workflow, we model artifacts from Cabrits National Park, Dominica and an ongoing excavation on the island. We aim to evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing currently available CNNs in place of a traditional MVS-based photogrammetry workflow and discuss whether this technology may become a new standard in historical documentation and preservation.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Oyo Empire reigned over what is today southeastern Benin and southwestern Nigeria. Oyo was notorious for its use of a cavalry despite a climate harboring many fatal equine diseases, yet it remained unclear where in West Africa their horses had been bred and raised. In this study, we conducted strontium isotope analysis in a faunal assemblage from the archeological site of Ede-Ile (Nigeria), analyzing 37 teeth from 28 horse specimens, alongside soil samples from two prominent Oyo Empire sites (Ede-Ile and Oyo-Ile). Particularly by comparing early and late forming teeth from the same horses and by referring to a strontium isoscape of the region, we reconstruct from where and what age horses were brought to Oyo centers of power or, in rare cases, successfully reared within southern Oyo. This research uses biogeochemistry to explore the complex trading network of equids within West Africa.

A burgeoning movement is taking place in the geospatial world to further refine underground imaging. These advancements include the use of GPR arrays that provide unprecedented images of the subsurface very quickly with centimeter precision. Use of these systems is growing due to the images produced and the transposition of the images in the field to software such as Esri Field Maps. Archaeologists can now “walk” the image to its location in the field on a mobile device for immediate demarcation and/or test pits. These tools were used with remarkable results at an 18^th century former plantation and other period sites in the historic Charleston, South Carolina area.

Surveying large archaeological collections can be a time-consuming task with the potential for inconsistencies. Archaeological staff at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have implemented a system for performing condition and housing surveys that allows for efficient and accurate collection of data. The system involves utilizing an online form template that is easily customizable, readily produces statistics, and captures data that can be shared in various formats. This paper will discuss the capabilities of these templates and their current applications in Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeological collections, from comprehensive collections surveys to condition spot checks.