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Ethics and Best Practices for Mapping Archaeological Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

Cecilia Smith*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago Library, University of Chicago, 1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL60637, USA

Abstract

Archaeologists are tasked with balancing a call to open data and the need to maintain confidentiality of sensitive archaeological site locations. Low-resolution mapping and data aggregation are the methods most commonly used to hide site locations; however, we understand little of the effectiveness of these practices. Trends in geomasking, obscuring observed geographic points, to anonymize public health data are suggested as a source of methods for sharing archaeological site data. Archaeologists have available to them a number of geomasking methods that balance open data and site security in different ways. Low-resolution mapping at several scales and random direction with fixed radius, random perturbation donut, and Gaussian donut techniques are tested on a set of archaeological site locations. Random perturbation donuts resulted in the best balance between obscuring archaeological locations and conveying observed spatial patterning. Researchers should carefully consider how they convey archaeological location data, as commonly used low-resolution scales may not provide the desired level of obscurity. Researchers should also be explicit as to how and why their methods of site visualization are chosen.

Los arqueólogos tienen la tarea de equilibrar un llamamiento a las prácticas de datos abiertos y de mantener la confidencialidad de sitios arqueológicos sensibles. La cartografía de baja resolución y la agregación de datos son los métodos más utilizados para ocultar los lugares de los sitios; sin embargo, entendemos poco de la eficacia de estas prácticas. Se sugieren tendencias en el enmascaramiento de la ubicación, el ocultamiento de puntos geográficos observados, para anonimizar los datos de salud pública como fuente de métodos para compartir los datos de los sitios arqueológicos. Los arqueólogos tienen a su disposición una serie de métodos de enmascaramiento de la ubicación que equilibran los datos abiertos y la seguridad del sitio de diferentes maneras. En un conjunto de emplazamientos de sitios arqueológicos se ensayan técnicas de cartografía de baja resolución a varias escalas, dirección aleatoria con radio fijo, rosquillas de perturbación aleatoria y de rosquilla gaussiana. Las rosquillas de perturbación aleatoria dieron como resultado el mejor equilibrio entre el ocultamiento de los sitios arqueológicos y la transmisión de los patrones espaciales observados. Los investigadores deben considerar cuidadosamente cómo transmiten los datos de los emplazamientos arqueológicos, ya que las escalas de baja resolución comúnmente utilizadas podrían no proporcionar el nivel de ocultamiento deseado. Los investigadores también deben ser explícitos en cuanto a cómo y por qué se escogen sus métodos de visualización de los sitios.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright 2020 © Society for American Archaeology

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