Archaeological data and research results are essential to addressing such fundamental questions as the origins of human culture; the origin, waxing, and waning of civilizations and cities; the response of societies to long-term climate changes; and the systemic relationships implicated in human-induced changes in the environment. However, we lack the capacity for acquiring, managing, analyzing, and synthesizing the data sets needed to address important questions such as these. We propose investments in computational infrastructure that would transform archaeology’s ability to advance research on the field’s most compelling questions with an evidential base and inferential rigor that have heretofore been impossible. At the same time, new infrastructure would make archaeological data accessible to researchers in other disciplines. We offer recommendations regarding data management and availability, cyberinfrastructure tool building, and social and cultural changes in the discipline. We propose funding synthetic case studies that would demonstrate archaeology’s ability to contribute to transdisciplinary research on long-term social dynamics and serve as a context for developing computational tools and analytical workflows that will be necessary to attack these questions. The case studies would explore how emerging research in computer science could empower this research and would simultaneously provide productive challenges for computer science research.

Formal archaeological publication is unimaginative in its use of images, and often the images used do not best serve the text. The result is that text and image poorly relate. But graphic formats that establish an interrelationship between text and image can be used to create new layers of richness. One such example is the use of comics. In order to illustrate how the visualization principles of comics can be used to re-shape formal archaeological publication, the author presents an adaptation of the first three pages of “Ceramics and Polity” by Michael Whalen and Paul Minnis, originally published in American Antiquity. The use of similar visualization principles opens up the possibility of new kinds of professional, interdisciplinary, and peer-to-peer narratives. The article is in the form of a 10-page comic.

For the first time in North American archaeology, absorbed residue analysis was conducted on multiple samples from the same vessel, a complete Mississippi Plain jar from Angel Mounds (12Vg1). This approach provided comprehensive, residue-based interpretations of the form and function of a single pot. The Mississippi Plain jar was recovered from a burnt house floor along with the broken remains of a similar vessel and burnt maize. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of absorbed lipid residues were performed on four different parts of this vessel to determine its contents and function. Comparison of absorbed residues from the pot and soil lipids was used to determine whether the pot was buried with contents intact. The results indicate that this vessel was used to cook a mixture of riverine (lean fish or shellfish) and plant resources, probably including maize. Diterpenoid biomarkers were also present, suggesting that conifer resin was used either to seal the pot or as a flavoring. The jar, though deposited whole, was probably not buried with contents intact.

In recent years, scholars have convincingly argued, on both ethical and epistemic grounds, for the need for archaeological research “with, for, and by” descendant communities. Realizing such collaborative projects, however, is often challenging, and the prospect of beginning such an endeavor intimidating. This article shares a successful methodology implemented in the Xaltocan Archaeological Project (PAX) carried out in 2009–2011 in Mexico. This format—field crew-centered education in the context of excavations, culminating in a public symposium by all team members disseminating preliminary findings—is a simple, manageable way to begin engaging descendants. In addition to describing the symposium format, I discuss how I mitigated two major challenges to its implementation: (1) incentive or compensation (and, thereby, funding) and (2) community members’ critical assessments of their own relevant knowledge. I reflect on the impact of the symposium on subsequent collaborative efforts, and I contemplate institutional obstacles that remain for scholars attempting to decolonize archaeological research in Mexico. Finally, I consider how the symposium format could be implemented in other research contexts.

In this article we explore the relationship between spatial proximity and indices of social connectivity during the A.D. 1200–1450 interval in the United States (U.S.) Southwest. Using geographic information systems (GIS), we develop indices of spatial proximity based on the terrain-adjusted cost distance between sites in a regional settlement and material cultural database focused on the western U.S. Southwest. We evaluate the hypothesis that social interaction is a function of proximity and that interactions will be most intense among near neighbors. We find that this hypothesis is supported in some instances but that the correlation between proximity and interaction is highly variable in the context of late precontact social upheaval. Furthermore, we show important discrepancies between the Puebloan north and the Hohokam south that help to explain differences in community sustainability in the two regions.

The paper outlines a pilot project that archaeologists may use to explore the utility of analyzing surface and subsurface archaeological deposits from cultivated field sites. Surface and subsurface assemblage data are compared from the Aguas Buenas period (cal. A.D. 300–900) site of Pitti-González in western Panama. The analyses presented here illustrate a means by which researchers can assess the validity of surface deposits and choose appropriate sampling designs. In the example considered here, the analysis of surface deposits points toward the same general interpretations as excavation data. It is argued that surface deposits retain significant utility and offer important advantages to researchers.