Archaeology in the United States is caught in a “curation crisis” (Childs 1995; Childs and Warner 2019; Marquardt et al. 1982; SAA Advisory Committee on Curation 2003; Trimble and Marino 2003) and a “digital data crisis” (or “deluge”) more specifically (Bevan 2015; Clarke 2015; Kansa and Kansa 2021; Katsianis et al. 2022; Kersel 2015; McManamon et al. 2017:239–240; Rivers Cofield et al. 2024). Recent estimates suggest that, collectively, over 1.4 billion dollars are spent annually to support archaeological work that is mandated by federal law (SRI Foundation 2020). Although substantial efforts are underway to generate and provide mechanisms for managing, curating, and sharing the resultant digital data, we suggest that a critical step that has yet to be taken is to describe and visualize the components, connections, and causal dynamics of the US digital data system as it currently functions. Here, we specifically apply a “systems thinking” approach to produce such a high-level model of this system. We argue that understanding and visualizing this system will help us all “think bigger” (Heilen and Manney 2023); identify sources of knowledge, opportunities for critical analysis, collaboration, and capacity building; and increase much-needed archaeological digital literacy (Kansa and Kansa 2022). We conceptualize this as bringing “equilibrium” to the system, and in this article, we make several suggestions on how to bring this about. These insights can enable practitioners to better understand their roles in and contributions to the overall system and to evaluate efforts to improve data sharing, management, and curation practices not only within their organizations and departments but beyond.

Metric analysis of skeletal material is integral to the analysis and identification of human remains, though one commonly used measuring device, the osteometric board, has lagged in recent advancement. Traditional boards are bulky and require manual measurement recording, potentially generating intra- and interobserver error. To address these limitations, we tested the reliability, validity, and error rates of a novel device, the Portable Osteometric Device Version 1 (PODv1), which measures distance using laser sensors with time-of-flight technology. Forty-five volunteers measured four skeletal elements with the PODv1 and a PaleoTech osteometric board in three rounds. Comparison of tibia, humerus, and femur measurements with both devices showed no significant differences, although the maximum length of the ulna did differ, potentially because of observer confusion regarding the PODv1's user instructions for this element. Our results suggest that the PODv1 is a reliable, valid measurement device compared to traditional osteometric boards. Although both device types can produce calibration, transcription, and observer errors, the time-of-flight technology and the absence of manual recording built into the PODv1 may limit those errors. These advancements and their potential positive impacts on the accuracy of osteometric data collection may have far-reaching benefits for osteological, bioarchaeological, paleopathological, and forensic anthropological data collection.

We review shoreline monitoring methodologies used by members of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Archaeology, Geology, and Wildlife Biology teams from February 2021 to December 2022 on Pockoy Island in Charleston County, South Carolina, USA. Our project objectives were to better understand the driving forces behind the landward movement of the shoreline (transgression), to apply new understanding to the rate of shoreline erosion of the island that directly impacts the Pockoy Island Shell Ring Complex (38CH2533), and to establish best practice for future community science monitoring efforts. Each member of our team used a different shoreline monitoring methodology (a nested methodology approach). Multiple unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV)-derived orthoimagery datasets, on-the-ground transect measurements, and Arrow Gold real-time kinematic (RTK) unit measurements have been collected monthly following significant storms or king (perigean) tide events. Moving forward, the erosion transect approach tested within this project will serve as the foundation for community science monitoring at heritage at-risk sites in South Carolina. In this article, we introduce initial efforts in establishing a community science monitoring program in South Carolina that will influence future research, land management, and policy, and we propose how our research might be adapted for other sites at risk.

This article describes a series of steps to integrate multiple modes of archaeological mapping in arid and agricultural settings. We use the coastal region of Peru as a case study and share our recent field experience at Cerro San Isidro, a multicomponent hill site located in the agriculture-intensive and mid-elevation (about 500 m asl) Moro region of the Nepeña Valley. In June and July 2022, we spent eight weeks deploying a combination of drone aerial imagery, pedestrian GPS reconnaissance, and GPR survey to map the surface and subsurface features at the site and in the adjacent agricultural fields. Our efforts suggest that the ancient settlement extended over an area of at least 50 ha, well beyond the visible surface architecture. Using a multimodal approach to confirming the partial destruction of archaeological vestiges by modern agricultural encroachment is both time-effective and noninvasive. The article offers insights from our experience, including the sequence of field operations, technical troubleshooting, and the collection and integration of datasets. We discuss the methodological potential and implications of this combination of multimodal mapping and its deployment in coastal Peru, a region that, like many others in the world, is increasingly subject to rapid agricultural expansion and other anthropogenic developments.

At coastal archaeological sites, measuring erosion rates and assessing artifact loss are vital to understanding the timescale(s) and spatial magnitude of past and future site loss. We describe a straightforward low-tech methodology for documenting shoreline erosion developed by professionals and volunteers over seven years at Calusa Island Midden (8LL45), one of the few remaining sites with an Archaic component in the Pine Island Sound region of coastal Southwest Florida. We outline the evolution of the methodology since its launch in 2016 and describe issues encountered and solutions implemented. We also describe the use of the data to guide archaeological research and document the impacts of major storms at the site. The response to Hurricane Ian in 2022 is one example of how simply collected data can inform site management. This methodology can be implemented easily at other coastal sites at low cost and in collaboration with communities, volunteers, and heritage site managers.

People experience heritage at historic sites as landscapes that include both environmental and cultural meaning. Heritage as social action overcomes the dichotomies of nature versus culture and past versus present, which are obstacles to resiliency and sustainability in this era of rising sea levels. That insight is exemplified by a program addressing climate change on the Florida Gulf Coast. The program includes community conversations on climate change and initial steps at multiscalar research using techniques from archaeology, environmental studies, and biology. At the broadest scales, the approach reconstructs the distribution of coastal heritage locations from the decades preceding human-caused sea-level rise to the present. At finer levels of temporal and spatial resolution, research documents vegetation, marine invertebrates, and material changes. At the finest scales, studies of microorganisms that inhabit historic and archaeological sites are inventoried. Integrating those scales through community-based archaeology offers the social meanings for coastal heritage under threat of rising sea levels, both to motivate actions to preserve the past and to prepare the public for the coming landscape transformations as an avenue for community conversations.

With its promise of nondestructive processing, rapid low-cost sampling, and portability to any field site or museum in the world, portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry is rapidly becoming a standard piece of equipment for archaeologists. Even though the use of pXRF is becoming standard, the publication of pXRF analytical methods and the resulting data remains widely variable. Despite validation studies that demonstrate the importance of sample preparation, data collection settings, and data processing, there remains no standard for how to report pXRF results. In this article, we address the need for best practices in publishing pXRF analyses. We outline information that should be published alongside interpretive results in any archaeological application of pXRF. By publishing this basic information, archaeologists will increase the transparency and replicability of their analyses on an inter-analyst/inter-analyzer basis and provide clarity for journal editors and peer reviewers on publications and grant proposals for studies that use pXRF. The use of these best practices will result in better science in the burgeoning use of pXRF in archaeology.

Archaeological data often come in the form of counts. Understanding why counts of artifacts, subsistence remains, or features vary across time and space is central to archaeological inquiry. A central statistical method to model such variation is through regression, yet despite sophisticated advances in computational approaches to archaeology, practitioners do not have a standard approach for building, validating, or interpreting the results of count regression. Drawing on advances in ecology, we outline a framework for evaluating regressions with archaeological count data that includes suggestions for model fitting, diagnostics, and interpreting results. We hope these suggestions provide a foundation for advancing regression with archaeological count data to further our understanding of the past.

There is an urgent need for climate change–informed decision-making and adaptation actions for cultural heritage. Challenges arise in incorporating and balancing multiple considerations, including robust understandings of climate change vulnerability, the objectives of current management paradigms, the need for meaningful engagement, the risk of maladaptation, and constrained resources to implement. We offer a conceptual framework and guide to integrate climate science and cultural heritage management to produce a range of adaptation actions for cultural heritage, categorized as Acclimate, Dislocate, Abandon, Protect, and Tell the Story (ADAPT) approaches. The ADAPT framework is intended to aid archaeologists and other cultural heritage managers in developing and evaluating possible adaptation actions that directly respond to findings from climate change vulnerability assessments, critically integrating management postures and constraints, and coproducing climate change adaptations with Indigenous rightsholders and community stakeholders.

For thousands of years, humans have been entertained by board games. The earliest documented game boards date to at least 6000 BC in the Near East (Sebbane 2001), and we know the name, Senet, and rules of a board game from Egypt dating to 3500–3100 BC. Aspects of inequality are omnipresent in the dynamics of the competition and cooperation inherent in games. In this review, I assess the digital version of the board game Catan, which is also called Catan Universe, discussing how anthropological theories such as human behavioral ecology are recognizable in the digital game. Playing this game provides a unique way to test models of inequality.

Mobile apps provide archaeologists a way to engage the public and local communities in efforts to protect heritage at risk. This article discusses community engagement apps used by archaeologists who specialize in collecting data about climate change and its impact on cultural sites. It provides an overview of the process by which the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) developed various workflows over the last few years to engage community member–scientists using digital tools. FPAN based this work on examples from cultural heritage management practice in Scotland. Because we were unable to directly adapt Scotland's app to our US context, we experimented with multiple other apps and tools to implement our workflows, including Arches, Solocator, ArcGIS Field Maps, and the Arrow GNSS receiver.