David G. Anderson (University of Tennessee) presented his paper, “Using CRM Data for ‘Big Picture’ Research,” at the 79th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Austin, TX, in April 2014. This paper details the importance of CRM research in the development of Archaeology over the last forty years. Giving credit to the hundreds of thousands of technical reports and other forms of archaeological data stemming from ever-increasing amounts of CRM research in the Southeast, Anderson says this is the basis on which big picture research can now be accomplished. As technology and storage have caught up with the massive scale of new archaeological questions, digital repositories like DINAA can be utilized as highly effective tools.

1. Using CRM Data
for “Big Picture” Research.
David G. Anderson1
1Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee
A paper presented in the session “40 Years of CRM (1974-2014):
Accomplishments, Challenges, And Opportunities”, organized by Francis
McManamon. 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American
Archaeology, Austin, Texas.
25 April 2014

2. Men and women with PhDs by
decade of degree award. Women and
men are increasingly evenly
represented in more recent award
decades.
Images and text courtesy Melinda A. Zeder,
http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/publications
/SAAbulletin/15-2/SAA9.html

3. Image courtesy Society for American Archaeology. American Antiquity 39(4):675-676.
Me!

4. Cultural Resources Management
(CRM) Archaeology
National Historic Preservation Act (1966)
National Environmental Policy Act (1970)
Executive Order 11593 (1971)
Image courtesy: http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/CRM-AppliedArchaeology.html; http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22492

5. Image courtesy: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?;c=bhl&ei=1&quality=2&view=entry&subview=detail&cc=bhl&entryid=x-bl006410
The Southeastern Archaeological Conference, November 1939.
At the Earthlodge/council house, Ocmulgee National Monument
SEAC, LIKE THE SAA,
STARTED OUT SMALL!

6. No Bucks, No Buck Rogers!
Gordon Cooper: You know what makes this bird go up?
FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom: He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers
The Right Stuff, 1983
(movie)

7. No bucks,
No books!

9. Monographs Resulting from CRM Work

10. Excavating Zebree site, 3MS20, in 1976, while the site
was being destroyed around us.Shiloh Mound A Excavations, 1999-2004
The Richard B. Russell Dam on the
Upper Savannah River, 1981.
The Rucker’s Bottom
Site (9EB91), along the
Upper Savannah River,
at the close of the
excavations in 1982.

11. Reconstructed view of the fortified
Mississippian village
at Rucker’s Bottom, ca. A.D. 1400.
(Painting by Martin Pate)

12. “Archaeology, History, and Predictive Modeling:
Research on Fort Polk 1972-2002”
University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
1988
1995
Sample size = 2785 sites
Sample size = 1661 sites

13. Image and text (modified somewhat) courtesy http://cast.uark.edu/other/nps/nadb/nadb.mul.html
Report Citations per County
Image courtesy http://cast.uark.edu/other/nps/maplib/USsittot.1993.html
This map shows the total number of archeological sites per county
inventoried between 1991 and 1993 by State Historical Preservation Officers
and Information Centers.
Recorded Archaeological Sites in NADB, 1993
n=941,019 total

14. Site data in the
Southeast.
1970: ca. 15,000
1994: 179,944
2011: 376,269
1994 Archaeological Site File Management: A Southeastern Perspective. (David G.
Anderson and Virginia Horak, editors). Interagency Archeological Services Division,
National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia.
1994
2009
(partial sample)
Table from Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to
Complexity, by David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman. Society for American
Archaeology Press, Washington, D.C. , p. 32.

15. Southeastern Archaeological
Sites and Reports in NADB,
2004
9424
3015
2002
3611
2063 3625
9920
1037
1010
1056
tional Archaeological Database:
utheastern Reports, 2004
3015
7154
1010
1037
1010
9920
Image courtesy: http://www.cast.uark.edu/other/nps/maplib/UScittot04.html
Table adapted from Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to Complexity, by David G.
Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman. Society for American Archaeology Press, Washington, D.C.

16. Image and text (modified somewhat) courtesy http://cast.uark.edu/other/nps/nadb/nadb.mul.html
This map shows the total number of archeological citations per county. It
was created using the data uploaded in 2004 in the National
Archeological Database, Reports module (NADB-R).
Report Citations per County
Reports per County in NADB, 2004
N = ca. 350,000

17. Archaeological Curation
Images courtesy: http://www.nps.gov/archeology/collections/issues_pr.htm; http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/salmon_curation_3.jpg;
http://i.imgur.com/qfMLJWA.gif; http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080523032114/indianajones/images/9/9a/400.jpg
Bulk collection storage at the Bureau of Land
Management, Anasazi Heritage Center, Dolores,
Colorado. facility at Salmon Pueblo
New curation facility at Salmon Pueblo.
curation facility at Salmon Pueblo

18. CRM Information:
What is needed
• Compile the information
• Curate it for posterity
• Develop procedures to use it efficiently

19. Grand Challenges for
Archaeology
Keith W. Kintigh, Jeffrey H. Altschul,, Mary C. Beaudry, Robert D. Drennan, Ann P. Kinzig, Timothy A. Kohler, W. Fredrick Limp, Herbert D. G.
Maschner, William K. Michener, Timothy R. Pauketat, Peter Peregrine, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Tony J. Wilkinson, Henry T. Wright, and Melinda A. Zeder
2014a Grand challenges for archaeology PNAS 111 (3) 879-880.
2014b Grand Challenges for Archaeology. American Antiquity 79(1):5-24.

20. Grand Challenges for Archaeology
Keith W. Kintigh, Jeffrey H. Altschul,, Mary C. Beaudry, Robert D. Drennan, Ann P. Kinzig, Timothy A. Kohler, W. Fredrick Limp, Herbert D. G.
Maschner, William K. Michener, Timothy R. Pauketat, Peter Peregrine, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Tony J. Wilkinson, Henry T. Wright, and Melinda A. Zeder
2014a Grand Challenges for Archaeology. American Antiquity 79(1):5-24.
2014b Grand challenges for archaeology PNAS 111 (3) 879-880.
“…the greatest payoff will derive from investments that allow
us to exploit the explosion in systematically collected
archaeological data… [and] far more comprehensive online
access to thoroughly documented primary research data and
to unpublished reports and other documents detailing the
contextual information essential for the comparative analyses”
(Kintigh et al. 2014a:19).

21. The Digital Archaeological Record
(tDAR) is an international digital
repository for the digital records of
archaeological investigations.
tDAR’s use, development, and
maintenance are governed by Digital
Antiquity, an organization dedicated to
ensuring the long-term preservation of
irreplaceable archaeological data and to
broadening the access to these data.
Images and text courtesy http://www.tdar.org/about/
https://www.tdar.org/news/2013/01/taking-a-look-back-at-tdar-in-2012/

22. Preserving Archaeological Reports
Image and text courtesy http://www.tdar.org/news/2014/04/preserving-archaeological-
legacies-turning-a-citation-into-a-resource/

23. Grand Challenges for Archaeology
Keith W. Kintigh, Jeffrey H. Altschul,, Mary C. Beaudry, Robert D. Drennan, Ann P. Kinzig, Timothy A. Kohler, W. Fredrick Limp, Herbert D. G.
Maschner, William K. Michener, Timothy R. Pauketat, Peter Peregrine, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Tony J. Wilkinson, Henry T. Wright, and Melinda A. Zeder
2014a Grand Challenges for Archaeology. American Antiquity 79(1):5-24.
2014b Grand challenges for archaeology PNAS 111 (3) 879-880.
…our survey emphatically reinforced the need
for the kinds of online access provided by the
Digital Archaeological Record…
(Kintigh et al. 2014b:879)

24. Images and text courtesy http://opencontext.org/
Open Context is maintained and administered by a dedicated staff with the Alexandria
Archive Institute, a not-for-profit organization. The California Digital Library at the
University of California provides data archiving and preservation services. Open
Context development has been funded by foundation grants and charitable donations.
Open Context

25. Image courtesy Jason O’Donoughue (2007) Living In The Low Country: Modeling Archaeological Site
Location In The Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina. MA Thesis, University of Tennessee.
FMNF 2007
Predictive Model
(Images courtesy
Jason O’Donoughue)
Sample size = 1883 sites

26. Kisatchie
National
Forest,
Louisiana
Images courtesy: Erik N. Johanson, 2011 Predictive Modeling in
Western Louisiana: Prehistoric and Historic Settlement
in the Kisatchie National Forest, MA Thesis, University of
Tennessee, pages 2 , 116, 160.
Sample size = 4175 sites
(Images courtesy
Erik N. Johanson)

27. Images from Anderson, David G., and Steven D. Smith 2003 Archaeology, History, and Predictive Modeling: Research
on Fort Polk 1972–2002. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Fort Polk, Louisiana:
1988 and 1995
Predictive Models
Sample size = 2785 sites
Sample size = 1661 sites

28. Images courtesy:
Chamblee, John F. 2006. Landscape Patches,
Macroregional Exchanges and Pre-columbian Political
Economy in Southwestern Georgia. Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Georgia’s
Middle
Woodland
Mounds and
Sites
Image from
Chamblee 2006:253

29. Images courtesy:
Chamblee, John F. 2006. Landscape Patches,
Macroregional Exchanges and Pre-columbian Political
Economy in Southwestern Georgia. Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Georgia’s
Late
Woodland
Mounds and
Sites
Image from
Chamblee 2006:254

30. Images courtesy:
Chamblee, John F. 2006. Landscape Patches,
Macroregional Exchanges and Pre-columbian Political
Economy in Southwestern Georgia. Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Georgia’s
Early
Mississippian
Mounds and
Sites
Image from
Chamblee 2006:255

31. Images courtesy:
Chamblee, John F. 2006. Landscape Patches,
Macroregional Exchanges and Pre-columbian Political
Economy in Southwestern Georgia. Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Georgia’s
Middle
Mississippian
Mounds and
Sites
Image from
Chamblee 2006:258

32. Images courtesy:
Chamblee, John F. 2006. Landscape Patches,
Macroregional Exchanges and Pre-columbian Political
Economy in Southwestern Georgia. Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The
University of Arizona, Tucson.
Georgia’s
Late
Mississippian
Mounds and
Sites
Image from
Chamblee 2006:263

33. Working with
archaeological site file
managers is critical
to integrating
information.
A 1994 workshop
brought southeastern
site file managers and
data together for the
first time.
1994 Archaeological Site File Management: A Southeastern
Perspective. (David G. Anderson and Virginia Horak, editors).
Interagency Archeological Services Division, National Park
Service, Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia. 140 pp.

34. As part of an NSF collaborative proposal awarded to PIs David G.
Anderson and Stephen J. Yerka at the University of Tennessee, Eric
and Sarah Kansa of Open Context/Alexandria Archive, Berkeley,
and Joshua J. Wells of Indiana University, South Bend, a workshop
was held at the UT Office of Research on March 19th and 20th to
develop procedures for linking large archaeological datasets.

35. Eastern Woodlands Household
Archaeology Data Project
• The goal of the Eastern Woodlands
Household Archaeology Data Project is to
assemble information about prehistoric
residential structures in eastern North
America: these remains are a basic unit of
analysis in archaeological studies of
households.
• As of March 2014 the database contains
information about the location, time period,
shape, and size of 2130 structures and 16
“domestic areas” from 272 archaeological sites
across the eastern United States and Canada.
• Created and maintained by: Andrew White
aawhite@umich.edu
Images and text courtesy http://www.householdarchaeology.org/

36. Primary Data Is
Available Online at:
http://pidba.tennessee.edu/main.htm
Paleoindian
Database of the
Americas

37. Fluted
Points
(including Clovis,
excluding some
later fluted types)
13,000 -12,000
cal BP
n=11,906
points
>1500
locations.

38. DINAA
(Digital Index of
North American
Archaeology)
DINAA partnerships as of
April 2014 showing the
distribution of cultural
resources at low resolution
within states whose data has
been received thus far. Dots do
not refer to exact site locations,
but to groups of five sites
whose position has been
randomly distributed within
20x20km grid cells.

39. DINAA
(Digital Index of
North American
Archaeology)
Distribution at low resolution
within states whose data has
been integrated thus far. Data
is displayed using 20x20km
grid cells.
Middle
Woodland Sites
(n=27,387)

40. DINAA
(Digital Index of
North American
Archaeology)
DINAA datasets are archived
with the California Digital
Library, a world leader in
digital preservation.
There are multiple search
options with the data.

41. Using site file
data to
examine the
impacts of sea
level rise
At present 10,766
sites are at sea level
In 100 years, 14,105
sites will be
covered!

42. Past and future sea-
level projections
Sea level data chart courtesy I. Allison, N. L. Bindoff, R.A. Bindschadler, P.M. Cox, N. de Noblet, M.H. England, J.E. Francis, N. Gruber, A.M. Haywood, D.J. Karoly, G.
Kaser, C. Le Quéré, T.M. Lenton, M.E. Mann, B.I. McNeil, A.J. Pitman, S. Rahmstorf, E. Rignot, H.J. Schellnhuber, S.H. Schneider, S.C. Sherwood, R.C.J. Somerville,
K.Steffen, E.J. Steig, M. Visbeck, A.J. Weaver. 2009. The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science. The University of New South
Wales Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), Sydney, Australia
Site loss due to sea-level rise in six southeastern states given
a one, two, and three meter rise in sea level.
Numbers of known
sites at risk in red
10,677
14,105
21, 123
17,004

43. Fluted
Points
(including Clovis,
excluding later
fluted types)
13,000 -12,000
cal BP
n=11,906
points
>1500
locations.
The End!
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