The use of airborne mapping lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a.k.a airborne laser scanning (ALS), has had a major impact on archaeological research being carried out in Mesoamerica. Since being introduced in 2009, mapping lidar has revolutionized the spatial parameters of Mesoamerican, and especially Maya, archaeology by permitting the recovery of a complete landscape and settlement pattern for further analysis. However, like any new technology, there are learning curves to be overcome, resulting in a feedback relationship between the on-the-ground archaeologists, the virtually grounded computer analysts, and the instrument designers. Archaeologists have been able to identify problems and issues with data production and visualization for the determination of archaeological remains caused by vegetation, special terrain conditions, and modern disturbance. The identification of these concerns helps the technician to develop new techniques, especially when working in conjunction with the field researcher. As seen through the papers in this volume, this symbiotic relationship promises to yield both new breakthroughs in landscape and settlement analysis for Mesoamerican archaeology and enhanced analytic and visualization techniques for lidar with the potential for applicability in other contexts. In many regards, the development of lidar has parallels to the development of radiocarbon dating as a revolutionary technology.

Archaeological site management goals, when informed by the input of traditional communities, can result in very different outcomes than standard cultural resource investigation strategies. A case example is presented for a large site in Albuquerque, New Mexico, containing material from the Francisco Vázquez de Coronado expedition. From 1540 to 1542, Coronado led one of the largest and most well-known explorations of the American southwest. The expedition spent much time in the Rio Grande Valley near present-day Albuquerque, including the site of Piedras Marcadas Pueblo. Formal consultations between local tribes and the City of Albuquerque in the 1990s generated a research program using geophysics and non-invasive techniques. Geophysical investigation produced results that would not have been obtained without tribal consultation to guide the research from an early point. By combining architectural data found by resistivity surveys with artifact distributions found by metal detection, details of a battle between Coronado’s expedition and puebloan people have emerged. Ongoing tribal consultation has shed light on the events that occurred at Piedras Marcadas and continues to inform interpretation and site management decisions. Resulting cooperation between traditional communities and the City of Albuquerque is a case study in the ever-important practices of co-creation and collaborative archaeology.

Public education in archaeology today is at a crossroads. Over the last 30 years, it has grown exponentially and is now widely recognized as one of the most effective ways to preserve the past for the future. However, it remains a loose conglomeration of approaches lacking coherence and consistency. There is little discussion of the best practices to use in specific situations and little assessment of effectiveness. One result is that practitioners often reinvent the wheel; another is that we are not reaching the diverse audiences we need to engage to assure archaeology’s future. As a profession, we are losing ground to the continued encroachment of looting and vandalism—the very activities education seeks to forestall. We can either keep doing what we are doing and hope for the best, or we can begin to systematize our efforts. This article introduces a special issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice dedicated to systematizing public education in archaeology by contextualizing and assessing contemporary practices. The article provides a framework for thinking about the issues and proposes solutions, while discussing the contributions of the issue’s authors. Its purpose is to initiate discussion, not to provide the final word on the problem.

The management of cultural resources by federal land-managing agencies in the United States is moving in the direction of programmatic approaches that consider archaeological resources on a regional or landscape level. In 2014, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), in response to meetings with federal agencies, established three task forces on issues related to landscape-scale cultural resource management (CRM). The task forces focused on: (1) survey data quality, durability, and use; (2) incorporating archaeological resources in regional land-use plans; and (3) valuing archaeological resources. Revised reports of the task forces are being published in this issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice. This paper provides the context and history of the task forces, particularly the CRM challenges facing federal land-managing agencies leading to the selection of topics that are subjects of the published articles.

Stone anchors comprise a significant portion of observable underwater cultural heritage in the Mediterranean and provide evidence for trade networks as early as the Bronze Age. Full documentation of these anchors, however, often requires their removal from their underwater environment, especially to calculate mass. We offer a methodology for using photogrammetry to record stone anchors still in situ and calculate their approximate mass. We compare measurements derived using measuring tapes with those derived using two different software programs for photogrammetric analysis, PhotoModeler Scanner (Eos Systems, Inc.) and PhotoScan Pro (Agisoft). First, we analyze stone anchors that had previously been removed from the underwater environment to establish a reference methodology. Next, we implement this methodology in an underwater survey off the southern coastline of Cyprus. Linear measurements for both programs correlate closely with those attained via measuring tape. The resulting estimates of volume of anchors in situ and on land are slightly greater using the photogrammetric methodology than the reference volumes obtained using a water displacement methodology. Overall, as an analytical tool, this methodology generates detailed surface information in minimal time underwater and preserves data for future analysis without necessitating the removal of the anchor from its underwater environment.

In this article we evaluate ∼48km2 of airborne lidar data collected at a target density of 15 laser shots/m in central Yucatán, Mexico. This area covers parts of the sites of Chichén Itzá and Yaxuná, a kilometer-wide transect between these two sites, and a transect along the first few kilometers of Sacbé 1 from Yaxuná to Cobá. The results of our ground validation and mapping demonstrate that not all sizable archaeological features can be detected in the lidar images due to: (1) the slightly rolling topography interspersed with 1-6 m-high bedrock hummocks, which morphologically mimic house mounds, further complicated by the presence of low foundations; (2) the complex forest structure in central Yucatán, which has particularly dense near-ground understory resulting in a high number of mixed-signal ground and low vegetation returns which reduces the fidelity and accuracy of the bare-earth digital elevation models; and (3) the predominance of low archaeological features difficult to discern from the textural noise of the near-ground vegetation. In this article we explore different visualization techniques to increase the identification of cultural features, but we conclude that, in this portion of the Maya region, lidar should be used as a complement to traditional on-the-ground survey techniques.

High-quality archaeological surveys and data are vital to preservation planning and mitigation efforts. Federal and state historic preservation offices (SHPOs) are accumulating and reviewing more data at an ever-faster pace. Given the critical nature of this information, a SAA task force was charged with assessing current survey practices and concerns. Our review indicates that survey policies and archaeological standards have improved substantially over the last two decades, but SHPOs remain challenged by insufficient professional training for field archaeologists, the need for standardization and integration of new technologies in field work, reporting, and review, as well as the sheer quantity and variety of digital data. A number of analytical tools and metrics are available to assess data quality, but seemingly there is not time or money for states to evaluate how to improve existing and future survey data. We draw upon a survey of SHPOs, a review of current literature, and our own experience to assess archaeological survey quality, data utility and durability for current and anticipated future uses. We offer suggestions on how to move forward, including consideration of an e-106 system for streamlining transfer and exchange of digital data and upgrading current approaches to survey and planning.

To know where we are going, we need to know where we have been, so it seems only fitting that, to produce a special issue on designing and assessing public education programs in archaeology, we need to look back to the establishment of public outreach and archaeological education in the United States and, specifically, within the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological education, as a subfield of archaeology, can trace its roots to individual efforts at sharing archaeology with the public, but especially to the first Save the Past for the Future Conference in Taos, New Mexico. It was here that the idea took root that, to stem vandalism and looting, we need to educate people about archaeology. This meeting was the springboard for federal initiatives like Project Archaeology and Passport in Time, and it was also the birthplace for the SAA Public Education Committee. For more than 25 years, archaeologists have been creating public outreach programs, students have graduated college thinking of public outreach as a career path, and TV shows have sensationalized our profession, but what do we really know about what we’ve done, whether we’ve made a difference, and how it can propel ourselves and future generations of archaeological educators forward?

Data collected from aerial lidar scanning provides new opportunities for archaeological survey. It is now possible, in a short period of time, to collect vast amounts of geographic data that would have taken years of pedestrian survey to acquire. This enhances and extends landscape studies by reducing time-frames and cost, encouraging analyses based on real-world data collection on a regional scale. This paper describes an approach for modeling the ritual landscape surrounding the ancient Maya center of Las Cuevas, Belize by analyzing the spatial aspects of ritual cave use. Using lidar-derived data, we describe a method for locating potential cave sites using Local Relief Models, which requires only a working knowledge of relief visualization techniques and no specialized skills in computer programming. Our method located the five known cave sites within our 222 km2 lidar study area—including one with a fissure entrance. We plan to ground-truth potentialities to develop models of the ritual landscape that can be visualized and analyzed. By researching cave use on a regional scale and defining the relationships between caves and surface features, we advance cave studies by deepening our understanding of the ritual landscape and its articulation with ancient Maya socio/political dynamics.

In the past 30 years, archaeologists have taught children and youth about the processes of archaeological inquiry and the results of archaeological research. Hundreds, if not thousands, of education programs have sprouted up over the last 30 years; some have endured, while others have faded away. Some efforts and programs are aimed at formal learning in school classrooms, while many others are based in informal settings, such as museums, outdoor learning centers, after-school programs, and many others. A few of these programs have been assessed for learning outcomes, but many others have not. For example, all Project Archaeology education materials are intensively assessed in classrooms and peer reviewed prior to release for their efficacy in teaching predetermined goals or enduring understandings. Additionally, the Project Archaeology curriculum was assessed for its efficacy in teaching conceptual understanding of science inquiry. Program assessment is critical for the long-term success and sustainability of archaeology education.

The increasing importance of landscape-scale research and preservation goals within the archaeological profession coincides with expanded threats to the archaeological record through massive energy exploration and infrastructure projects and through the cumulative effects of smaller-scale development. It is further stimulated by the recognition that conservation strategies that span multiple resource classes and disciplines are best formulated at multiple and larger spatial scales. These are key drivers behind efforts to improve the ways that archaeological resources are considered in the context of development-related planning and implementation, including mitigation measures. In a prominent example, recent department-level direction from the Secretary of the Interior calls specifically for landscape-level planning as a critical component of responses to both large-scale development and climate change. This article reviews three current approaches to landscape-level planning in archaeology and calls for increased commitment to advancing their development and effectiveness.

Archaeologists studying shell assemblages from prehistoric sites along the Pacific coast of North America have been interested in the influences of collecting intensity and environmental variability on California mussel (Mytilus californianus) size. To determine the variation in mussel size within a shell assemblage, researchers have developed a variety of proxies of mussel valve length based on measurements of morphological features occurring at or near the valve’s umbo. We propose four additional measurements that can serve as proxies and evaluate their correlation with valve length using regression analysis. Of the four, anterior adductor scar length has the strongest correlation, and we present two examples of its application. We also evaluate a popular visual technique based on a set of outline drawings of valves of varying lengths, and we found that it systematically underestimated valve length but could be useful under certain circumstances. We conclude that the selection of a particular proxy of mussel valve length depends on the nature of the mussel shell assemblage being studied and the research context.

Swede Hollow Park, in St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally inhabited by immigrants to St. Paul. Despite an engaged surrounding neighborhood, the park and its history are not widely known. The park was recently the site of a public archaeology project, providing an opportunity to explicitly examine who participated and why, as a means of assessing the success of public education. The project team used surveys and informal interviews as assessment tools for analyzing the demographics and motivations of the participating public. Understanding demographics and motivations is an understudied aspect of public archaeology and yet is crucially important in influencing how archaeologists interact with the public, frame their research questions, and create learning objectives. This information has the potential to help create more inclusive public archaeology projects (for example, drawing in more recent immigrant communities as well as descendants) and to indicate where more work needs to be done to accommodate diversity (in our case, understanding the homeless as stakeholders). It also can help clarify whether archaeologists can, or should, prioritize site, method, or narrative when engaging with the public, or whether the public should choose.

Public agencies at all levels of government and other organizations that manage archaeological resources often face the problem of many undertakings that collectively impact large numbers of individually significant archaeological resources. Such situations arise when an agency is managing a large area, such as a national forest, land management district, park unit, wildlife refuge, or military installation. These situations also may arise in regard to large-scale development projects, such as energy developments, highways, reservoirs, transmission lines, and other major infrastructure projects that cover substantial areas. Over time, the accumulation of impacts from small-scale projects to individual archaeological resources may degrade landscape or regional-scale cultural phenomena. Typically, these impacts are mitigated at the site level without regard to how the impacts to individual resources affect the broader population of resources. Actions to mitigate impacts rarely are designed to do more than avoid resources or ensure some level of data recovery at single sites. Such mitigation activities are incapable of addressing research question at a landscape or regional scale.

Evaluating the archaeological potential of wooded areas is often difficult because many of the techniques archaeologists commonly use to locate and map archaeological sites elsewhere are less effective in the trees. Ground cover hinders the visual identification of surface artifacts during pedestrian survey, and the tree canopy impedes many of the techniques used to map areas of interest, such as optical theodolites and DGPS. Shovel test pitting, which disturbs the integrity of sites and provides limited contextual information, is the most common method used to evaluate woodlots today. In light of increasing interest from Indigenous peoples in limiting the impact of archaeological work on their cultural heritage, we are testing less invasive methods to locate and map archaeological sites within wooded areas. Here, we present the results of a magnetic susceptibility survey on a wooded precontact site in southern Quebec, where the technique rapidly determined site limits and pinpointed the location of several longhouses and other features. Where geological conditions are suitable, this method could considerably reduce the cost and impact of archaeological assessment and investigation of wooded sites by both cultural resource management (CRM) and academic archaeologists.

Despite the success of lidar in making ancient features visible in certain tropical environments, researchers often have difficulty using lidar to identify small, low, non-linear features. This study juxtaposes lidar data with data gathered from pedestrian survey along the Ucí-Cansahcab causeway, located in the Northern Maya lowlands, to assess the degree to which the invisibility of small buildings in lidar imagery affects demographic research. The juxtaposition shows that demographic research with lidar can move forward in some cases once pedestrian survey has been used as a baseline to establish correction factors for using lidar data on their own. Another current barrier to the use of lidar is cost. This paper provides examples of the kinds of questions that can be addressed by projects with smaller budgets and, therefore, smaller amounts of lidar coverage. These questions include site size comparisons and the degree to which settlement clustered around ancient features such as the Ucí-Cansahcab causeway.

Since hosting its first archaeology fair in 2001, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) has organized 23 more fairs and informed thousands of people through this popular outreach activity. The AIA fair model brings together independent archaeological organizations representing a rich array of archaeological subfields to present their programs and resources to a local community in an interactive and engaging manner. The goals of AIA archaeology fairs are to promote a greater public understanding of archaeology, raise awareness of local archaeological resources, and bring together proximate archaeological groups with a shared outreach goal. In this article, the authors discuss how the AIA fair model was developed through feedback cycles that include evaluation, data analysis, reflection, and trial and error; how it evolved; and how it is spreading to other groups around the world. To date, 26 AIA local societies have hosted fairs, and the popularity of this program as an outreach event is increasing among other archaeological groups across the United States, as well as in Belize, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Iran, and Myanmar. This growth in popularity and implementation presents us with unique opportunities to collect and reflect upon data essential to conducting archaeological outreach around the globe.

Identifying previously unknown sites is a fundamental goal of the archaeological inquiry. In this article, after reporting the results of our work at Tel ‘Eton (Israel), we propose a new method that can increase the effectiveness of surveys. As part of a study of site formation processes, molehills (mole-rat back-dirt hills) were systematically sifted at Tel ‘Eton and its surroundings. It was apparent that the number and size of sherds in molehills on the mound greatly exceeded those found in its surroundings. The incidental identification of many sherds in molehills northwest of the mound, therefore, led us to suspect that this area was settled. This was tested by transecting the area. The finds, along with discoveries in the wadis cutting the plain, support this suggestion and allowed us to detect the lower city’s boundary. An examination of the site’s environments, moreover, enabled us to identify additional anomalies, like the co-occurrence of concentrations of sherds, red-soiled molehills, and slags, which might indicate an extra-mural workshop. Consequently, we suggest that a systematic examination of rodents’ back-dirt mounds can be an effective method—faster, cheaper, and more efficient than pedestrian surveys or shovel tests—of discovering unknown sites even in regions with good visibility.

The Permian Basin Programmatic Agreement (PA) is an alternative form of Section 106 compliance offered mainly to the oil and gas industry in southeastern New Mexico for projects located on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Proponents of projects within the PA area may contribute to a dedicated archaeological research fund in lieu of contracting for project specific archaeological surveys, provided their proposed projects avoid recorded archaeological sites. Dedicated funding goes toward research on the archaeology and history of southeastern New Mexico. The PA calls for the consulting parties to evaluate its effectiveness during its seventh year of implementation. As a result of that recent evaluation in May 2015, the PA will be extended for 10 additional years. We discuss the reasons for the PA, successes and missteps during its first seven years, and ways that the Permian Basin PA might be used as a model elsewhere.

Accurate and high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data have become increasingly important for the discovery and visualization of complete archaeological settlement systems in the Maya Lowlands. We present the results of systematic quantitative analysis of lidar data and ground verification for the major centers of Cahal Pech, Baking Pot, and Lower Dover in the Belize Valley. The Belize Valley is characterized by high density populations living in growing modern towns and villages, and by large-scale agricultural production. This urban environment presents a challenge to reconnaissance efforts since modern construction and agricultural activities have destroyed ancient ruins and created new vegetation patterns. Lidar data was analyzed within a GIS using the Topographic Position Index (TPI) to identify the location of possible archaeological remains. Small-scale, site-level TPI analysis helped identify more detailed archaeological features including small house mounds, terraces, and ditches. Results indicate that lidar data recorded for areas with dense vegetation (e.g., low brush and secondary regrowth) may be less reliable for identification of archaeological remains. The quantitative and qualitative differences between spatial analyses and pedestrian survey results among land cover types indicate that traditional settlement pattern study methods, including pedestrian survey, remain vital to ground-truthing all types of spatial data.