Three-dimensional (3D) digital scanning of archaeological materials is typically used as a tool for artifact documentation. With the permission of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, 3D documentation of Caddo funerary vessels from the Vanderpool site (41SM77) was conducted with the initial goal of ensuring that these data would be publicly available for future research long after the vessels were repatriated. A digital infrastructure was created to archive and disseminate the resultant 3D datasets, ensuring that they would be accessible by both researchers and the general public (CRHR 2014a). However, 3D imagery can be used for much more than documentation. To illustrate this, these data were utilized in a 3D morphometric analysis of the intact and reconstructed vessels to explore the range of variation that occurs in ceramic vessel shape and its potential contribution to the local ceramic taxonomy. Results of the 3D morphometric analysis demonstrate the potential for substantive analytical gains in discussions of temporal resolution and ceramic technological organization in the ancestral Caddo region.

This article discusses the effectiveness of Mexico’s national heritage business model within a context of economic growth, infrastructure development, and structural shifts that pose risks to the preservation of heritage resources. To meet these challenges, the future heritage professional requires a training profile that most archaeology departments in Mexico are unable to accommodate. Recognizing the importance of cultural resources management (CRM) and heritage business and marketing skills, the BA program in Development and Intercultural Management, offered at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, is exploring new ways to create business models to finance heritage preservation. In an emergent economy, many students lack the opportunity to pursue higher education degrees, joining the labor market at a very early stage in their careers, without much knowledge of how to make heritage a lever for economic growth. Thus, a goal of this article is to encourage the early teaching of business and marketing in programs around the world by demonstrating how such training opportunities are opening up unimaginable career avenues for the future heritage professional in Mexico.

Neutron imaging is a nondestructive application capable of producing two- and three-dimensional maps of archaeological objects’ external and internal structure, properties, and composition. This report presents the recent development of neutron imaging data collection and processing methods at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which have been advanced, in part, by information gathered from the experimental imaging of 25 archaeological objects over the past three years. The dual objectives of these imaging experiments included (1) establishing the first methodological procedures for the neutron imaging of archaeomaterials involving the CG-1D beamline and (2) further illustrating the potential of neutron imaging for archaeologists to use in the reverse engineering of ancient and historical objects. Examples of objects imaged in two and three dimensions are provided to highlight the application’s strengths and limitations for archaeological investigations, especially those that address ancient and historic technologies, materials science, and conservation issues.

While tablet devices are becoming commonplace in archaeological research, the transfer of data for analysis is a matter of critical concern. As geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly incorporated into our archaeological research, there is a need not only to streamline data acquisition, but also to collect data that can be used in conjunction with high-level spatial analytical tools, such as those available in ESRI’s ArcGIS. During a short lab season, various methods of paper-free data collection and cross-platform transfer using these user-friendly devices were tested. It was found that both iPad and Android-based systems present great advantages in terms of portability and electronic data acquisition. However, file compatibility and transfer of data across multiple platforms present a number of important drawbacks. The present case study focuses on the development of a data collection protocol implemented by the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Zaña Valley (PIAZ), Peru, that moves beyond these limitations. The ultimate incorporation of data collected using tablet devices demonstrates the potential for this tool in archaeological research, along with the pitfalls for projects that rely heavily on GIS. Significant findings regarding the advantages, as well as the limitations, of e-data collection, transfer, and storage are discussed.

The majority of terrestrial scanning projects in archaeology have focused on heritage documentation, preservation, and the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of prominent sites and objects. While these are very important archaeological foci, not many have used terrestrial scanning methods for prospection and feature analysis, similar to the way many have employed airborne LiDAR. While airborne LiDAR scanning is able to situate and analyze archaeological sites on an expansive scale, the ground-based method also captures and defines any landscape anomalies or depressions from cultural features that have remained invisible to the naked eye due to environmental restrictions. In an attempt to test this recording method, we set out to paint a non-invasive, 3D digitized picture of the ancient Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize, using terrestrial scanning to distinctly detail Pacbitun’s structures, plazas, causeways, and karst features. This paper details the process through which 3D terrestrial scanning was executed at Pacbitun and three associated peripheral caves during the 2012 and 2013 field seasons. We discuss the potential laser scanning has for visual analysis in archaeology and evaluate application difficulties encountered in the field, as well as current data interpretation issues.

Increasingly, high-precision GPS/GNSS (global positioning system/global satellite navigation system) based real-time-kinematic methods are being used in the mapping of archaeological sites. However, when utilizing high-precision satellite-based methods for archaeological location purposes, there is a significant but usually unanticipated problem that must first be addressed if accurate measurements are to be made. Simply put, unless proper correction methods are used, horizontal distances between two locations determined by the GNSS method will differ from the measurements that are made by traditional survey methods. This difference between the two measurements is often referred to as the grid-to-ground problem. This article provides a process to address this problem.