Mapping constitutes one of the most elemental forms of archaeological practice. Archaeological mapping has evolved from hefty, costly transits to even more expensive computerized total stations, hand-held GPS units, and proprietary mapping software, such as ESRI’s ArcGIS, to visualize and analyze data. Because of the cost and extensive training involved in using this equipment, students have often been left out of the mapping and data visualization process. KoBoToolbox offers a solution to this issue, providing an open source, completely paperless, collaborative workspace for creating and using data collection forms, storing and visualizing data, and sharing those results. This chapter will present the experiences of five archaeologists using KoBoToolbox in diverse settings; case studies include how KoBoToolbox can be used to compile, share, and analyze sixteenth and seventeenth century porcelain; map artifacts, architectural features, and archaeological activity on Michigan State University’s campus; map historic landscape modification in Pennsylvania; and survey and record tombstones to generate a gravemaker inventory of an abandoned public cemetery as a part of a service learning class.
Using archaeological and ecological data of animal communities, and fish communities in particular, we test for evidence consistent with the Anthropocene in the lower Illinois River valley across millennia. Environmental impacts by preindustrialized peoples may be minor compared to current alterations; however, this hypothesis is untested and should be assessed. Using the relative abundance of fish taxa, we tested for differences among archaeological and modern time periods, taking advantage of published zooarchaeological data sets and newly analyzed data. Collections from all archaeological time periods differed significantly from modern collections, but the relative abundance of fishes did not differ significantly among archaeological time periods. Sociopolitical context, material culture, plant-based subsistence patterns, and the use of animal classes shifted temporally, but these differences did not extend to the relative abundance of fish families. Our results suggest that dominating human influences on fish communities did not occur prior to the Late Woodland period in the lower Illinois River.
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