Congratulations to Leigh Anne Ellison on her recent promotion to Assistant Director of the Center for Digital Antiquity! Leigh Anne joined the staff in 2012 as Sales and Marketing Coordinator, and was promoted to Program Manager in 2017. She has extensive professional experience including work as a Project Director for archaeological fieldwork in Mexico and Honduras, where she studied social variability among commoners. She also has considerable field experience in the US, working as a Field Archaeologist on various projects throughout Hawaii, Arizona, and Colorado. Leigh Anne holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Art History from Wellesley College. A frequent presenter at archaeology conferences and workshops, Leigh Anne advocates globally for Digital Antiquity and the use of tDAR for the long-term preservation of, and access to, archaeological data. She will continue to serve as the primary point-of-contact for Digital Antiquity’s clients, users, and customers.

Beginning in 2013, the Center for Digital Antiquity partnered with the Society for Historical Archaeology to preserve the SHA meeting abstracts and make the presentations and research data files available in tDAR.  As a presenter you can access your abstract’s record in tDAR, edit the metadata, and upload a PDF copy of your paper, presentation, or poster, for FREE.  Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to https://www.tdar.org/sha/
2. Search for your abstract by typing your name or abstract title in the box.
3. Fill out the message box to request access to your paper’s abstract (you will need to register – but that’s free).
4. Once completed, we will send you a message within one business day with a link to edit your abstract and upload the paper or poster.

Were you an SHA presenter in 2018 (New Orleans), 2017 (Fort Worth), 2016 (Washington DC), or 2015 (Seattle) but haven’t uploaded your presentation yet? No worries – those abstracts are also in tDAR. Help other researchers find and cite your SHA presentations by making them available today!

Digital Antiquity has partnered with the Society for American Archaeology to preserve the 2019 annual meeting abstracts and make the presentations and data used to support them available in tDAR. As a presenter you can access your record in tDAR, edit the metadata, and upload a PDF copy of your paper, presentation, poster, or other supplementary data (up to 3 files/30MB), and it’s FREE.  Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to https://www.tdar.org/saa/
2. Search for your abstract by typing your name or abstract title in the box.
3. Fill out the message box to request access to your paper’s abstract (you will need to register – but that’s free).
4. Once completed, we will send you a message within one business day with a link to edit your abstract and upload the paper or poster.

Were you an SAA presenter in 2018 (Washington D.C.), 2017 (Vancouver), 2016 (Orlando), or 2015 (San Francisco) but haven’t uploaded your presentation yet? Not to worry – those abstracts are also in tDAR. Help other researchers find and cite your SAA presentations by making them available today!

Additionally, the tDAR SAA Member Benefit allows retired members, student members, members from countries with discounted rates, and members from Tribal Historic Preservation Offices to upload ten files (up to 100MB) annually to tDAR. Contact membership@saa.org to request your voucher.

Recently, ASU archaeology Professor Keith Kintigh and Founding Director Frank McManamon were interviewed by Alexandra Witze, a writer for the Archaeological Conservancy’s “American Archaeology” Magazine.  The Archaeological Conservancy is a non-profit organization whose mission is to identify, acquire and preserve significant archaeological sites in the U.S. That mission dovetails nicely with our mission at Digital Antiquity: to acquire, preserve and make accessible the digital data associated with archaeological research.  In the article, Frank and Keith recount the urgent need to upload digital archaeological data to repositories like tDAR.

Most archaeologists aren’t curating their digital data at public repositories like tDAR. Kintigh stressed that proper curation is more important than ever because now much of this information is, so to speak, “born digital” and exists in no other form. Without it, future generations of scientists won’t be able to reanalyze and synthesize the information and make fresh discoveries of their own. “It’s a tragedy that we’re not adequately capitalizing on the potential uses of the data,” he said.

This follows on the heels of a forthright article by Keith last fall in “The Conversation,” where he argued strongly that “agencies must ensure that the full digital record of their archaeological investigations is deposited in a recognized digital repository.” tDAR has worked effectively with a number of agencies (Dept. of Defense, Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Reclamation, among others) to make archaeological information discoverable, accessible and preserved permanently for future use.

Check out the “Disappearing Data” article on the Archaeological Conservancy website.

Digital Antiquity is pleased to announce some recent staffing changes.  In November 2018, our long serving Director of Technology, Adam Brin, accepted a new position at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA.  Digital Antiquity is a small team of highly skilled people who, together, have built an amazing online repository backed by sophisticated data management services.  None of that would have been possible without Adam’s work over the years. We will miss him, and wish him great success in his exciting new career with the Getty.

When one door closes, another opens, as the saying goes.  So it is with tDAR, as we now welcome (back) Digital Software Engineer Jim deVos.  Jim worked at tDAR in the early days, and now has rejoined our team to help us move forward into our second decade. It’s an exciting time with several new projects in the offing. Jim’s background – from Qwest, to Honeywell, to the ASU Library and back to Digital Antiquity – brings a wonderful mixture of skills and experience that will enable us to continue to deliver the highest quality technical services.

Also joining the tDAR team is Administrative Specialist Charlene Collazzi.  Charlene has a strong background in archaeology, participating in fieldwork projects in Chile, Panama, and Egypt on the way to earning her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology at UCLA. Before joining Digital Antiquity in December, she held various Administrative positions at the UCLA Medical Center and most recently at the Boulder County Land Use Department in Colorado. Charlene is in charge of our business processes, manages the office, and heads up tDAR communications duties including website and social media posts.