The North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics (NADAG) is a database and website that aims to promote use, education, communication, and a knowledge base of the practice of archaeological geophysics in North America. Most archaeologists in this continent have little knowledge of geophysical methods or of their potential to archaeology, and their level of use in projects remains low. This circumstance exists despite the many benefits of these techniques and large advances in the quality of results in recent years. Yet, geophysical methods in archaeology are routinely employed and widely accepted in Europe, and are actually mandated in several countries where national databases and websites of results are maintained. The NADAG project will help to correct this imbalance.

NADAG is in Progress NADAG is an evolving website. Please excuse our dust, the occasional bug and broken link. We have been working on it for only a short while. In the next few months we plan to increase the holdings and options in a searchable projects database as well as portrayals of graphical results in an image library. There will also be a big push to augment offerings of educational and bibliographic materials. We welcome suggestions and contributions in any of these domains.

The Components of NADAG

NADAG contains a number of components pertaining to archaeological geophysics in North America and around the globe (to go to these pages click under the MAIN MENU at left):

1. The Home Page lists the site's components, sponsors, and contributors;

2. The Image Library is a highly graphical portrayal that focuses on imagery depicting project results;

3. The Projects Database contains more detailed information about archaeo-geophysical projects and is searchable by type of site, type of survey, state, and other fields of information;

4. The Bibliography Database references publications and unpublished technical reports describing archaeo-geophysical work in North America and elsewhere;

5. Educational Materials includes sections on geophysical theory, field methods, data processing, interpretation, and field verification;

6. The Instruments and Manufacturers page describes geophysical instrumentation and provides links to manufacturer's websites;

7. The Practitioners and Consultants Directory provides a listing of researchers and professionals active in archaeo-geophysics, with links to their websites;

8. The Upcoming Events page lists relevant conferences, workshops, meetings, and field projects open to the public;

9. The Links to Geophysical and Related Websites provides a ready means for examination of other nationally sponsored websites, as well as corporate and private offerings pertaining to archaeological geophysics from around the world.

Target Audiences

	NADAG will form an important resource for the general archaeological community, students, land managers, or Native American groups interested in or contemplating the use of geophysical methods. It will reveal the nature and quality of results, possibly from a specific region or site-type of interest, provide educational materials, describe instrumentation, and offer a directory of practitioners who can perform the work.
	The community of practicing archaeo-geophysicists will benefit by being able to review results from various types of archaeological sites, areas, under different conditions, and from many instruments. NADAG will make available summaries of many hard-to-obtain documents, such as government reports, providing access to an important and little-used resource. By sharing their results with NADAG, practitioners and consultants will be able to promote their work.
	Education of the lay public in archaeo-geophysics will be promoted, helping avoidance of misunderstandings of the technologies caused by inaccurate portrayals in the media. NADAG will be popularly viewed because it merges archaeology with technology, two great interests of the public.

	NADAG operates under the premise of open data and data sharing. All submitted information will be properly attributed to authors and institutions, and abstracted for inclusion in the database.
	Sensitive site location data will not be released, with results reported only to the county level.
	The scope of NADAG includes all projects conducted within the territories of the United States or within the continent of North America.
	Archaeological sites and settlements are irreplacable resources frequently protected by law. The casual or unsystematic digging or collection from archaeological sites can easily remove important clues about the past when objects are removed from their context without careful recording, analysis, and interpretation. NADAG does not support the use of geophysical remote sensing devices to promote looting or the unscientific collection of artifacts from archaeological sites.

Project Support & Long-Term Management

The NADAG project is being developed under a grant from the National Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. It is maintained by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) and developed by members of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas. CAST employs a full-time staff with expertise in database maintenance, including other websites with a national focus: The National Archeological Database, The Native American Consultation Data Base, and A National Database of GIS Data. The contents of NADAG do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Park Service or the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training.

Technical Details

The NADAG databases are managed by CAST at the University of Arkansas on a SUN Ultra Enterprise 5000 with four UltraSparc CPUs, one GB RAM, and 600 GB disk space, running Solaris 2.6. The web server is the Netscape Enterprise System and the database engine is Oracle 8.0 with web applications suite. With DS3 (145 M/sec) connectivity to internet and internet2, these systems can support many hundreds of concurrent users.

Contacts & Submissions

Click here for information about contacting NADAG...