Research Tools for Computational Archaeology

The Center for Archaeology and Society advances archaeological research through the development and application of open, reproducible computational methods, tools, code, and data. Our project team creates and shares well-documented code in R and Python and develops GUI tools that support robust and transparent analyses for archaeological data. By integrating statistical, chronological, and compositional approaches, we provide tools that can be adapted and reused by researchers working in a wide range of contexts.

Current tools include method for chronologically assessing and apportioning artifact data, diverse methods of spatial analysis, methods for classification and cluster analysis, and tools for analyzing complex compositional datasets generated through NAA or XRF. All code and workflows we produce are shared under open-source licenses, accompanied by detailed documentation and example datasets. This ensures that other researchers can not only reproduce our results but also adapt our tools to new questions, datasets, and geographic regions. Our commitment to reproducibility is rooted in the belief that transparent and verifiable research strengthens the credibility of archaeological findings and encourages collaboration across institutions, disciplines, and communities.