For each archaeological site represented in the database, the DAACS Web Site also includes: |
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background information on documentary evidence and previous archaeological fieldwork and interpretation. |
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brief descriptions of the major archaeological features excavated at each site. |
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summaries
of work on intrasite seriation chronologies. |
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a Harris-matrix summary of stratigraphic relationships among contexts. |
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site plans. |
The DAACS classification and measurement protocols and the data structures they instantiate are fully described in the About the Database section of this site. The Research section also features the results of recent research using DAACS data. |
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The heart of DAACS is a relational (SQL) database that contains a wide array
of information from multiple archaeological sites where enslaved Africans
and their descendants once lived and worked. DAACS data systemically describes
both artifacts and the archaeological contexts from which they were excavated.
The data are recorded by DAACS staff using a single set of classification
and measurement protocols. This makes possible, for the first time, seamless
quantitative analysis of assemblage variation across multiple sites. Researchers
using DAACS data can discover previously unknown spatial and temporal trends,
recognize site-specific departures from them, and more effectively evaluate
hypotheses about the causes of these archaeological patterns.
The DAACS database is available to anyone with an Internet connection at http://www.daacs.org. Point-and-click query tools make it easy for users to pull data from the database. Query results may be viewed on screen, or downloaded for import into local statistical and mapping applications. |
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DAACS is an ongoing project, with new data added to the archive as resources allow. Archive staff, in consultation with Steering Committee members, choose new sites for inclusion in the archive on the basis of their research potential. Working with DAACS classification and measurement protocols, analysts process artifacts and excavation records in the DAACS Lab at Monticello. Faunal remains are analyzed in the Zooarchaeological Laboratory at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Once the data-entry phase for each site is complete, DAACS staff prepare feature summaries, stratigraphic analyses, and intrasite chronologies. Site research summaries are developed with the help of the institutions and archaeologists who curate the collections involved. The results of this work are then made available on the DAACS web site.
DAACS and Monticello's International Center for Jefferson Studies offer one to three-month fellowships to scholars interested in traveling to Charlottesville to pursue research projects that use DAACS data. |
he Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery is a Web-based
initiative designed to foster inter-site, comparative archeological research
on slavery throughout the Chesapeake, the Carolinas and the Caribbean. Our
goal is to help scholars from different disciplines use archaeological evidence
to advance our historical understanding of the slave-based society that
evolved in the Atlantic World during the colonial and ante-bellum periods.
DAACS also serves as a model for the use of the Web to foster new kinds
of scholarly collaboration and data sharing among archaeologists working
in a single region.
