Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery

Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Name	Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Established	2000
Location	United States
Type	Digital archive, research database
Director	Charles E. Orser Jr.

Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery is a digital repository and research platform that aggregates archaeological data, field reports, images, maps, and interpretive materials related to slavery and enslaved communities across the Atlantic world. The project connects archaeological investigations from plantation sites, urban contexts, industrial sites, and maritime contexts to facilitate comparative analysis among collections associated with the Caribbean, North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. It serves scholars, curators, teachers, and descendant communities by preserving primary documentation from excavations and promoting interoperable standards in digital heritage.

Overview

The archive functions as a centralized access point for material culture datasets derived from excavations at sites linked to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation economies, and associated networks, bringing together contributions from field projects affiliated with institutions such as Brown University, Columbia University, University of Florida, University of Virginia, and University of York. Users can explore datasets connected to fieldwork led by scholars associated with projects like the Monticello investigations, the James Fort excavations, the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park studies, and the Caroni sugar works research, as well as work tied to collections held at museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, the British Museum, and the Museum of London. The platform emphasizes cross-site comparison to illuminate labor systems, domestic assemblages, architectural remains, and landscape modification documented at sites similar to St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados Garrison, Fort Mose, Edmund Ruffin House, and the Cape Coast Castle complex.

History and Development

The initiative arose from collaborations among archaeologists, historians, and digital humanists responding to challenges identified at conferences like the Society for Historical Archaeology annual meeting and workshops sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Early development drew on pilot datasets from excavations at Monticello, Kingsley Plantation, and the Briggs Farm project, and incorporated standards established by the Archaeology Data Service and the Digital Antiquity initiative. Leadership and advisory contributions have included figures associated with University College London, Brown University, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research, with governance models influenced by consortial archives such as the Institute of Historical Research and funding patterns similar to grants from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Collections and Content

The archive contains primary field records including stratigraphic descriptions, context sheets, artifact inventories, catalogued assemblages of ceramics, glass, faunal remains, metalwork, and botanical samples from sites like Montpelier (Orange, Virginia), Plantation of St. Nicholas Abbey, Belle Mont, Brimstone Hill, and Elmina Castle. It also preserves geospatial datasets derived from surveys using equipment by manufacturers such as Trimble and integrates photogrammetric models comparable to those produced for Herculaneum and Pompeii. Associated archival materials include correspondence held in repositories like the Library of Congress, inventories tied to collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and catalog records from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Multimedia content links to documentary work by filmmakers connected with projects at Fort Mose and the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Methodology and Technical Infrastructure

The project adopts data standards informed by the Open Archives Initiative, the Dublin Core metadata set, and best practices promoted by Digital Curation Centre, enabling interoperability with institutional repositories at entities such as the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Bodleian Libraries. Digitization workflows leverage GIS platforms like Esri and database engines similar to PostgreSQL with spatial extensions used in projects at Harvard University and Stanford University. Photographic, photogrammetric, and lidar datasets follow protocols used in large-scale projects at Stonehenge and Mohenjo-daro, while controlled vocabularies draw on thesauri employed by the Getty Research Institute and the Library of Congress. The technical stack supports standardized exports compatible with repositories such as Europeana and the Digital Public Library of America.

Research and Scholarly Impact

Scholars have used the archive to publish comparative studies appearing in venues like the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, American Antiquity, and edited volumes from Cambridge University Press and Routledge. Research facilitated by the archive has informed reinterpretations of plantation labor regimes comparable to debates surrounding Haitian Revolution era landscapes, reinterpretations of materialities linked to Middle Passage studies, and analyses of identity reconstructed through assemblages similar to those from Maroon settlements. The resource supports interdisciplinary projects connecting archaeology with scholarship from Rutgers University, Howard University, University of the West Indies, and Universidade Federal da Bahia.

Education and Public Engagement

Educational modules derived from the archive have been incorporated into curricula at institutions like University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Yale University, and into public programming coordinated with museums such as the New-York Historical Society and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Outreach initiatives include collaborative exhibitions modeled on partnerships like those between the Smithsonian and National Museum of African American History and Culture, community archaeology workshops similar to projects at Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor sites, and digital storytelling efforts inspired by networks such as Slave Voyages.

Governance and Funding

Governance combines academic steering committees with advisory representatives from descendant communities and partner repositories including the Library of Congress, the Wellcome Trust-funded archives, and university presses at Oxford University Press and University of Chicago Press. Funding has been provided by public and private sources analogous to awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and philanthropic entities such as the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Collaborative memoranda of understanding link contributors from institutions like Brown University, Columbia University, University of Florida, and international partners in Barbados, Ghana, and Jamaica.

Category:Digital archives Category:Archaeological databases Category:Slavery studies