Making Archaeological Data and Information Discoverable, Accessible, and Usable for 21st Century Research: The Theodore Roosevelt Dam Archaeological Project, Tonto Basin, Arizona

The Center for Archaeology and Society (CAS), the Phoenix Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Center for Digital Antiquity (DA) have created and are making freely available, via tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record), a large collection of reports, articles, and data sets resulting from the archaeological investigations undertaken for the Theodore Roosevelt Dam project in the Tonto Basin of central Arizona. At present, this tDAR collection includes over two dozen volumes (more than 11,200 pages), plus several articles that present the results of the investigations undertaken as a part of the Roosevelt Dam project. In addition, we present 205 spreadsheets of key data tables extracted from the comprehensive database of the largest of these projects (the Roosevelt Platform Mound Study [RPMS]) along with the complete database of archaeological data for that project. We intend to continue to expand this collection, especially with databases and extracted spreadsheets from the other two projects. Making the collection of data and information available in tDAR allows anyone with an Internet connection to benefit from unlimited, text-searchable access to the full set of reports that represents core documentation of the Salado phenomenon, important aspects of the ancient Hohokam culture, and a detailed case study of the economic and social organization of village-scale human societies. By providing access to key data tables and the full database we hope to facilitate and stimulate comparative studies and additional analysis of this enormous set of data that will further advance our knowledge of these ancient cultures and the workings of human societies more generally.