EWHADP Database: March 2014
This is the second issue of the EWHADP database (2014_03_12).  It contains information about the location, time period, shape, and size of 2130 structures and 16 “domestic areas” from 272 archaeological sites across the eastern United States and Canada.  A total of 174 counties/municipalities in 25 states/provinces is represented.

Basic Data Files
Data are provided in Excel and JMP.  The “Key to fields” file provides a short description of each field in the dataset.

GIS Data
Each entry in the database is associated with a county-level provenience.  The figure to the right shows the distribution of counties/municipalities that contain entries in the database.  This figure was produced in ArcGIS by associating each entry with the UTM coordinates of the approximate center of the county/municipality in which the structure was located.  The six files that constitute the ArcGIS shapefile are available below in a zipped folder.
The UTM coordinates in the shapefile are in NAD 1983, Zone 16N.
Number of Entries by Period
As explained in the description of the first issue of the database, the database contains a field called "Period" that is used as an organizational tool to assign each entry to a general time period and/or cultural-historical unit.  The chart to the left shows the distribution of entries (most of which represent individual structures) by period in this issue of the database.  This chart includes all entries assigned to a period regardless of functional interpretation or uncertainty about dates.

The database currently contains almost twice as many entries as it did in February.  The large majority of this increase is attributable to incorporation of information on Mississippian and Protohistoric/Historic structures in Ben Steere's dissertation (Steere 2011).  Ben's data collection was focused on structures attributable to these later periods across the Southeast (see map above).  Mississippian structures alone account for 823 new entries.  I added the "Steere_ID" column to the database to preserve the link to Ben's data. 

Information was also added on Late Archaic structures from Ontario and Michigan, Middle/Late Woodland household remains from central Ohio, and several other sites that I came across while getting the database in order. 
 
Shape Classes
After doing some thinking, I replaced the shape descriptions I had been using with seven shape classes:
  • Elliptical
  • Rectangular
  • Rounded rectangular
  • L
  • Irregular/other
  • Arc/C
  • Indeterminate

Brief definitions of these classes are provided in the "Key to fields" file.  Most of the structures in the database are classified as either elliptical or rectangular.  These classes include circular and square structures, respectively:  circles and squares are simply "special" cases of ellipses and rectangles where the long and short axes are equal to one another.  This allows structure shape to be treated as a continuous variable within these classes.
Functional Classes
The "Functional_Class" field codes each structures as one of four classes based on its inferred function:  domestic (i.e., a residence), non-domestic, storage, and indeterminate/other.

Moving Forward . . .
There is a lot of information in this database but there are also many blanks.  With a basic listing in place, my next goal is to go back through the primary sources, check the information that I already have, and fill in as many blanks as I can. This would be a great project for the research assistant that I don't have yet.

Suggested Citation
This version of the database should be cited as follows:

White, Andrew A., and Benjamin Steere.  EWHADP Database 2014_03_12.  Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project, 12 March 2014.  Web (www.householdarchaeology.org).  Accessed [day] [month] [year].