Why did some ancient communities become unequal while others stayed more balanced?

#AncientInequality #GINIProject #ArchaeologicalData #Sedentism #TechnologyAndInequality #IntergenerationalWealth #SocialStructures #PublicArchaeology @jlmunson.bsky.social

By analyzing Gini coefficients from over 47,000 ancient residences across 1,100+ sites and 10,000 years, researchers are uncovering how inequality emerged long after the domestication of plants and animals.
#Archaeology #WealthInequality #AncientSocieties #SettlementHierarchy @jlmunson.bsky.social

Meet Dr. Jessica Munson, an anthropological archaeologist and Associate Professor at Lycoming College. Her research explores how ancient Maya communities in Mesoamerica responded to political, economic, and environmental challenges.

#Archaeology #MayaStudies #Mesoamerica @jlmunson.bsky.social

Bridging Archaeological Synthesis and Machine Learning
Archaeological data is often fragmented across institutions and archives, making large-scale synthesis a challenge.
#Archaeology #CulturalHeritage #DataIntegration #MLforArchaeology

The Future of Archaeology is Interdisciplinary
This fall, the CfAS 2025 Workshop on Machine Learning brings together archaeologists, data scientists, and heritage professionals to tackle one of our field’s biggest challenges,
#MLforHeritage #BigDataArchaeology #AIandArchaeology #DigitalHumanities

Meet Dr. Claudine Gravel-Miguel. She is a quantitative archaeologist using cutting-edge computational modeling, geospatial tools, and machine learning to protect the past.
Based at the Center for Applied Fire and Ecosystem Science (New Mexico Consortium).

What Can Ancient Homes Tell Us About Inequality?

New research from the GINI Project shows that the size of ancient residences offers powerful clues about social and economic inequality in the past.

How does inequality grow?

The GINI Project reveals that while scale and productivity do influence inequality, they explain only a small part of the variation across preindustrial societies.

Surprisingly, inequality growth appears largely independent of productivity growth.

Meet Dr. Scott Ortman, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology (@CUBoulder), and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Bridging Archaeological Synthesis and Machine Learning
What will participants gain from the Fall 2025 CfAS Workshop?
✔ Collaborate with international experts in archaeology, ML, and heritage management
✔ Develop AI-driven models for synthesizing archaeological data
✔ Discuss ethical considerations

Bridging Archaeological Synthesis and Machine Learning
The Fall 2025 CfAS Workshop will address one of archaeology’s biggest challenges: integrating large, complex datasets across institutions and disciplines using machine learning.

Meet Dr. Grant Snitker. He is the Director of Cultural Resource Sciences at the New Mexico Consortium and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Utah State University.
He specializes in environmental archaeology, focusing on charcoal analysis, fire ecology, and computational modeling.

Synthesis brings together existing data, diverse perspectives, and collaborative research to answer questions that no single project could tackle alone. At CCSA, we lead and support synthesis initiatives that push the field forward and make it more relevant to society.

At the Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology (CCSA), we know that some of the most meaningful insights in archaeology emerge when researchers work together across boundaries.