A descriptive analysis of animal bones from a Historic Archaeological site in Louisville, Kentucky.
Beecher Faunal Site
This analysis was conducted on an archaeological faunal assemblage recovered from a historic site in
Louisville, Kentucky. Reflecting the cultural diversity of its inhabitants, including African-American,
Western European American, and Eastern European Immigrants, the assemblage offers insights into past meat
consumption practices. Composed predominantly of waste food remains, with a substantial number of mammal,
bird, and fish specimens, the assemblage provides a rich source for historical interpretation.
Python and Tableau Expressions
The first task was to use python to create the appropriate grouping classes for the different populations.
The groups are
African Professionals
African Working Class
European Professionals
Immigrant Working Class
Then, getting appropriate proportions in a dynamic way required Fixed Level-Of-Detail (LOD) Expressions
in Tableau's convenient table calculations.
Tableau Dashboard
Below is the two page dashboard, showing the required analysis. Food Utility Index (FUI) scores are High,
Medium, Low (H/M/L) and indicate value of the animal and bone portion. Cut Portions are shown in the second dashboard,
and provide higher grain detail into the differences found in each site.
Manzano Analytics: Archaeological Analysis
Lessons Learned:
Domain Experts
Timely and comprehensive communication is key to fostering a collaborative environment. This project was the
result of multiple meetings with the lead archaeologist to identify and discuss the archaeological assemblage.
Data organization and manipulation are my areas expertise, and proper application
of this expertise can better illustrate what is possible with the data to the domain experts. Due to the project's
scope and focus, we opted to analyze only a portion of the entire assemblage, making descriptive
analysis the most suitable approach.
Adaptability is key for providing relevant data context. I developed a few interactive
visualizations to show what is possible and what makes sense given the dataset. This helped the lead domain
expert better understand the questions and context he wanted addressed, resulting in a successful end product.
Tableau Expressions
Fixed Level-Of-Detail Expressions are invaluable for providing dynamic proportional visualizations. This lets
you group by any variable and maintain proper proportions while
selecting and deselecting parts of that group.
Combining table calculations in Tableau enhances modularity. I created separate calculations for the numerator
and denominator of the relevant variable
for dynamic proportions, then combined them into a separate calculation.
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