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The Deep Time Commons:
A Collaborative Resource for Historical Ecology & Archaeology
About:
The Deep Time Commons is HAR’s dedicated research hub designed to advance archaeological inquiry and historical ecological analysis through crowdsourced knowledge and interdisciplinary collaboration. This dynamic platform serves as a bridge between field archaeology, cultural resource management, and environmental research, offering a growing repository of identification tools, archival materials, and analytical datasets.
Resources:
Background Research & Literature Review Tools:
These historical research tools include various maps, indexes, and archival records in one convenient place. Coming soon.
The HAR Leafy Legacies Database: for Site Plant Indicators:
The Leafy Legacies Database is a living archive of ecological memory, tracing the entanglements between archaeological sites and surface vegetation patterns. Built from crowdsourced observations, it refines our ability to see landscapes not just as static remnants but as dynamic conversations between past human activity and evolving plant communities. These overlooked botanical signals—volunteer species sprouting from industrial ruins, tenacious greenery staking claims in forgotten burial grounds—offer an interpretive key to reading the long-term imprints of land use. As submissions grow, so too does the potential to test site-vegetation relationships and refine predictive models. Ultimately, this work will shape anthropogenic plant guides, providing archaeologists with practical tools to decipher the vegetal fingerprints of historical disturbance and resilience.
The Remnant Ecology Project:
The Remnant Ecology Project uncovers the layered recent histories of landscapes shaped by human presence—spaces where past interventions ripple into present ecological adaptation. This contemporary archaeological citizen science initiative traces the imprints of industry, memory, and disturbance across forgotten cemeteries, extraction sites, and industrial ruins, revealing the entangled relationship between material culture and biodiversity shifts. Through community contributions, we build an archive of overlooked places, where nature persists in conversation with human-made environments. These findings provide critical insight for sustainability research, historical ecological analysis, and policy discussions, sharpening our collective ability to recognize, interpret, and engage with the living past embedded in the world around us.
The Lichenometry Index:
The Lichenometry Index is a much-needed clearinghouse for documenting lichen growth on headstones, monuments, and architectural ruins. Before removing biological growth during restoration, preservationists can contribute observations on species, growth patterns, and locations—helping refine dating methods for otherwise undatable stone features. Beyond cemeteries, this database captures inscriptions and weathered commercial, residential, and industrial sites, where lichen quietly records history. Too often, archaeologists overlook the antiquity of a stone feature, leaving it unrecorded and unprotected. By systematically collecting lichenometry data, we strengthen our ability to safeguard sites, refine dating techniques, and recognize the deep-time clues clinging to stone.