Forum Sustaining the Digital Archaeological Record (original) (raw)
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The Digital Dilemma: Preservation and the Digital Archaeological Record
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2015
The long term care of collected and created data is an ethical obligation in the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage management. With the growing application of digital methodologies in these fields and the complexity of the resulting data, this task has become complicated. Digital data preservation firms have emerged since this methodological shift, but their policies—championing the democratization of academic data—may conflict with the legal obligations dictated by the countries where data originate. Scholars thus face the inevitable choice between one obligation and another, one ethical and one legal. While the amount of digital data grows and the solutions for their preservation remain fundamentally misaligned with research norms and project workflows, the digital dilemma places the integrity of data at risk of loss. This article addresses this dilemma by evaluating the existing data archival, data publication, and data preservation repositories and how, as solutions to the digital dilemma, they can be integrated into multiple workflows. I also propose new directions for archaeological associations in that they should establish a means of evaluation and approval for third party preservation firms managing the future of academic research prior to their inevitable ubiquity.
The CSA Newsletter, 2010
Digital Antiquity was established in 2009 as an organization with two primary goals. One goal is to expand dramatically access to digital files related to a wide range of archaeological investigations and topics, e.g., archives and collections; field studies of various scales and intensities; and historical, methodological, synthetic, or theoretical studies (Digital Antiquity 2010). In order to accomplish this goal, Digital Antiquity maintains a repository for digital archaeological data. The repository, known as the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) is accessible broadly. Through a web interface users worldwide are able to discover data and documents relevant to their interests. Individuals and organizations may contribute archaeological digital data to the repository by uploading their own data and documents and creating appropriate metadata for the digital objects they contribute. Users who register and agree to adhere to a set of conditions regarding appropriate use of data and recognition of the data depositors may download documents and data sets. The wider access provided to a richer array of documents and databases permits scholars to develop interpretations and communicate knowledge of the historic and long-term human past more effectively. This broader access also enhances the management and preservation of archaeological resources.
Ensuring a future for the past: long-term preservation strategies for digital archaeological data
The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation (Proceedings of the International Conference: UNESCO, 2013), 2013
As the documentation of archaeological research is increasingly born digital, the preservation of archaeological knowledge is more and more dependent on the documentation and long-term curation of those digital files themselves. Because archaeological investigation is destructive, excavation records provide the only source of evidence for contextual relationships. Digital archaeological records are threatened not only by technical change and equipment failure, but by insufficient metadata. This paper describes the collaborative efforts of the Institute of Classical Archaeology and the Texas Advanced Computing Center to develop strategies to ensure the preservation and accessibility of the digital archaeological record in the long term. He has more than twenty years of archaeological experience at Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sites in Italy, England, Israel, Tunisia, and Ukraine. His current projects include the publication of recent excavations at the site of Chersonesos (Ukraine), which will involve an online, GIS-enabled database of primary documentation.
Archaeological digital data, like archaeological artifacts, are non-renewable resources that, once lost, are gone forever. Because digital data are so new in comparison to paper records, archaeologists lose data frighteningly often. First, this thesis summarizes my experience interning with Digital Antiquity, an organization specializing in preserving digital data. Second, this thesis details considerations in preparing, storing, and disseminating digital archaeological information. Finally, this thesis describes potential cultural, professional and educational concerns for users of digital archaeological repositories. As archaeologists create greater amounts of digital data, the digital curation crisis will grow. While a perfect solution has not yet been implemented, pioneering archaeologists have identified steps every archaeologist can follow to ensure that the fruits of their intellectual labors are not lost, while at the same time taking advantage of the unique properties of digital data to improve data and information sharing and use in archaeology. Digital data are useful in ways that data on paper are not and cannot be. Digital data allow archaeologists to collaborate on large projects, communicate more effectively, and even reconstruct entire excavations. However, digital data are also far less stable than paper records. While a paper record may last well over a thousand years if kept in the right conditions, digital data are often unreadable in less than ten years, even when traditional preservation methods are used. Digital storage is becoming the norm for archaeological publication, even though most archaeologists probably do not consider the downsides of digital publication. Moreover, many specialized archaeological data only exist in digital formats (e.g., laser scans, digital photographs, extensive databases) and archaeologists will (and have) lost these datasets because of faults in digital preservation. Digital data often represent the only record left after archaeologists excavate a site, and the loss of such valuable data is akin to bulldozing a site. This thesis details my experiences during my internship at Digital Antiquity (an organization which specializes in data archiving), provides examples of other projects working on the digital curation crisis and gray literature problems, and finally discusses the needs that these organizations may not be considering fully in their plans. This information will provide a primer for archaeologists about what and who to consider when creating, publishing, and storing data and information in digital formats.
Digital Preservation in Archaeology
1997
Archaeology is in a special position in that much of the creation of its data results from destruction of primary evidence, making access to data all the more critical in order to test, assess, and subsequently reanalyze and reinterpret both the data and the hypotheses arising from them. Over the years, archaeologists have amassed a vast collection of fieldwork and postexcavation data archives, a significant proportion of which remain unpublished. Access to data, even those which are published, is often difficult or inconvenient at best. The Archaeology Data Service (ADS), established October l"* 1996, is working towards provision of digital data over the Internet through an integrated on-line catalogue to its collections and the collections of partner organisations. The work of the ADS thus proceeds along two tracks: digital preservation and facilitating access to digital information. 1 Archaeological data Initiatives around the globe are exploring access to and preservation o...
Digital Archaeological Archiving Policies and Practice in Europe: the EAC call for action
Internet Archaeology, 2023
Summary A map of Europe showing countries or regions in color that have responded to a survey Countries or regions with recorded responses to the survey. Administrative boundaries: European Commission – Eurostat/GISCO The digital transition in archaeology is often taken for granted, yet the process is far from complete. The topic of digital archiving has been addressed by both the EAC Working Group for Archaeological Archives and the SEADDA COST Action. These two entities joined forces to produce a special issue of Internet Archaeology, bringing together contributions on digital archiving practices from over two dozen countries. The articles were later analysed by EAC and SEADDA to compare the international situation. The results reveal both shared difficulties associated with the issue of documentary archives worldwide and examples of good practices that help to overcome these problems. A questionnaire survey was also carried out to complement the findings resulting from the interpretation of the published articles, with supporting data covering the whole European area in a balanced way. The survey allowed for the compilation of an overview of the situation in 27 countries (30 regions) of Europe. All respondents were experts involved in digital archiving and/or heritage data management in individual countries. Based on the collected information, the discrepancy between the value of archaeological data and its position within heritage management practice is already proving to be a major shortcoming. There are imbalances in the level of attention – and the resulting level of protection – given to archives of (digital) archaeological documentation. If we want to find a way to improve the situation, it is necessary to initiate systemic changes, which should manifest themselves on a number of levels. However, these changes are conditional on a political decision that will give the whole process legitimacy, the necessary resources, a clear framework, and the required tools. It is needed to formulate general principles and co-create an environment, including a legislative one, in which archaeological archiving can be carried out in a sustainable and meaningful way in order to bring the highest possible public benefit. Compared with other initiatives, we consider it essential to primarily follow the systemic changes (top-down approach) rather than strive for change in the individual practice of researchers. It is the only way to achieve the real persistence of irreplaceable archaeological data. This article summarises the results achieved and presents proposed approaches to improve the situation in digital archaeological archiving. It concludes, among other things, by proposing a set of guiding principles for archiving primary archaeological data.
Digital Archiving in Archaeology: The State of the Art. Introduction
Internet Archaeology 58, 2021
The advent of ubiquitous computing has created a golden age for archaeological researchers and participating publics, but the price is a digital resource that is now in jeopardy. The archaeological record, in digital form, is at risk not simply from obsolescence and media failure, but the domain is also unable to fully participate in Open Data. Without swift and informed consensus and intervention, archaeology will lose the majority of its research data legacy and capacity to a digital Dark Age. It faces a number of challenges, distinct from those encountered in other domains: Many forms of archaeological research (including excavation) destroy the cultural resource, and the recorded observations become the primary record, derived from non-repeatable documentation; Archaeological data is often born-digital, and there are no paper surrogates for the primary record derived, for example, from the use of mobile devices on site, geophysical surveys or logging of experimental data by analytical laboratory equipment; Archaeological researchers are particularly creative and innovative in their methodologies; adopting, adapting and developing novel techniques and approaches, and requiring stewardship of a wide range of data formats, and more complex understandings of data reuse, but often lacking the proper workflow and data policy found in other sciences.
Theorising the Digital: A Call to Action for the Archaeological Community
Oceans of Data: Proceedings of the 44th Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Mieko Matsumoto & Espen Uleberg, eds. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 11-22., 2018
Although archaeologists are increasingly critically engaged in their deployment of computational approaches, those who label themselves as ‘digital archaeologists’ are typically not recognised for their philosophical contributions to the discipline and are rarely positioned at the forefront of general disciplinary theorising. Indeed, where digital archaeology does feature in volumes on archaeological theory, it often amounts to little more than a footnote. This is in spite of the fact that digital archaeologists have been driving change in archaeology for more than a half-century now. Notwithstanding the support of major international organisations and widespread commitment to key social projects (e.g. open access, ‘slowness’, neoliberal critique, emancipation), digital archaeologists still do not seem to have the rubrics in place to force larger theoretical shifts in the discipline. We aim here, then, to begin identifying the gaps and tensions which hamper our capacities to write contemporary and future archaeological theory.
Policy and Practice for Digital Archaeological Archiving in Italy
Internet Archaeology, 2021
his article highlights how the Italian Central Institute for Archaeology (ICA) is developing the National Geoportal for Archaeology (GNA), based on the ARIADNEplus infrastructure and its policy framework. Thanks to the GNA project, it will be possible to search and learn about archaeological documentation managed by Superintendencies and Universities holding a significant amount of archaeological data, much of which is either completely or partially unpublished.