dans/edna, 24 h april 2012 deutsches archäologisches institut the new research data centre for...

DANS/eDNA, 24h April 2012 http://www.ianus-fdz.de

Deutsches Archäologisches Institut

The new Research Data Centre for Archaeology and Ancient Studies in Germany: IANUS

Dr. Felix F. Schäfer, DAI BerlinMaurice Heinrich, DAI Berlin

Prof. E. Pernicka, REM Mannheim & Uni Tübingen

IANUS. Research Data Centre for Archaeology and Ancient Studies

DANS/eDNA, 24th April 2012 http://www.ianus-fdz.de

» Excavations (stratigraphie, tombs etc.) & documentation of architecture

» Prospections/Surveys (inspections, test excavations, collections of pottery

» analysis of finds/findings (e.g. pottery analysis)

» Photogrammetry (e.g. buildings)

» Chronology (different science and art based methods of dating objects)

» climate and landscape history (geology, geomorphology, hydrology)

» Anthropological investigations (skeletons; food pattern; diseases; genetics [living environment; affinities])

Archaeological fields of activity



Characteristics of archaeology and classics: high complexity and diversity of data

Results



» context of objects

» overarching concepts (e. g. space, memory and oblivion, landscape, power, innovations)

» anthropological questions which relate to the whole of humankind (e.g. cluster projects of the DAI)

» geographical/regional research projects (South East Asia; Africa; Celts; Germans etc.)

» points of contact between classics, archaeology, anthropology and natural sciences < -> ethnology, social sciences, historical sciences

Consequence

» Data is very heterogenous due to generic differences, different stakeholders and different approaches

» need for an integrated and synchronized IT infrastructure which helps crossing the traditional borders between libraries, archives, publications, large scale excavations etc. and disciplines

Actual interests of archaeological research projects



Modern research in Ancient Studies and Archaeology is faced with a growing amount of data, which in many cases is

» produced by different, thematically interrelated disciplines like archaeology, philology, anthropology, ancient history, geography, archeobiology

» owned by and kept in heterogeneous infrastructures and projects like museums, universities, academies, national cultural bodies and research institutions

» stored with various technical formats, metadata standards, archiving problems and legal issues

» stuck in local systems and thus not interoperable and accessible for other humans and machines

» lacking a sustainable storage and archiving strategy

Archaeological work requires an exact documentation of research, because excavations and surveys destroy unique contexts and archaeological evidence

lost documentation cannot repeated

data have a singular character; they have to be preserved

Present situation (in Germany) and motivation:



» constitution of a group of experts from relevant instutions to evaluate present situation and formulate needs of scientific community in Germany

» submission of an application for third-party funding to establish a national research data centre for archaeological and affiliated digital data

» positive decision on application in April 2012

» start work in September 2012 with two full-time positions and several working groups

» 3-years funding for first project phase (2011-2014: conceptual work)

» planned: 3-years funding for second project phase (2014-2017: implementation)

Actions taken

Funded by:



DFG - working-group:

IANUSResearch Data Centre

for Archaeology and Ancient Studies

German Archaeological Institute – Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI)

Foundation: Members of the seven working-packages from different institutions

Participating institutions



Archaeological data

German Archaeological Institute (DAI)

university libraries

state offices for archaeology / cultural heritage

academies

museums

regional institutions (e. g. municipal archaeologists)

university projects

Scientific community in Germany



The national centre, supported by the relevant scientific community in Germany, takes care about all the archaeological data in Germany to guarantee:

» support for old and new projects

» long term preservation

» dissemination of and easy access to all kind of data

» long-term inter-connectivity and interoperability

» transparent documentation

Existing exemplary centres

Envisaging a possible future



Work packages (APs)

AP1 – Data-Infrastructure: Evaluation of existent (research-) infrastructure and software-solutions under a technical, generic and subject-specific point of view.

AP2 – Interoperability: Evaluation of existent services and interfaces for data-migration, -standardisation and -communication under a technical point of view and a semantic analysis of the different meta-data-models, -standards and controlled vocabularies.

AP3 – Community-Building: Finding a way to integrate all the heterogeneous groups, subjects and different institutional stakeholders within the German archaeology to guarantee a broad legitimation of the centre.

AP4 – Teaching: Evaluation of how the centre could deal with the gap between educational qualification and the requirements of the working environment by handling digital data.

AP5 – Long-term preservation: Evaluation of different concepts for long-term data preservation, embedding, generating and processing data and how the data should be structured, delivered and at least documented.

AP6 – Business model: Analysis of possible organisational forms for the centre, evaluation of the legal condition of data-generating, special copyright restrictions and the limits of (inter)national preservation orders. Examining how the service level agreements should be organised.



General Roadmap

2011 2012 2013 2014

AP1 Infrastructure

AP2 Interoperability

AP3 Community Building

AP4 Training / Qualification

AP5 Long-term Preservation

AP6 Business Model

AP7 Projectmanagement

Testbed Nr.1Expertise Nr.1

Expertises Nr.3 & 4

Expertise Nr.2 Testbed Nr.3

Testbed Nr.2

Public Relations + Participation in workshops, conferences

Half-year meetings with the DFG-Group, Management, (final) reports

Meetings + Visiting comparable centres

Meetings + Visiting similar centres

Workshops + Visiting similar centres

Workshops + Sessions



Data-workflows / data-lifecycles in Archaeology



Data-workflows / data-lifecycles in Archaeology

Projects(individual, group, institution)

with dynamic data

Data Centre with static data

Web-portal/services with

open data



Primary tasks

• centralized file-sharing and backup of dynamic data for ongoing projects

• long-term preservation of selected, static data

• support for IT-intensive analysis and data processing (e.g. virtual reconstructions)

• standardised metadata and file formats for retrieval and re-use

• free dissemination of open (published) data and raw-data via online-portals

• data provision via Web-Services for data exchange and interoperability scenarios

• mirroring of institutional repositories and digital ressources

• providing virtual machines (e.g. for project homepages or emulating 3D-models)

• offering courses and materials for teaching and training in the field of digital archaeology

• developing guidelines / standards and implementing tools for their easy integration into workflows



many issues have already been adressed and / or solved by others (nationally as well as internationally) but need to be adopted resp. implemented in IANUS

First steps

Definition of minimal standards with support of the German Research Foundation (DFG)(http://www.dainst.org/de/project/it-leitfaden?ft=all)



http://www.ianus-fdz.de

Prof. Dr. Ortwin DallySecretary General DAI Berlin

Dr. Felix SchäferMaurice HeinrichIT-Department DAI Berlin

[email protected]

IANUSc/o Deutsches ArchäologischesInstitutPodbielskialle 69-7114195 BerlinTel.: +49 30 - 187711 359

Website & contact

dans/edna, 24 h april 2012 deutsches archäologisches institut the new research data centre for...

Documents

new research data centre

ancient studies dansedna

research institutions

modern research

ancient history

diversity of data results

archaeological evidence

test excavations