Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond
In a 2019 Internet Archaeology article, Elizabeth Pearson posed the question 'are we back in the Dark Ages?'. This question was made in reference to a developer-funded archaeology sector that was generating vast quantities of evidence and, particularly, in recent years, specialist environm...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of York
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Internet Archaeology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue67/7/index.html |
| _version_ | 1797290190560034816 |
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| author | Tina Roushannafas Polydora Baker Gill Campbell Emma Jenkins Jen Parker Wooding Ruth Pelling Marc Vander Linden Fay Worley Anwen Cooper |
| author_facet | Tina Roushannafas Polydora Baker Gill Campbell Emma Jenkins Jen Parker Wooding Ruth Pelling Marc Vander Linden Fay Worley Anwen Cooper |
| author_sort | Tina Roushannafas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In a 2019 Internet Archaeology article, Elizabeth Pearson posed the question 'are we back in the Dark Ages?'. This question was made in reference to a developer-funded archaeology sector that was generating vast quantities of evidence and, particularly, in recent years, specialist environmental data, but was failing to mobilise this in a theoretical framework that generated meaningful advancement in terms of research. The introduction to the 2021 Internet Archaeology special issue on Digital Archiving in Archaeology (Richards et al. 2021) went on to address 'a digital resource that is now in jeopardy' – not only because of the risk of technical obsolescence, but also because of crucial limitations to its interoperability and discoverability. This article builds on these arguments and complements vital work underway on high-level, internationally focused data infrastructure initiatives (e.g. Wright and Richards 2018). We emphasise here the importance of parallel discussions at a community level, particularly with the people who routinely produce archaeological data, as key to enhancing data synthesis and research potential. Specifically, we report on two surveys conducted by the 'Rewilding' Later Prehistory project at Oxford Archaeology, in collaboration with Historic England and Bournemouth University, which originated in the 'Rewilding' project's concern with improving access to palaeoenvironmental data produced within Britain. Substantial amounts of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data remain buried in grey literature, limited-access publications and archive reports (not to mention floppy disks, CDs and microfiche), with no integrative means of searching for particular periods or categories of evidence. This lack of accessibility inhibits specialists from contextualising their findings, and was exemplified recently by the Archaeology on Furlough project tripling the known number of aurochs finds in Britain by trawling online records, journals and museum records (Wiseman 2020). The results of the surveys presented here, which targeted both environmental archaeologists specifically and the wider sector, demonstrate a significant appetite amongst archaeologists to improve data networks and for their work to contribute meaningfully to research agendas. Contextualised within a disciplinary landscape that is increasingly dynamic in its approach to tackling the openness and connectivity of 'big data', we argue that better data synthesis in environmental archaeology, and the developer-funded sector more broadly, can be more than just a mirage on the horizon, particularly once the people who produce the data are given an active voice in the matter. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T19:18:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4658708166d547b78b7b177ffcc349df |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1363-5387 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T19:18:50Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | University of York |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Internet Archaeology |
| spelling | doaj.art-4658708166d547b78b7b177ffcc349df2024-02-29T11:31:38ZengUniversity of YorkInternet Archaeology1363-53872024-02-016710.11141/ia.67.7Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and BeyondTina Roushannafas0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6012-5401Polydora Baker1Gill Campbell2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6073-6157Emma Jenkins3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3483-5749Jen Parker Wooding4Ruth Pelling5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6101-6044Marc Vander Linden6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0120-7754Fay Worley7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3618-4027Anwen Cooper8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7349-3203Oxford ArchaeologyHistoric EnglandHistoric EnglandBournemouth UniversityChartered Institute for ArchaeologistsHistoric EnglandBournemouth UniversityHistoric EnglandOxford ArchaeologyIn a 2019 Internet Archaeology article, Elizabeth Pearson posed the question 'are we back in the Dark Ages?'. This question was made in reference to a developer-funded archaeology sector that was generating vast quantities of evidence and, particularly, in recent years, specialist environmental data, but was failing to mobilise this in a theoretical framework that generated meaningful advancement in terms of research. The introduction to the 2021 Internet Archaeology special issue on Digital Archiving in Archaeology (Richards et al. 2021) went on to address 'a digital resource that is now in jeopardy' – not only because of the risk of technical obsolescence, but also because of crucial limitations to its interoperability and discoverability. This article builds on these arguments and complements vital work underway on high-level, internationally focused data infrastructure initiatives (e.g. Wright and Richards 2018). We emphasise here the importance of parallel discussions at a community level, particularly with the people who routinely produce archaeological data, as key to enhancing data synthesis and research potential. Specifically, we report on two surveys conducted by the 'Rewilding' Later Prehistory project at Oxford Archaeology, in collaboration with Historic England and Bournemouth University, which originated in the 'Rewilding' project's concern with improving access to palaeoenvironmental data produced within Britain. Substantial amounts of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data remain buried in grey literature, limited-access publications and archive reports (not to mention floppy disks, CDs and microfiche), with no integrative means of searching for particular periods or categories of evidence. This lack of accessibility inhibits specialists from contextualising their findings, and was exemplified recently by the Archaeology on Furlough project tripling the known number of aurochs finds in Britain by trawling online records, journals and museum records (Wiseman 2020). The results of the surveys presented here, which targeted both environmental archaeologists specifically and the wider sector, demonstrate a significant appetite amongst archaeologists to improve data networks and for their work to contribute meaningfully to research agendas. Contextualised within a disciplinary landscape that is increasingly dynamic in its approach to tackling the openness and connectivity of 'big data', we argue that better data synthesis in environmental archaeology, and the developer-funded sector more broadly, can be more than just a mirage on the horizon, particularly once the people who produce the data are given an active voice in the matter.https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue67/7/index.htmlarchaeologyopen sciencefairenvironmental archaeologyopen data |
| spellingShingle | Tina Roushannafas Polydora Baker Gill Campbell Emma Jenkins Jen Parker Wooding Ruth Pelling Marc Vander Linden Fay Worley Anwen Cooper Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond Internet Archaeology archaeology open science fair environmental archaeology open data |
| title | Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond |
| title_full | Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond |
| title_fullStr | Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond |
| title_full_unstemmed | Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond |
| title_short | Digitally Enlightened or Still in the Dark? Establishing a Sector-Wide Approach to Enhancing Data Synthesis and Research Potential in British Environmental Archaeology and Beyond |
| title_sort | digitally enlightened or still in the dark establishing a sector wide approach to enhancing data synthesis and research potential in british environmental archaeology and beyond |
| topic | archaeology open science fair environmental archaeology open data |
| url | https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue67/7/index.html |
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