iDAI.field 2: A Modern Approach to Distributed Fieldwork Documentation

An archaeological field research database that can be used for different projects poses an advanced technical problem. It does not only have to deal with different needs of a variety of disciplines and methods like excavation and survey but also be usable for architectural or object studies. Therefore, a generic data model is required that can deal with most circumstances while also trying to maintain standardization where possible. Another requirement is the ability to support distributed work and data entry in the field even in places with no internet coverage. This creates the need for a very robust synchronization between the clients and the server. As the use of GIS is still gaining importance in archaeological fieldwork, an additional focus lies on the integration of spatial data and descriptive documentation. This paper presents iDAI.field 2, the field research documentation system currently being developed by the German Archaeological Institute. This solution will be Open Source and relies heavily on web technologies. It makes use of CouchDB/PouchDB for data storage and synchronization. The cross-platform client application is realized with the Electron and Angular frameworks using TypeScript as the main programming language. The client also provides an open interface for import and export. This allows the integration of other fieldwork software like for example QGIS, iDIG and survey2gis into the toolchain

Enabling European archaeological research: The ARIADNE E-infrastructure

Research e-infrastructures, digital archives and data services have become important pillars of scientific enterprise that in recent decades has become ever more collaborative, distributed and data-intensive. The archaeological research community has been an early adopter of digital tools for data acquisition, organisation, analysis and presentation of research results of individual projects. However, the provision of einfrastructure and services for data sharing, discovery, access and re-use has lagged behind. This situation is being addressed by ARIADNE: the Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Dataset Networking in Europe. This EUfunded network has developed an einfrastructure that enables data providers to register and provide access to their resources (datasets, collections) through the ARIADNE data portal, facilitating discovery, access and other services across the integrated resources. This article describes the current landscape of data repositories and services for archaeologists in Europe, and the issues that make interoperability between them difficult to realise. The results of the ARIADNE surveys on users' expectations and requirements are also presented. The main section of the article describes the architecture of the einfrastructure, core services (data registration, discovery and access) and various other extant or experimental services. The ongoing evaluation of the data integration and services is also discussed. Finally, the article summarises lessons learned, and outlines the prospects for the wider engagement of the archaeological research community in sharing data through ARIADNE