Digging into data : Open Access and Open Data

Since its foundation in 1995, the e-journal Internet Archaeology has been exploring imaginative and novel methods of publishing online, but also of providing seamless access to underlying data archives. All its content is archived by the UK’s Archaeology Data Service (ADS), and articles and data are all freely available. This paper will discuss exemplars of integrated publications and archives, ranging from the award-winning LEAP (Linked E-Archives and Publications) project, to the more recent development of data papers. It provides some ground-breaking examples of new forms of archaeological dissemination and demonstrates the transformative impact of Internet Archaeology on the publication of archaeological research

Getting it together : combining information about archaeological sites and artefacts in ARIADNE

This article discusses the situation that exists in several European countries, whereby information about archaeological sites and monuments, and that about finds recorded by members of the public (primarily via metal detecting), is held in entirely separate databases. This prevents heritage management decisions being taken with full awareness of known archaeology, and makes research that seeks to draw on multiple information resources difficult. The article demonstrates how the European ARIADNE e-infrastructure has facilitated the integration of large-scale artefact and site information. Over one million records from the British Museum Portable Antiquities Scheme database and over one million records for English sites, monuments, and grey literature have been integrated in an open access interface for the first time, permitting entirely new research questions to be addressed

Sr analyses from only known Scandinavian cremation cemetery in Britain illuminate early Viking journey with horse and dog across the North Sea

The barrow cemetery at Heath Wood, Derbyshire, is the only known Viking cremation cemetery in the British Isles. It dates to the late ninth century and is associated with the over-wintering of the Viking Great Army at nearby Repton in AD 873–4. Only the cremated remains of three humans and of a few animals are still available for research. Using strontium content and isotope ratios of these three people and three animals–a horse, a dog and a possible pig–this paper investigates the individuals’ residential origins. The results demonstrate that strontium isotope ratios of one of the adults and the non-adult are compatible with a local origin, while the other adult and all three animals are not. In conjunction with the archaeological context, the strontium isotope ratios indicate that these individuals most likely originated from the area of the Baltic Shield–and that they died soon after arrival in Britain. This discovery constitutes the first solid scientific evidence that Scandinavians crossed the North Sea with horses, dogs and other animals as early as the ninth century AD

Data Management Policies and Practices of Digital Archaeological Repositories

This article presents the results of a survey of data management policies and practices of digital archaeological repositories in Europe and beyond. The survey was carried out in 2021 under the auspices of the European project ARIADNEplus and the COST Action SEADDA. Its main purpose was to collect and analyse information about current policies that determine access to and reuse of data held by digital archaeological repositories, and to investigate the guidance and support needed to make these repositories and data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). These policies comprise the regulations of heritage and research authorities/agencies, councils and other institutions at different levels (European, national/regional, local) as well as the repository rules governing deposition, access to, and reuse of archaeological data. The repositories are operated both by heritage sector institutions and by the research and higher education sector. The survey represents a bottom-up approach by focusing on the actual policies and practices of digital archaeological repositories, which may reflect higher level regulations. A reality check in this regard can enable heritage and research authorities, councils and other institutions to reinforce or put in place regulations that bring current repository policies and practices closer to the ideal of providing FAIR and open access data. The survey results show that there is room for improvement in this regard and some suggestions are made here for future initiatives

Candidate Type II Quasars from the SDSS: III. Spectropolarimetry Reveals Hidden Type I Nuclei

We have conducted spectropolarimetry of 12 type II (obscured) quasar candidates selected from the spectroscopic database of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey based on their emission line properties. Polarization was detected in all objects, with nine being highly polarized (> 3%) and with polarization reaching as high as 17% in two objects. Broad lines were detected in the polarized spectra of five objects. These observations prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the objects in our sample are indeed type II quasars, in that they harbor luminous UV-excess AGNs in their centers and that the direct view to the AGN is highly obscured. For three of the objects in this paper, we have obtained HST images in three bands. The HST observations, combined with the spectropolarimetry data, imply that scattering off material outside the obscuration plane is the dominant polarization mechanism. In all three objects the sizes of scattering regions are a few kpc. For one object, the extent of the scattering region, coupled with the characteristics of the polarized spectrum, argue strongly that dust scattering rather than electron scattering dominates the polarized light. Our observations are well-described by the basic orientation-based unification model of toroidal obscuration and off-plane scattering, implying that the model can be extended to include at least some high-luminosity AGNs.Comment: 31 pages including 4 b/w pictures, 1 color HST image and 2 tables. Submitted to AJ on Sept 26, accepted for March 2005. Minor modifications to match the accepted versio

Making Maps Of The Cosmic Microwave Background: The MAXIMA Example

This work describes Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data analysis algorithms and their implementations, developed to produce a pixelized map of the sky and a corresponding pixel-pixel noise correlation matrix from time ordered data for a CMB mapping experiment. We discuss in turn algorithms for estimating noise properties from the time ordered data, techniques for manipulating the time ordered data, and a number of variants of the maximum likelihood map-making procedure. We pay particular attention to issues pertinent to real CMB data, and present ways of incorporating them within the framework of maximum likelihood map-making. Making a map of the sky is shown to be not only an intermediate step rendering an image of the sky, but also an important diagnostic stage, when tests for and/or removal of systematic effects can efficiently be performed. The case under study is the MAXIMA data set. However, the methods discussed are expected to be applicable to the analysis of other current and forthcoming CMB experiments.Comment: Replaced to match the published version, only minor change