=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2687/paper3
|storemode=property
|title=Bringing Digital Curation to Archaeological Projects: Evidence from the BeArchaeo Project
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2687/paper3.pdf
|volume=Vol-2687
|authors=Vincenzo Lombardo,Tugce Karatas,Rossana Damiano,Claudio Mattutino,Mariko Sasakura
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/avi/LombardoKDMS20
}}
==Bringing Digital Curation to Archaeological Projects: Evidence from the BeArchaeo Project==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2687/paper3.pdf
Bringing Digital Curation to Archaeological Projects: Evidence
from the BeArchaeo Project
Vincenzo Lombardo Tugce Karatas Rossana Damiano
Università di Torino Università di Torino Università di Torino
Torino, Italy Torino, Italy Torino, Italy
vincenzo.lombardo@unito.it tugce.karatas@unito.it rossana.damiano@unito.it
Claudio Mattutino Mariko Sasakura
Università di Torino University of Okayama
Torino, Italy Okayama, Japan
claudio.mattutino@unito.it sasakura@momo.cs.okayama-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT the results. Current technologies focus on providing digital tools
This paper addresses the importance of the curation of cultural for data representation, processing, and visualization, while mostly
heritage data that bear the content of the visual interfaces. Digital neglect the importance of analysis and sharing and fail to provide
curation is an operational process that has been recently appointed platforms for formal interoperability of researches [11, 20].
as a practical method for the account of digital data that arise in
cultural heritage projects. The goal of the paper is to state the
importance of digital curation for the archaeological projects and
This is especially true for archaeological projects: the collabo-
to illustrate how it works in the case the Beyond Archaeology
ration of diverse scientists onto the same digital data requires a
(BeArchaeo) project, an on-going European project, where all the
unique virtual space alongside with targeted interfaces that help to
interfaces that allow for the interactions with the digital objects will
document the irreversible processes of the excavations and creation
be based on a centralized database. Here we address all the phases
of the metadata for the transparency of the reconstruction pro-
that concern the archaeological activities, from the excavation to
cesses for physical CH objects; also, it would be desirable to provide
the exhibition of the findings, and we show how we develop the
accessibility during the processing, interpretation, dissemination,
centralized data repository that undergoes the development of the
and communication of data [6].
communication interfaces.
Recently, there has been some effort in providing interoperable
repositories of CH projects and collections. For example, Europeana
CCS CONCEPTS
is a web portal that features over 58 million cultural heritage items
• Human-centered computing → User interface management from around 4,000 institutions across Europe organized from crowd-
systems; Collaborative interaction; Human computer inter- sourced collections 1 . Also, in the archaeological field, we can men-
action (HCI); • Information systems → Data management tion the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR)2 , an international
systems. digital repository for the records of archaeological investigations.
However, there is not an accepted systematic procedure for orga-
KEYWORDS nizing the vast amount of digital data that are collected during an
Digital curation, Cultural heritage, Archaeology, Project workflow archaeological project and that are the content base for the several
ACM Reference Format: targeted visual interfaces.
Vincenzo Lombardo, Tugce Karatas, Rossana Damiano, Claudio Mattutino, Although most of the CH institutions have similar problems
and Mariko Sasakura. 2020. Bringing Digital Curation to Archaeological when it comes to bringing the archaeological heritage content to
Projects: Evidence from the BeArchaeo Project. In Proceedings of 𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 life, there are some one-off projects that use digital archaeological
2020: Workshop on Advanced Visual Interfaces and Interactions in Cultural data through a variety of advanced interfaces such as web-based
Heritage (𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. publishing of the collection [15], virtual environments for accessing
the objects [13], or on-site museum installations [3]. Also, there are
1 INTRODUCTION initiatives that provide an open infrastructure for the systematic
The development of visual interfaces for cultural heritage (CH) creation of immersive environments for interaction purposes, such
projects more and more relies on large repositories of data [1, 19]. as Immersia project [7]. Yet, this occurs without an approach to
Data originate in the digitisation of CH assets, which involve many the entire life cycle of the archaeological data from excavation to
different activities, such as data acquisition, data visualization, data exhibition, although some research has improved access to archae-
analysis and interpretation, and the consequent dissemination of ology libraries by using multilingual glossaries and ontologies [12],
integrating and handling vast heterogeneous data [18], and using
𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy
1 https://pro.europeana.eu/about-us/mission (last visited on 18 May 2020)
© Copyright 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons
2 https://www.digitalantiquity.org/wp-uploads/2011/07/20110930-Building-
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
tDAR.pdf (last visited on 12 May 2020)
𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy Vincenzo Lombardo et al.
CH Domain Raw data Processed data
Metadata
Figure 1: An abstract schema of the workflow of digital curation.
advanced user interfaces to present archaeology data [1, 19]. Finally, Center - DCC - website3 ). It supports bridging research, practice,
things are made harder by the fact that the successful completion of and training across nations, disciplines, institutions, repositories,
a project depends on interdisciplinary contributions, with different and data formats [8, 9], modelling workflows from different institu-
methodologies and terminologies [17]. tional contexts [17] and assessing the evolution of the e-resource
Related to these needs, digital curation emerged recently as an management processes [2].
operational schema for the management of CH information, ad- In the context of archaeology, curatorial work with digital tech-
dressing the challenges of the selection, preservation, maintenance, nologies is often far less linear and scientific processes frequently
collection, and archiving of digital assets related to archaeologi- cut across traditional organizational boundaries [5]. Although the
cal excavations as well as the added value for future exploitation tasks that compose the digital curation vary, we abstract the ma-
[16, 17, 21]. However, with some noticeable exception (see below), jor archaeological activities together with their semantic inter-
digital curation has not been applied to archaeology. This paper pro- relations, to describe how disciplinary communities can participate
poses the systematic application of digital curation to archaeology, into the digital curation (such as, e.g., Archaeologists, Chemists,
taking into account the activities that occur from the excavation Historians, Earth scientists). These issues are mostly neglected by
process up to the exhibitions of the overall project as well as of current approaches[14, 17].
the single items. There are at least three interfaces that are neces- Fig. 1 shows the major tasks that compose digital curation. For
sary for digital curation at various stages: 1) a back-end for each the sake of exemplification, we address the interdisciplinary, multi-
task, that allows scholars of several disciplines to input their data team excavation of Çatalhöyük4 , the 9,000-year-old Neolithic set-
and metadata; 2) a front-end to allow project leaders in the several tlement in the Konya plain of Turkey, because it has been, ante-
disciplines to check the database contents and to access materials litteram, an example of digital curation over the many years of
related to other disciplines; 3) the interface designed for the exhibi- its development. In digitally-enabled Çatalhöyük excavation, re-
tions that present the outcomes of the project for a large audience. searchers have been engaging in a range of long-term activities
Here, we briefly sketch the digital curation process, with particular that encompass the capture, description, annotation, classification,
attention to archaeological activities, by referring to a well-known interpretation, knowledge enrichment and dissemination of dig-
archaeological project, named the Çatalhöyük Living Archive. Then, ital documents. A number of databases have been created by di-
we discuss the importance of a centralized database to support the verse CH specialists who have worked in different areas during
implementation of the digital curation schema and the application the different time periods alongside with different modalities of
of the digital curation schema to ongoing archaeological project reporting [11]. The record of the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük
BeArchaeo. was constructed dynamically, in-situ and ex-situ, as the excavation
progressed, through a combination of centralized database records
2 DIGITAL CURATION AND ARCHAEOLOGY [4].
In general, the digital curation process of an archaeological
Digital curation involves “actively managing data [...] with the
project starts as soon as some asset is acquired (e.g., the identi-
aim of supporting reproducibility of results, reuse of and adding
fication of a significant stratum in the soil - a so-called stratigraphic
value to that data, managing it from its point of creation until it is
determined not to be useful, and ensuring its long-term accessibil- 3 http://www.dcc.ac.uk (last visited on 3 April 2020)
ity and preservation, authenticity and integrity” (Digital Curation 4 http://catalhoyuk.stanford.edu, visited on 15 May 2020.
Bringing Digital Curation to Archaeological Projects: Evidence from the BeArchaeo Project 𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy
unit - or some archaeological finding, i.e. a container with a cup Istanbul, Turkey)5 . The latter is one example of the third type of
shape or an animal bone). As soon as this happens, some digital interface required for a modern archaeological project.
asset is built and recorded. The digital asset can be acquired from
the asset itself (e.g., by photograph or scanning) or created from the 3 THE BEARCHAEO PROJECT
scratch. This will produce some data, that we can generally name The digital curation framework is being applied in an ongoing
raw data, because they do not include an interpretation model yet. EU project named Beyond Archaeology (BeArchaeo)6 which con-
For example, the use of video recording equipment on Çatalhöyük sists in the excavation of the archaeological site, the archaeometric
allowed archaeologists to narrate their experience. These data were analyses of the site and the excavated materials, and the interpre-
enriched with metadata that included one interpretation of the asset tation/dissemination of the results about the Tobiotsuka Kofun
at some level (e.g., region of the video, identified via a path joining (Soja city in Okayama Prefecture), together with other Kofun burial
the pixels, label with the tag). Raw data and metadata are processed mounds and the related archaeological material in ancient Kibi and
to enrich the data (processed data) and used for the interpretation Izumo areas (present Okayama and Shimane Prefectures), in Japan.
process, which builds a coherent model and knowledge of the ar- A preliminary achievement of this research has been the design
chaeological site history and findings (CH model or knowledge in and implementation of a semantic database for the encoding and
the Figure1). All data and metadata are addressed through working storing of the digital data concerning the archaeological excavation
interfaces that allow for the inserting and checking data in the and addressing the metadata belonging to the several disciplines
database, while both the media produced and the interpretation though concerning the same cultural heritage object (typically, a
results are the content that will be published through the interface stratigraphic unit or an archaeological finding)7 . The project aims
designed for the final exhibition, both online and on site. to develop expertise and skills under new perspectives, to enable
Given this prolonged usage of the data, also susceptible to revi- a transdisciplinary research from the archaeological site to the
sions (theories change, and so are the interpretation models) and museum display.
targeted to different goals (3d models for the interpretation are at a The data base design has followed a Semantic Web approach. A
different resolution with respect to 3d models for the exhibition), domain ontology has been realized for the major categories that ap-
there is a need for a centralized and active control of data and pear in the archaeological excavations, namely stratigraphic units
metadata. and archaeological findings. The knowledge has been acquired
from the major documentation sources available with respect to
the forms that have been in use for decades by the archaeological
teams. These sources are mostly published by the national orga-
nizations of cultural heritage (see, e.g. the documentation records
of the Italian Central Institute for the Catalogue and the Docu-
mentation8 ). Also, the BeArchaeo ontology has been aligned with
international thesauri (e.g., Getty AAT9 ) and high–level domain
ontology CIDOC-CRM and its collaboration family10 ). The major
semantic properties were imported into an installation of the web-
based Content Management System Omeka-S11 , which revealed to
be useful for the definition of forms to be filled by the archaeologists
in the field, deployed as "Resource Templates". These constitute
the interface for inputting of data on behalf of the archaeologists
(soon, other interfaces will be designed and implemented). For this
interface, Omeka-S provides the possibility of the fast prototyping
of several user interfaces for the back-end of the system. Omeka-S
Figure 2: The web app Çatalhöyük Living Archive.[10] also provides an easy way to create the front-end (second type of)
interface, where supervisors and stakeholders could explore the de-
velopment of the archive and the related findings (Fig.3). Also, CMS
The data interpretation part of the digital curation process not Omeka-S has allowed for the uploading of rich media materials
only allows the researchers to use appropriate standards and work- (currently photos and 3D models acquired from photogrammetry
ing interfaces, but also supports the development and the evolution and scanning).
tracking of the database. For example, unit sheets and plans, once Considering the multi-cultural and multi-lingual issues of the
completed and checked by the area supervisor, were immediately BeArchaeo project, knowledge interoperability between Japanese
digitized and inserted into the site database and became available to and English researchers as well as data terminology is paramount.
all on-site researchers. Once the field season was over, the database 5 https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/events/bir-kazi-hikayesi-catalhoyuk-londrada/ (last vis-
information was incorporated into the official Çatalhöyük website ited on 25 May 2020).
and then available to external research (Fig 2). The Living Archive 6 https://www.bearchaeo.com/ (last visited on 15 May 2020).
7 https://bearchaeo.unito.it/omeka-s (last visited on 15 May 2020).
project of Çatalhöyük has then been used in many publications
8 http://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it/sigecSSU_FE/, in Italian.
(e.g. paper, conference presentations, field reports etc.) and exhibi- 9 https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/
tions, e.g., "The Curious Case of Çatalhöyük" exhibition in Anamed 10 http://www.cidoc-crm.org/collaborations
(the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in 11 https://omeka.org/s/ (last visited on 15 May 2020)
𝐴𝑉 𝐼 2𝐶𝐻 2020, September 29, Island of Ischia, Italy Vincenzo Lombardo et al.
Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754511. This research is
also related to a project called Beyond Archaeology (BeArchaeo)
which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie,
Grant Agreement No 823826.
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12 https://bearchaeo.di.unito.it/omeka-s/s/jtoppage/page/welcome