The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is an open access

digital archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organi ...

for

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

research outputs. It is located in The King's Manor, at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. Originally intended to curate digital outputs from archaeological researchers based in the UK's Higher Education sector, the ADS also holds archive material created under the auspices of national and local government as well as in the commercial archaeology sector. The ADS carries out research, most of which focuses on resource discovery, cross-searching and

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

with other relevant archives in the UK, Europe and the United States of America. The Archaeology Data Service is listed in the

Registry of Research Data Repositories The Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org) is an open science tool that offers researchers, funding organizations, libraries, and publishers an overview of existing international data library, repositories for research data. Backg ...

re3data.org.

History

In the late 1990s a consensus developed in the field of archaeology that archaeological data in digital form was highly fragile due to both an inadequate understanding of technical threats to its sustainability and the lack of an infrastructure to preserve it in the long term. In April 1996 a consortium comprising eight Departments of Archaeology from UK Universities joined forces with the

Council for British Archaeology The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) is an educational charity established in 1944 in the UK. It works to involve people in archaeology and to promote the appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of present and fut ...

(CBA) to put a proposal to the Arts and Humanities Data Service Executive to establish an Archaeology Data Service. This service was to host a digital archive for archaeologists and to provide advice and guidance to the archaeological community on how to create and manage their digital datasets. As a result, the ADS was established at the

Department of Archaeology in September 1996 with two full-time members of staff and under the directorship of Professor Julian D. Richards. From 1996 until 2008 the ADS hosted AHDS Archaeology, a subject centre devoted to archaeology funded by the

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts a ...

via the AHDS. The AHDS closed in March 2008 as a result of a controversial decision by the AHRC to withdraw funding. The ADS now receives funding directly from AHRC, rather than through the AHDS, it is also funded by other Higher Education and cultural heritage sector organisations including the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The original consortium members were the archaeology departments of the following Universities: * The

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

* The

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

* The

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

* The University of Kent at Canterbury * The

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

* The

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

* The University of Newcastle * The

and * The

The

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

were also involved in early discussions about the formation of a digital archive for archaeological material, and joined the consortium at an early stage.

Governance

The ADS is run on a day-to-day basis by a director and a deputy director, however it is managed by a committee meeting bi-annually consisting of representatives of funding bodies, representatives of user communities and the ADS internal Management Group, comprising the director, deputy director, European project manager, communications and access manager, and the systems manager. The current (2020) chair of the management committee is professor Sam Turner from the University of Newcastle.

The Archive

Content

The ADS holds the digital outputs of numerous archaeological excavations or other research activities including some very well known sites such as

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

and

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeology, Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wea ...

. Much of the archive material can be grouped together under 'programme' headings such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) which involved over 100 different archaeological interventions. The ADS acts as the mandated digital archive for archaeological research, of any kind, funded by the AHRC, and also for

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

administered funds such as the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF). The online journal

Internet Archaeology ''Internet Archaeology'' is an academic journal and one of the first fully peer-reviewed electronic journals covering archaeology. It was established in 1995. The journal was part of the eLIb project's electronic journals. The journal is produced ...

's content is archived by the ADS and a number of journal series from learned societies such as the

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Society's aim is to promote the cultural heritage of Scotland. The usu ...

, have older digital versions of their journals made freely available from the ADS site. The ADS is the largest single source of archived

grey literature Grey literature (or gray literature) is material and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional publishing, commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. Common grey literature publication types include reports (a ...

, with over 20,000 examples available in its ''Library of Unpublished Fieldwork''. Access to grey literature in the archaeological context has become a significant concern, especially in academia, in recent years.Bradley(2006)

Advice

The ADS offer advice to data creators on procedures and formats, including advice on the writing of ''Technical Appendices'' for AHRC applications. The website hosts a series of Guides to Good Practice (G2GP) on the following archaeological topics: *

Geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

s * Archiving

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

and

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

data * Digital archives from excavation and fieldwork * Geophysical data in archaeology * CAD * Creating and using

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

, a guide for the arts and humanities All these G2GP were revised in 2012 funded in part by

and the US based Digital Antiquity project.

Procedures

The ADS archive is intended to follow the

Open Archival Information System The term Open Archival Information System (or OAIS) refers to the International Organization for Standardization , ISO OAIS Reference Model ''for'' an OAIS. This reference model is defined by recommendatioCCSDS 650.0-M-2-Sof the Consultative Com ...

reference model, which is an

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

for data archive systems. There are no constraints on access although users must click a web form to accept the ADS Terms and Conditions, in essence these state that the all copyright is retained by the original data depositor, but they permit its reuse for teaching, learning and research purposes, but not commercial purposes. Off site back-up storage for the ADS archive is held both at the

's computer services and at the UK Data Archive in Essex.

Interface

Beyond acting as a simple repository for datasets, the ADS has a number of interactive interfaces into complex archives including database search interfaces, Web GIS and interactive image galleries. The main search mechanism for the ADS catalogue, ArchSearch, contains aggregated resource discovery

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

for the national monument inventories of England, Scotland and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

(hosted by

, the RCAHMS and the

RCAHMW The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW; ; ), established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectural and historic environment of Wales. ...

) as well as numerous Historic Environment Records HERs. The ADS hosts a number of datasets, such as the Excavation Index, that are made available externally as

web services A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

and consumed by

's Heritage Gateway search engine.

Projects

UK based projects

Significant projects undertaken by the ADS in the UK include: * The OASIS project (Online AccesS to the Index of archaeological investigationS) funded by

and

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

, this project is being expanded to include a C14 extension in collaboration with

and the RCAHMS. * England's

Rock Art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

a site for the reporting and exploration of prehistoric rock art in the

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

area of England funded

and

Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Northumberland in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having also ...

* Archaeotools, funded by the

Jisc Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit organisation that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education and research, as well as the public sector. Its head office is based in Bristol with ...

- AHRC-

EPSRC The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...

eScience programme, this project looks at the potential for

Natural Language Processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

for harvesting resource discovery

from archaeological documentation, and

faceted classification A faceted classification is a classification scheme used in organizing knowledge into a systematic order. A faceted classification uses semantic categories, either general or subject-specific, that are combined to create the full classification ...

as an interface technology into archaeological catalogues. This project is collaboration with the department of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

European funded projects

Significant EU funded projects include: * Virtual Exploration of Underwater Sites (VENUS), funded by the

Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) this project looks at the potential for automated

photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...

maritime archaeology Maritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, sh ...

sites including the use of ROV's and AUV's * The preparing DARIAH project is funded by the

European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ( ESFRI) Roadmap,

Seventh Framework Programme The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europe ...

(FP7). This project is scoping a pan-European digital infrastructure of the Arts and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

. Under this project the ADS will be extending cross searching of monument inventories in a number of countries, developing an earlier cross-searching project called ARENA. * Archaeology of Contemporary Europe (ACE) is part of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

's Culture Programme, among other functions, under this project the ADS is building and hosting a

UDDI Web Services Discovery provides access to software systems over the Internet using standard protocols. In the most basic scenario there is a ''Web Service Provider'' that publishes a service and a ''Web Service Consumer'' that uses this service. ...

registry for the Historic Environment Information Resources Network (HEIRNET). * CARARE: A best practice network funded by the

's ICT Policy Support Programme. CARARE brings together heritage agencies and organisations, archaeological museums and research institutions and specialist digital archives from all over Europe to establish a service that will make digital content for Europe's unique archaeological monuments and historic sites interoperable with Europeana. It aims to add the 3D and virtual reality content to Europeana. The ADS have specific responsibility for investigating the issues surrounding the long-term sustainability of the CARARE aggregation service. * LoCloud (Local Content in a Europeana Cloud) is a best practice network which began in March 2013 and will run for three years. It is coordinated by the Norsk Kulturrad and made up of 33 partners across 25 European countries. LoCloud follows directly on from the aforementioned CARARE project and EuropeanaLocal, another recently completed best practice network project, funded under the e-Contentplus programme. It played an important role in ensuring the digital content provided by Europe's local and regional cultural institutions were represented in Europeana. The intention of LoCloud is to combine the metadata mapping methodology of CARARE with cloud computing technology, making it easier for small to medium-sized heritage organisations to make their contents accessible via Europeana. * ARIADNE (Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Dataset Networking) brings together and integrates existing archaeological research data infrastructures so that researchers can use the various distributed datasets and new and powerful technologies as an integral component of the archaeological research methodology. There is now a large availability of archaeological digital datasets that all together span different periods, domains and regions; more are continuously created as a result of the increasing use of IT. They are the accumulated outcome of the research of individuals, teams and institutions, but form a vast and fragmented corpus and their potential has been constrained by difficult access and non-homogenous perspectives.

Other international projects

* The ADS is a participant in 'Digital Antiquity' a Mellon funded project as well as the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

funded project which is intended to investigate data cross-searching and/or

between, for example, individual site zooarchaeological databases.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

Archaeology Data Service homepage

England's Rock Art (ERA) homepage, hosted by the ADS

The OASIS homepage, hosted by the ADS

The VENUS project homepage

The ACE project homepage

Digital Antiquity's project homepage

The Preparing DARIAH project homepage

The ADS in Second Life
{{authority control 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Archaeological databases Archaeological organizations Archaeology of the United Kingdom Archives in North Yorkshire College and university associations and consortia in the United Kingdom Educational organisations based in the United Kingdom Online archives of the United Kingdom Organisations associated with the University of York Organisations based in York Organizations established in 1996