Archaeological Geodata/AGES:
Module 3, focused on Archaeological Excavation and Geodata, aims to establish and maintain a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) service for geodata from archaeological excavations. This will facilitate many new research opportunities and will primarily be realized through the following steps:
- Making available 3,500 databases generated from excavations conducted by NHB’s own field unit, initially generated through the Intrasis software. These data will be referenced using persistent identifiers (PIDs) and will be accessible through NHB Fornsök and the digital repository Arkivsök during 2024.
- The development of a first version of the Swedigarch plugin for QGIS, that will enable efficient export of geopackage and CSV from Intrasis, and functions for exploring and analyzing the relations of the information in QGIS.
- The AGES database will house harmonized archaeological geodata from various sources for aggregated analyses and regional syntheses drawing on data from different excavations.
- An initial version of a geoserver with preliminary information will be accessible during 2024.
- Development of a geodatabase with information about excavated buildings and house structures in Sweden, including information on chronology, type, dimensions, and context. The identification of archaeological reports containing information about excavated houses will be achieved through a semi-automatic process, while the digitization of house-related data will be performed manually. The creation of this geodatabase will be an ongoing endeavor and be complemented with more data from future excavations.
- Module 3 will maintain a dialog with partners within Swedish archaeology on GIS data generated from future excavations, and strive to encourage a sector-wide implementation of FAIR approaches to digital documentation of excavations.
- Comprehensive collection of all available 14C-dates associated with archaeological contexts, offering access to a wealth of chronological data in relation to archaeological sites. The 14C data will be stored in the Environmental Archaeological Database (SEAD), as part of Module 4 of Swedigarch.
