Swedigarch Inspirational Lecture #8 with Hella Hollander: From the Ground to the Air – How Dutch Archaeological Networks Work

In this inspirational lecture on Zoom, Hella Hollander explores the Dutch approach to organising archaeological data as a coordinated network that connects the entire archaeological chain. Researchers from universities, commercial archaeologists, governmental depots, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, and the Dutch e-depot for Archaeology at DANS collaborate within a shared national archaeological data ecosystem. Controlled vocabularies thesauri and a national metadata standard describing finds are used and agreed protocols and legal requirements describe the entire archaeological workflow. How can a diverse professional field transform fragmented excavation data into a sustainable, interoperable national knowledge base? The Dutch experience demonstrates that sustainable digital archaeology emerges where governance, standards, and community practice align. It offers an inspiring example of how national coordination can lift archaeological data “from the ground into the air” ensuring that what is excavated today remains accessible and meaningful for generations to come.

Hella Hollander is Data Station Manager Archaeology at Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), i. e. the Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data.