Philipp GERTH | Anne SIEVERLING | Martina TROGNITZ
(German Archaeological Institue (DAI), Berlin, Germany)

Keywords: data curation, data re-use, long term preservation, GIS, statistics

Abstract:
IANUS is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with the objective to build up a digital archive for archaeology and ancient studies in Germany. A first three year phase of conceptual work is now being followed by a second, in which the concepts get implemented and the data centre begins its operational work.
Data curation is essential for preservation of digital data and helps to detect errors, aggregate documentation, ensure the re-usability of data and in some cases even add further functionality and additional files. This paper will present the workflow of data curation based on a data collection about European vertebrate fauna and will exemplify the different data processing stages at IANUS according to the OAIS model – from its initial submission until its final presentation on the recently established data portal. One aspect of this will be the discussion of the archival information package.
The research data stored in the IANUS repository offers many different options for data re-use. Some possibilities will be showcased on the basis of the datasets already ingested in IANUS. They include the visualisation of geographic information with GIS, statistical analysis, reutilisation of bibliography, image processing, and subsequent use of 3D models. A reuse of these data can provide additional benefits to the scientist, e.g. the possibility to examine the topography of findspots or the distribution of archaeological finds and the enlargement as well as regulation of sources.

Relevance conference | Relevance session:
The talk highlights the high re-use potential of archaeological data and the preparation for long term preservation in digital archives.

Innovation:
The new data portal of the data centre IANUS with their latest available datasets and potential re-use scenarios will get introduced.

References:
http://dx.doi.org/10.13149/001.mcus7z-2
http://www.ianus-fdz.de/