Abstract
Abstract. Information systems play an important role in historical research as well as in heritage documentation. As part of a joint research project of the German Archaeological Institute, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus and the Dresden University of Applied Sciences a web-based documentation system is currently being developed, which can easily be adapted to the needs of different projects with individual scientific concepts, methods and questions. Based on open source and standardized technologies it will focus on open and well-documented interfaces to ease the dissemination and re-use of its content via web-services and to communicate with desktop applications for further evaluation and analysis. Core of the system is a generic data model that represents a wide range of topics and methods of archaeological work. By the provision of a concerted amount of initial themes and attributes a cross project analysis of research data will be possible. The development of enhanced search and retrieval functionalities will simplify the processing and handling of large heterogeneous data sets. To achieve a high degree of interoperability with existing external data, systems and applications, standardized interfaces will be integrated. The analysis of spatial data shall be possible through the integration of web-based GIS functions. As an extension to this, customized functions for storage, processing and provision of 3D geo data are being developed. As part of the contribution system requirements and concepts will be presented and discussed. A particular focus will be on introducing the generic data model and the derived database schema. The research work on enhanced search and retrieval capabilities will be illustrated by prototypical developments, as well as concepts and first implementations for an integrated 2D/3D Web-GIS.
Highlights
In the context of current archaeological research projects, involving various historical and neighbouring scientific disciplines, usually large amounts of digital data are produced or collated
The greater part is not available for further research and falls into "digital oblivion". To avoid this heterogeneity two information systems have been developed in the context of different research projects at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus (BTU) during the last years:
While CISAR has a modern web-based database architecture, including a sophisticated WebGIS client and 3D visualization, iDAI.field offers a flexible data model and a broad diversity of features of the application based on long-term project experience
Summary
In the context of current archaeological research projects, involving various historical and neighbouring scientific disciplines, usually large amounts of digital data are produced or collated. Project or institution specific systems are created and used independently Often these solutions cannot be transferred to other projects, despite overlapping content. This leads to a regular high effort for providing project-specific tools and the large number of different solutions complicates the exchange and long-term availability of digital research data. Because of incomplete and inflexible data models and outdated software architectures adapting to new research projects as well as the general maintenance and the further development of the systems require a very high effort Both systems lack a fundamental concept that describes their long-term use, development and funding beyond the end of research projects. The peer-review was conducted on the basis of the abstract
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