Saving Treasures of the World Heritage of Mankind at the Digital Archive DANS

Abstract

Why is it necessary to store archaeological data in a digital archive that follows policies, protocols and strict procedures? Why not simply put your files in Dropbox? This article will explain in detail the benefits of the existence and use of certified digital repositories saving the cultural wealth of archaeological research data, the impact of national regulations for conducting archaeology, the trend of clustering European infrastructures with a focus on cultural heritage and, finally, give some future recommendations for shared European archaeological polices to ensure good quality of metadata, data and repositories.