SGER: Prototype Institutional Repository for the Sharing and Preservation of Archaeological Materials

共享数据的能力和防止数据丢失的需要在任何学科中都很重要。然而，在考古学中，它们可能是至关重要的，原因有二：首先，考古学中的数据收集--相当于许多其他学科中的“实验”--是永远无法复制的，因为（a）考古学家在挖掘时破坏了他们正在研究的背景;（B）所有的定居点都是特定时期人与活动独特组合的残余。丢失的数据是永远无法复制的数据。第二，考古实地工作通常只集中在一个或两个定居点。然而，为了了解特定地区的文化历史和文化变化，或研究文化演变轨迹中各地区的相似性和差异，需要整合来自大量定居点的数据。拟议项目将设计原型储存库流程，以扩大分享考古数据的能力和考古实地工作妥善保存的数据类型范围。设计过程的一个主要方面将是识别和描述关键的机构，档案和信息学问题，必须解决广泛的社会科学，特别是考古学内日益增长的危机。拟议的项目将在几个方面产生更广泛的影响。首先，与任何保存活动一样，防止丢失对今后分析至关重要的数据，将对今后分析的可能性产生影响。其次，扩展访问模式的设计将对空间和时间变化进行实用的考古分析。最后，考古项目中文化数据的可访问性和保存有可能影响考古学以外的社会科学学术。 研究生将积极参与这一原型研究。

ABSTRACTNSF-0450112The ability to share data and the need to guard against the loss of data areimportant in any discipline. However, in archaeology they may be criticalfor two reasons: First, data collection in archaeology-the equivalent of "experiments" in many other disciplines-is never replicable because (a) archaeologists destroy the contexts they are studying as they excavate and (b) all settlements are remnants of unique combinations of people and activities at particular times. Data that are lost are data that can never be duplicated.Second, archaeological fieldwork most often focuses on only one or two settlements. However, in order to understand culture history and culture change in a given region or to examine similarities and differences among regions in trajectories of cultural evolution, there is a need to integrate data from large numbers of settlements. The proposed project will undertake the design of prototype repository processes to extend the ability to share archaeological data and the range of data types appropriately preserved from archaeological fieldwork. A major aspect of the design process will be the identification and delineation of the key institutional, archival, and informatics issues that must be addressed to resolve the growing crisis within social science broadly and within archaeology specifically.The proposed project will have broader impact in several dimensions. First, as with any preservation activity, there will be an impact on the possibilities for future analysis by preventing the loss of data crucial to that analysis. Second, the design of extended access modes will make practical archaeological analysis of spatial and temporal variation. Finally, the accessibility and preservation of cultural data from archaeological projects has the potential to impact social science scholarship beyond archaeology. Graduate students will be actively engaged in this prototype research.