Development of a research data centre for archaeology and ancient studies (IANUS)

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Nothing has changed archaeology and the ancient studies in a similar way as the digital revolution which started to influence academic work a few decades ago. The new methods do not only offer new answers to old questions, but also contribute largely to a more comprehensive understanding and evaluation of ancient cultures. Nonetheless, the innovative and forward-looking possibilities also entail some challenges for which the traditional ancient studies and archaeologies are not prepared. Handling huge amounts of information in a source-critical, but still practical manner has to be invented almost from scratch. Technically and semantically heterogeneous digital research data usually document very unique contents that is not open to reproduction. At the same time, the perseverance of this data for future use is generally at stake. Therefore a data centre is necessary to permanently and reliably curate this data, to warrant for its physical conservation, to offer free access to the same, to improve subsequent re-use in the future and to facilitate a national and international exchange across borders, faculties, institutions and systems. Setting-up the required specialist infrastructural skeleton that is supported by the various disciplines in ancient studies is the object of the "IANUS research data centre archaeology & ancient studies project. During the first project phase an overall concept was created as the core milestone, a needs assessment was carried out and institutions with similar functions were visited. Based on the results obtained, the second phase will be dedicated to implement the necessary components in a functional manner. This will include developing a production system, defining workflows for the academic data curation and their application to real project data, concluding contracts with technical infrastructures for bit stream preservation, specifying a business model and developing a legal form, implementing a reference catalogue, continuing the exchange with the on-line portals and monitoring IT recommendations. By the end of the second project phase, IANUS shall be able to operate the professional long-term archiving of data such that owners of data can transfer these for archiving purposes and interested parties can research and download the same via the website and other portals.