IDEPatri, a web platform to record and connect archaeological discoveries across the globe, is presented
The new infrastructure, the result of a collaboration between the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and CESGA (Supercomputing Center of Galicia), facilitates the exchange of geolocated data among archaeologists from all over the world, allowing them to know the status of excavations and to make their content available to anyone else, by integrating knowledge into the global scope of the Internet.
“It is impossible to work in isolation,” says Emilio Abad, author of the thesis that gave rise to IDEPatri. “When you study a site, many times you would wish that the archaeologist who was there before you had used a method of data collection that would be useful for different specialists; it is important to remember that, despite working in different sections, in archaeology we depend on one another.” Abad explains that archaeological work involves a long list of people responsible, in which each participant uses a different approach, from the earliest phase —with labelling and creating the excavation databases— to the delivery of the material to the museum, including the people in charge of preserving and processing the material.
“Our main concern when we conceived IDEPatri was the archaeologist’s database,” says Abad. Researchers from USC and CESGA sought to ensure that the database connects with the concerns of everyone involved in the chain that runs from the excavation site to the museum, taking into account different spheres of activity. To this end, as Josefa Rey, GEPN-AAT researcher and thesis co-supervisor, points out, “our greatest concern was that all the information generated by the sites should form a single body and be easy to consult, with the aim that research should no longer be isolated, should be accessible and, in this way, work times and costs can be reduced.” “We must not forget that each person devoted to research focuses on a different speciality: metallurgy, trade, ceramics, food, crops, forestry… there are many and very varied profiles,” Rey argues.
For the other thesis co-supervisor, CiTIUS researcher Manel Cotos, the new infrastructure will enable better heritage conservation, but it also has numerous applications in the field of civil works, “by considering, for example, different impacts on new openings of communication routes, gas or electricity pipelines, and even the management of forest repopulation, such as fellings and new plantations,” he says.
The tool *IDEPAtri was *validated in the excavations at Castelo da Rocha (Santiago de Compostela), where the company in charge of the excavation and archaeological survey used the applications developed and the data model to manage the intervention.
“It is impossible to work in isolation,” says Emilio Abad, author of the thesis that gave rise to IDEPatri. “When you study a site, many times you would wish that the archaeologist who was there before you had used a method of data collection that would be useful for different specialists; it is important to remember that, despite working in different sections, in archaeology we depend on one another.” Abad explains that archaeological work involves a long list of people responsible, in which each participant uses a different approach, from the earliest phase —with labelling and creating the excavation databases— to the delivery of the material to the museum, including the people in charge of preserving and processing the material.
“Our main concern when we conceived IDEPatri was the archaeologist’s database,” says Abad. Researchers from USC and CESGA sought to ensure that the database connects with the concerns of everyone involved in the chain that runs from the excavation site to the museum, taking into account different spheres of activity. To this end, as Josefa Rey, GEPN-AAT researcher and thesis co-supervisor, points out, “our greatest concern was that all the information generated by the sites should form a single body and be easy to consult, with the aim that research should no longer be isolated, should be accessible and, in this way, work times and costs can be reduced.” “We must not forget that each person devoted to research focuses on a different speciality: metallurgy, trade, ceramics, food, crops, forestry… there are many and very varied profiles,” Rey argues.
For the other thesis co-supervisor, CiTIUS researcher Manel Cotos, the new infrastructure will enable better heritage conservation, but it also has numerous applications in the field of civil works, “by considering, for example, different impacts on new openings of communication routes, gas or electricity pipelines, and even the management of forest repopulation, such as fellings and new plantations,” he says.
The tool *IDEPAtri was *validated in the excavations at Castelo da Rocha (Santiago de Compostela), where the company in charge of the excavation and archaeological survey used the applications developed and the data model to manage the intervention.