Integrating Legacy Archaeological Data into an Ontology Based on Human Ecodynamics: The Case of the Nabo Archaeological Reports in the Dataarc Project

Abstract

"This paper explores an attempt to create FAIR and LO(U)D archaeological data from grey sources. This has been carried out in the context of the DataARC Project, which has been developing a cyberinfrastructure whose main tool is a computational ontology. This ontology includes diverse conceptual models (which include archaeological, historical, and ecological data) from different grey sources. These are the product of 25 years of research carried out by NABO and allied research communities in the North Atlantic. Human ecodynamics are of special importance for NABO and, consequently, for DataARC. The ontology had thus to be developed for representing human ecodynamics in a rigorous and efficient way, yet capable of engaging a broad audience. My work within DataARC showcases a procedure for dealing with archaeological data when archaeologists working in a Big Data framework attempt to integrate data from archaeological reports with data from allied disciplines. As the project’s goal was to represent a narrative based on Human ecodynamics, my methodology explains the development of a dataset capable of representing HE from reports that do not normally make explicit the different connections for understanding this topic. The main problem faced was the creation of knowledge using multiple datasets that come from grey literature –– i.e., interlinking multivariate datasets to achieve FAIR standards. Thus, the paper explains the approach to designing a dataset capable of being interlinked with related, but different, datasets. Problems such as concept overlappings or hierarchical levels are discussed, as well as some procedures that might help rethink computational ontologies."