This article explores the pressing need for consistent structured guidance and training in post-excavation (PX) skills within the field of archaeology. This need was identified through consultations with commercial practitioners facilitated by the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers as part of the Archaeologist’s Guide to Good Practice (AG2GP-Handbook) project. Through collaborative work with a range of archaeological practitioners across the UK, within the limits of a 1-year AHRC/UKRI budget, the project has successfully developed prototype online resources at https://archgoodpractice.com/ that embody and promote FAIR and sustainable best practices within the commercial archaeological sector for wider public benefit and use internationally. PX skills are critical for transforming and synthesising raw field data into meaningful insights about the past. The AG2GP-Handbook project focused on improving stratigraphic analysis, but this work highlighted that current educational and professional training across the UK, and beyond, often falls short of equipping archaeologists with these capabilities. The article examines related key challenges, such as gaps in university education and continuing professional development, that leave graduates and junior field practitioners ill-prepared for professional PX demands and with a very limited grasp of how their records in the field should be used afterwards.

Stratigraphic data form the backbone of archaeological records from excavated sites and are essential for the integrated analysis and wider interpretation of artefacts and sites. Accessible archiving of this data is therefore vital for understanding and revisiting such interpretations. Here, the authors highlight the need for more consistent digital records of stratigraphic and associated temporal relationships derived during post-excavation analysis phasing activities. They argue for the distillation of best practice in post-excavation procedures and the application of consistent and persistent terminology to make this fundamental archaeological data sustainably FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) and 'Open' across present-day geopolitical and spatiotemporal boundaries.

The Saving Archaeology from the Digital Dark Age (SEADDA) COST Action ran from 2019 to 2023 and produced a wide range of publications, opportunities for capacity building and knowledge transfer. This paper will discuss the less tangible forms of impact resulting from the work of the SEADDA members working within and across their own networks. These impacts include the new avenues of communication and collaboration created through the data stewardship and management focussed National Workshops held in Norway, Serbia, Portugal, Turkey, France, Romania and Ireland. Each workshop took a different form to be suit the needs of their community, but all resulted in progress towards ensuring the long- term persistence of digital archaeological data. This paper will describe the impact of each of these National Workshops. SEADDA made and strengthened connections across a range of different areas of collaboration, primarily through work with members of the European Archaeological Council, the Digital Preservation Coalition, and the ARIADNE Infrastructure for archaeological data. Each of these connections has resulted in closer ties, ongoing collaboration and other forms of impact that would not have been possible without SEADDA. SEADDA was also committed to ensuring participation of non-EU countries which participate in the COST, and supporting doctoral students and early career researchers, and the impacts of these commitments will also be highlighted in this paper.

Summary Illustration showing archaeological stratigraphic laws and principles Illustration of archaeological stratigraphic laws and principles. Taken from What is The Matrix? How do archaeologists use stratigraphy? YouTube Stratigraphic data and relationships form the backbone of all the related archaeological records from each excavated site and, along with the phasing and interpretive information derived through stratigraphic analysis, are essential for chronological modelling, broader synthesis of inter-site phases and periods and, we argue in this paper and elsewhere, stratigraphic data should be a required component in digital archives of the growing body of archaeological information and reports generated through the commercial archaeological sector in the UK and internationally. Not every site has complex stratigraphy, but understanding the nature of the stratigraphy, be that deep or shallow, complex or otherwise, enables researchers to piece together the underlying details of how the excavator(s) arrived at the interpretations they have made about the site. The stratigraphic record, including associated relationships and data, which in the case of complex stratigraphy are usually visualized in the form of a stratigraphic matrix diagram, acts as a primary, if not the primary evidence for how, and in what order, the site was excavated. As such the stratigraphic data can be the key mechanism that enables anyone less familiar with the site, to re-visit and re-use the excavation records; understand what data is most relevant for addressing certain research questions; or grasp the nature of the chronological sequence encountered; and piece together the underlying details of how the excavator(s) arrived at their interpretations. However such records are often only held on paper or as scanned image copies (as PDFs) of matrix diagrams that cannot easily be re-used with all the associated data. This article presents outcomes from The Matrix project (AHRC AH/T002093/1) that address the current problems caused by the lack of standardized approaches to digital archiving of archaeological data using the case study of stratigraphic and phasing data.

Over the last decade, innovation has centred on making archaeological data more interoperable, increasing the discoverability of data through integrated cross-search and facilitating knowledge creation by combining data in new ways. An emerging research challenge for the next decade is optimising archaeological data for reuse and defining what constitutes good practice around reuse. Critical to this research is understanding the current state-of-the-art regarding both existing best practices and barriers to using and reusing archaeological data. This research aimed to understand how to optimise archives and interfaces to maximise the discovery, use and reuse of archaeological data and explore how archaeological archives can better respond to user needs. The study was bound by (i) the reuse of digital archaeological archives; (ii) orientation to content usability and reusability; (iii) maintaining a user-orientated approach; (iv) collecting data from professionals in archaeology and heritage. The research group members adopted the quality-in-use conceptual approach for this study. Quality in use is 'the degree to which a product or system can be used by specific users to meet their needs to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and freedom from risk in specific contexts of use'. The research methodology is based on the SQuaRE (System and Software Quality Requirements and Evaluation) model, represented in the ISO/IEC 25000 standards series. In addition, the quality-in-use metric for investigation of reuse and barriers to reuse of archaeological data were adopted from the standardised measurement functions and methods of ISO/IEC 25022:2016. The result was a methodological model composed of 5 characteristics (Effectiveness, Efficiency, Satisfaction, Context coverage and Usability) with 14 measures (Task completeness, Objectives achievement, Task time, Cost-effectiveness, Overall satisfaction, Satisfaction with features, User trust in the system, data and paradata, User pleasure, Physical comfort, Context completeness, Flexible context of use and User guidance completeness). The methodology was tested with specific Contexts of use (use cases), orientated to a distinct user with the specific professional goal of data reuse. Three use cases relating to 3D Pottery, radiocarbon, and GIS data were created. The pilot study has proven that the methodology works and could be applied in future research. This article discusses the application of the quality-in-use approach for evaluating the quality of digital archaeological archives, as well as presenting the methodology and the results of the pilot study.

Stratigraphic data and relationships form the backbone of all the related archaeological records from each excavated site and are essential for integrated analysis, wider synthesis and accessible archiving of the growing body of archaeological data and reports generated through the commercial archaeological sector in the UK and internationally. The stratigraphic record, usually in the form of a stratigraphic matrix, with associated relationships and data, acts as a primary, if not the primary 'evidence' for how, and in what order, the site was excavated. As such the stratigraphic matrix can be the key mechanism that enables anyone less familiar with the site, to re-visit and re-use the excavation records, understand what data is most relevant for addressing certain research questions, or problems encountered, and piece together the underlying details of how the excavator(s) arrived at their interpretations. However such records are often only held on paper or as scanned image copies (as PDFs) of matrix diagrams that cannot easily be re-used with all the associated data. This article presents outcomes from The Matrix project (AHRC AH/T002093/1) that address the current problems caused by the lack of standardized approaches to digital archiving of archaeological data using the case study of stratigraphic and phasing data.

A wealth of digital data are produced during an archaeological excavation and because so much of the fieldwork is unrepeatable, once the site is fully excavated, the digital records must be archived in a manner that best fYacilitates reuse. This paper presents three case studies of users wishing to reuse digital archaeological data from online repositories, with a specific focus on absolute and relative dating evidence. We discuss the problems encountered and how they reflect the wider issues of the reuse of digital archaeological data. Additionally, we provide recommendations specific to chronological data that seek to address the problems.

The records of archaeological stratigraphic data and the relationships between stratigraphic units are fundamental to understanding the overall cohesiveness of the archaeological archive of an excavation. The information about individual units of excavation identified on sites with complex stratigraphy is most often held in the site database records and stratigraphic matrix diagrams, usually documenting relationships based on the laws of stratigraphic superposition and the Harris matrix conventions (Harris 1979). However, once the matrix diagram has been used to record the information during excavation, there is far less consistency in how those stratigraphic records, and any associated phasing information, are finally deposited in the archives. For that valuable data to be successfully identified and re-used (particularly if the rest of the data is in a database), the stratigraphic and phasing data needs to be in a format that can be interrogated as part of the database. In practice, often only a (paper) copy of the matrix diagrams make the archive. This means that the critical temporal and spatio-temporal relationships upon which the phasing of sites is built, cannot usually be interrogated or (re)used without lengthy and wasteful re-keying of that data into another version of the database. The stratigraphic, sequencing and temporal information held in a matrix is fundamental in further studies of the site records and in working out how the site may relate to other excavated sites of similar or related dates and phases. This article will suggest ways in which the stratigraphic data from excavations and the reasoning processes carried out in subsequent analysis could be better managed, to make matrices (re)useable as part of a more integrated digital archive. This article examines how conceptual reference modelling, particularly using temporal relationships, can be used to explore these issues and how associated technologies could enable semantically-enriched deductions about the spatio-temporal and purely temporal relationships that fundamentally link archaeological data together. It will also consider where further work is needed both to deal with analysis of spatial or temporal records and to enhance Bayesian chronological modelling and associated temporal reasoning, and how this may form the basis for new linkages between archaeological information across space-time.

The 17th EAC Symposium (Europae Archaeologiae Consilium) in Brighton was convened under a concept note that recognised that 'Digital technologies are developing at an unprecedented speed. As they do, they are opening up many new possibilities for the conduct and presentation of archaeological research and investigation. The digital realm is one which knows few borders and so the sharing of understanding about these new methods, techniques and possibilities across Europe is extremely valuable'. The Brighton Symposium was held over one-and-a-half days (17-18 March 2016) and consisted of three presentation sessions, followed by discussions that included questions and comments from the floor. The presentations were aimed at one of the three broad themes of the symposium although, in actuality, a number of the presenters raised topics that spanned more than one theme.

The online dissemination of datasets is becoming common practice within the archaeology domain. Since the legacy database schemas involved are often created on a per-site basis, cross searching or reusing this data remains difficult. Employing an integrating ontology, such as the CIDOC CRM, is one step towards resolving these issues. However, this has tended to require computing specialists with detailed knowledge of the ontologies involved. Results are presented from a collaborative project between computer scientists and archaeologists that created lightweight tools to make it easier for non-specialists to publish Linked Data. Archaeologists used the STELLAR project tools to publish major excavation datasets as Linked Data, conforming to the CIDOC CRM ontology. The template-based Extract Transform Load method is described. Reflections on the experience of using the template-based tools are discussed, together with practical issues including the need for terminology alignment and licensing considerations.

Archaologen wie auch Einrichtungen des Kulturerbes und der Denkmalpflege sind gegenwartig zunehmend bemuht, ihre Datenbestande, die bislang nur einem kleinen Kreis von Spezialisten zuganglich waren, auch fur eine breite akademische Forschung und die interessierte Offentlichkeit zu offnen. Um dieses Ziel moglichst effektiv zu erreichen, werden vernetzte Infrastrukturen und Softwaretools benotigt, die Nutzer bei der Suche und Auswertung von gefundenen Begriffen und Konzepten unterstutzen – insbesondere auch deshalb, weil diese in heterogenen Datensammlungen unterschiedlich verwendet werden. Unterschiedliche Personen und Fachdisziplinen konnen fur dasselbe Konzept verschiedene Worter benutzen oder sie arbeiten mit voneinander abweichenden Vorstellungen. Diese terminologisch-konzeptuelle Vielfalt stellt unausweichlich eine Hurde dar, die den Datenzugriff fur Forscher oder die Allgemeinheit erheblich erschwert. Ein praktischer Ansatz zur Losung dieses Problems, der in den Projekten STAR, STELLAR und SENESCHAL verfolgt wurde, beruht auf der Anwendung des W3C SKOS Standards zur Integration von kontrollierten Vokabularen und dem Referenzmodell CIDOC-CRM (siehe Referenzen). Als Ergebnis liegen nun mehrere nationale Vokabularien zum Kulturerbe als SKOS-basierte Versionen vor, die uber die Webseite HeritageData.org (s. Ref.) aufgerufen werden konnen.Der Beitrag diskutiert einige Barrieren und Herausforderungen, die wahrend der Entwicklung einer modernen Linked Open Data Ressource auftraten, und zeigt die Potentiale fur kunftige Entwicklungen in diesem Bereich auf.

Sharing archaeological data across national borders and between previously unconnected systems is a topic of increasing importance. Infrastructures such as ARIADNE aim to provide services that support sharing of archaeological research data. Ontologies such as the CIDOC CRM are an appropriate instrument to harmonize different data structures and thereby support data exchange. Before integrating data by mapping to ontologies it is crucial to establish where the shared meaning of the data lies and to understand the methodology used to record the data. As the largest proportion of archaeological data are derived from excavations or field investigations the initial focus falls on the documentation of these “raw data”. But documentation often varies depending on country-specific guidelines, different excavation methods and technologies, project management requirements, budget, etc. Therefore an analysis of the different recording forms should prove helpful to identify the common meanings of concepts and terms used in archaeological fieldwork. This paper will show first results of research based on the collection of excavation report forms and manuals from different countries which cover a range of fieldwork methodologies (e.g. single context recording, palaeolithic excavations, etc.). The aim is to analyse and compare the different methodologies, the archaeological concepts involved and the data records, perhaps for the first time on an international level. We want to discuss the challenges of integrating different concepts, terms and vocabularies, often in different languages, and whether problems with integrating such archaeological data could be addressed by additional archaeological extensions to the CIDOC CRM.

The current situation within archaeology is one of fragmented datasets and applications, with different terminology systems. The interpretation of a find may not employ the same terms as the underlying dataset. Searchers from different perspectives may not use the same terminology. Separate datasets employ distinct schema for semantically equivalent information. Entities and relationships may have different names but be semantically equivalent. Even when datasets are made available on the Web, effective cross search is hampered by semantic interoperability issues [1]. It is becoming increasingly understood that the use of an integrating conceptual framework, such as the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) (ISO 21127:2006) [2, 21], can help address these issues. We take this as our agreed point of departure. This paper discusses various implementation issues to facilitate use of the CRM. Employing the CRM has tended to require an understanding of the source dataset schema and also specialist knowledge of the CRM and techniques for mappings. This paper argues for the use of mapping patterns to guide deployment, to improve homogeneity, to increase data interchange and to encourage greater uptake.

Outcomes from the STAR Project are presented. The underlying rationale is the need to widen access to archaeo-logical datasets, which will allow third parties to cross search different datasets and investigate the basis for inter-pretations in the underlying data. The semantic technologies employed are based on standard representations of domain vocabularies and the underlying core ontology, an archaeological extension of the CIDOC CRM. Methods for extracting semantic RDF representations from the datasets are described, together with Natural Language Proc-essing techniques for information extraction from a selection of OASIS grey literature. STAR web services and se-mantic search implementations are presented. The need for controlled terminology is emphasised. Illustrative results from the semantic search Demonstrator are discussed.

This paper discusses the automatic generation of rich metadata from excavation reports from the Archaeological Data Service library of grey literature (OASIS). The work is part of the STAR project, in collaboration with English Heritage. An extension of the CIDOC CRM ontology for the archaeological domain acts as a core ontology. Rich metadata is automatically extracted from grey literature, directed by the CRM, via a three phase process of semantic enrichment employing the GATE toolkit augmented with bespoke rules and knowledge resources. The paper demonstrates the potential of combining knowledge based resources (ontologies and thesauri) in information extraction, and techniques for delivering the automatically extracted metadata as XML annotations coupled with the grey literature reports and as RDF graphs decoupled from content. Examples from two consuming applications are discussed, the Andronikos web portal which serves the annotated XML files for visual inspection and the STAR project, research demonstrator which offers unified search across of archaeological excavation data and grey literature via the core ontology CRM-EH.