New contents available via Europeana: the international journal “Archeologia e Calcolatori”

The international open access scholarly journal “Archeologia e
Calcolatori”, edited by the Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio
Culturale (CNR)
and now in its thirtieth year of publication, is
focused on the theoretical and methodological aspects of
archaeological computing.

Since 2005, the journal has been a member of the Open Archives
Initiative, also supporting a more experimental commitment to the
dissemination of scientific contents online.

Within Europeana Archaeology project, of which the Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information (ICCU) is a partner and acts as aggregator of digital resources, the journal has provided over 930 digital resources, for a total of almost 15,000 pages, now published and available for consultation on Europeana. Making these contents accessible through Europeana constitutes a further step forward in the culture of Open Science.

For further information: http://www.archcalc.cnr.it/
In addition is available online the post
La rivista “Archeologia e Calcolatori” su Europeana
https://www.ispc.cnr.it/it_it/2020/07/08/la-rivista-archeologia-e-calcolatori-su-europeana/

Europeana Archaeology Vocabulary Service

Supervising and supporting the workflow in a project is an important activity.
In the frame of Europeana Archaeology project has been developed the Europeana Archaeology Vocabulary Service.


This service allows to enrich the metadata provided by organisations and aggregators to Europeana regarding the digital archaeological and architectural heritage.
The service, available for use by registered users Europeana Archaeology Vocabulary tool, enables to:

  • Upload of EDM datasets
  • Extraction of subjects, place names and periods from EDM datasets
  • Creation of vocabulary mappings
  • Import of existing vocabulary mappings
  • Enrichment of EDM datasets using vocabulary mappings
  • Export of enriched EDM datasets and vocabulary mappings

It is also available a five-minute video realised by Kate Fernie – Carare that introduce the Vocabulary Service and explains how:

  • To upload a dataset
  • To create a mapping
  • To enrich the dataset

Use Case: mAND – mobile apps for exploring Art Nouveau heritage from the Danube Region

mAND is a mobile application developed as a tool for the efficient and advanced tourist promotion of the Art Nouveau heritage in the Danube region.

Apps enables GPS navigation, the identification of individual buildings, and the browsing of information on digital objects. It is intended for tourists and residents to recognize and learn about valuable elements of this heritage, understand the background and its values.

Feedback from users of the application proofed the concept: the apps is intuitive, offers information with ease. Besides the GPS location, the apps takes into account also the azimuth direction of a mobile device and recognize the nearest Art Nouveau building in this direction, and display the building’s digital objects as photos of the interior, articles, and 3D models as well.

Users can search for information on heritage also through the digital repository that contains over 21,000 digital objects, with standardized and interoperable information on Art Nouveau heritage from the Danube region countries: Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria.

The part of the digital repository is created by reusing Europeana metadata. The 1.548 digital objects were digitalized, enriched, and reingested to Europeana in the framework of the Europeana Archeology by Lunida consulting.

Screenshots of the Art Nouveau Danube mobile app, CC BY-NC

Video presentation of the use case: https://youtu.be/n7rFQRtenhw

by Franc J. Zakrajsek, LUNIDA

Online the virtual exhibition “Uncovering Hidden Stories”

The virtual exhibition “Uncovering Hidden Stories – An Introduction to European Archaeology” is available online on Europeana.
The exhibition was realised thanks to the contributions of all the partners of the CEF-project Europeana Archaeology.
It offers the opportunity to make a journey through images and texts exploring different themes: Landscape and environment, Urbanism and Architecture, Trade and Migration, Power and Identities, Religion and funerary practices, Documentation. This exhibition allows us to discover archaeological finds and monuments preserved in Europe, discovering some of the archaeological practices used to uncover them.

Screenshot Europeana – Virtual exhibition: Uncovery Hidden Stories

Europeana Archaeology conference: Connecting archaeology in Europe: case studies and experiences of going digital

We are pleased to announce you the Europeana Archaeology project final event.
The conference “Connecting archaeology in Europe: case studies and of going digital experiences ” will be held online on 8th -9th October 2020 from 13:00 – 16:30 CEST and it will be hosted by the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Europeana Archaeology Conference 8-9 October 2020

Thousands of museums, archives, libraries and research institutions across Europe hold fascinating archaeology collections – discoveries from earliest prehistory to modern times covering all aspects of life – domestic, farming, industry, religion and more.

The CEF-financed project “Europeana Archaeology” has set out to increase the availability of this rich content in Europeana. We have worked with cultural institutions to develop the tools, skills and expertise to share their collections. In this two day conference, speakers will share their experiences of making archaeology collections accessible via Europeana and of developing virtual experiences for visitors.

Connecting collections is especially relevant for archaeology as past cultures and modern political boundaries rarely coincide. People migrate, trade and exchange gifts. Items relevant to a culture are often distributed between institutions in different regions. Finding ways of improving the interoperability of these diverse datasets by increasing the use of linked open data, clear labeling of languages and rights is an area that the project has focused on. During the conference a new enrichment service being made available to Europeana’s network of aggregators and data providers will be launched.

Project partners, researchers and specialists will share their experience of making the digital archaeological heritage accessible to users through Europeana. They will also discuss experiences of implementing Europeana into education and tourism and other stakeholders with use cases and best practices.

Programme

Get connected, register now!

For the registration to the conference and to obtain more information, please visit the page:
https://www.eventbrite.de/e/connecting-archaeology-in-europe-registration-91614496425

Seminar: Europeana Archaeology. Air documenting of cultural landscapes

This use case was organised by the National Institute of Heritage of Romania within the Centre for Comparative History of Ancient Societies (CICSA) at the University of Bucharest , Faculty of History.

The materials used in this discussion will be published in Europeana through the Europeana Archaeology project, during this year.
The discussions were focused on how archaeological landscape photography can help in various academic research, the reasons why it is currently not used so much, and how that can be improved.
For example, in one archaeological site, the aerial photos showed three ditches of different dimensions, which confirmed the excavation theory that the settlement reduced its surface, while another one showed that a complex of tells were located in a wet area, which added valued information to what we know about the settlements’ protection and nutrition.
These examples highlight the importance of landscape photography as a great tool for reviewing the information obtained about the archaeological excavations and also for a better understanding of the settlements environment and surroundings.

Pictures 1. Europeana Archaeology Use Case presentation, Oana Borlean, CC-BY.

The event held as a seminar consisted in a general presentation of the project and about the content to be delivered to Europeana Archaeology, and chaired by Marius Streinu, archaeologist and office director in the Museum and Archaeology Documentation Department at the National Heritage Institute. The purpose of this seminar was to raise awareness of the archaeological landscape concept, a field that it’s not usually tackled during the courses.
Part of the presentation was dedicated to the role and importance held by Europeana and to what our project is aiming at.
The participants, mainly students and professors from the faculty, were actively interested and willing to learn more about aerial photography, in order to use it in their work. It was decided that further workshops will be useful for that matter.

Picture 2. Europeana Archaeology Use Case presentation, Oana Borlean, CC-BY.

by Georgiana Dinu and Mihaela Buruiană, Institutul Național al Patrimoniului

Call for Contributions for the final conference “Connecting Archaeology in Europe” is out now

The Institut für Museumsforschung (SPK) is organising the final conference “Connecting Archeology in Europe” of the Europeana Archaeology project which will take place in Berlin from July 2nd to 3rd, 2020. For two days, the project partners would like to explore together with other researchers and stakeholders how the digital content describing the archaeological heritage can be made accessible to users via Europeana. Everyone is invited to submit contributions of different formats. We look forward to exciting lectures, workshops and more.

Contributions can be submitted until March 31st to the following topics:
• Case studies of archaeology and architecture content in Europeana
• Linking contextual and historical information to digital resources for archaeology and architecture
• Linked data for archaeology and architecture
• Uses of archaeology and architecture datasets for education, cultural tourism, creative industries, etc.
• Use of archaeology architecture datasets in (digital) exhibitions, galleries and blogs

For more detail see the following Call for Contributions.

New content available via Europeana: Ippolito Rosellini and ancient Egypt


The Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information (ICCU), as aggregator of digital resources through Internet Culturale, made available more than 1000 digital objects via Europeana in the frame of Europeana Archaeology project.

It deals with precious drawings realised with different techniques (pencil, watercolour, tempera) coming from the collections of the Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa and assigned to it by the will of the famous archaeologist Ippolito Rosellini.
Ippolito Rosellini (Pisa 1800 – 1843) was both the director of the library of the University of Pisa and Professor of philology, literature and eastern archaeology.

Together with Jean Louis Champollion was realized the archaeological expedition in Egypt that lasted 16 months (this initiative was supported by the grand duke of Tuscany Leopoldo II and by the king of France Carlo X). During this mission a lot of iconographic resources have been realised by some artists involved in this activity in order to reproduce the bas reliefs and the paintings that adorned temples and burials explored during the enterprise.

Sculptor at work by Ippolito Rosellini, content provider Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa, CC BY-NC-SA (4.0 version) Link to the resource in Europeana

Seminar: Project Europeana Archaeology. Digital European Library

Practical seminar about using archaeological information in Europeana organised by the University Research Institute for Iberian Archaeology. The seminar was scheduled in the framework of the subject Dissemination and valorization of Heritage of the degree in Archaeology, and 50 students attended
This teaching seminar has consisted of three specific conferences, presented by project members:
1.- Alberto Sánchez: The Europeana Archeology project: philosophy, structure and collections
2.- Pilar Amate: showing Europeana information … types of media and specific uses.
3.- Carmen Rueda: From 3D positivism to virtual contextualization. Some cases from the Spanish collections
Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/B508yrYoA-G/

By Alberto Sánchez, University Research Institute for Iberian Archaeology, University of Jaén

The first use case of Europeana Archaeology project

Vilnius University Faculty of Communication (VUFC) has organised, within Europeana Archaeology project, the use case
Using Archaeological Content of Europeana For a Museum”.
The event has been divided in two different meetings on October 23rd and November 7th 2019 and it was hosted by National Museum of Lithuania that hold the main archaeological exhibitions in Lithuania. Europeana collection gives also access to several images of items included in the Museum.


The first training was carried out with guides working in the archaeological exhibitions and it dealt with the employ of Europeana content for realisation of tour in the Museum. After this training there was a lesson about “The Custom of Placing Grave Goods” based on the resources coming from Europeana archaeology collection.


The second training conducted with the employees of the archaeology department of the Museum concerned the opportunity of using the content of Europeana archaeology collection for Museums or Academic works.

Presentation: Įkapių dėjimo paprotys I–XVI a.pagal Europeana.eu
Dr. Šarūnė Valotkienė (Vilniaus Universitetas Komunikacijos fakultetas)

by Šarūnė Valotkienė, Vilnius University Faculty of Communication