the Digital Archaeologial Record Developing an Information Infrastructure for Archaeology Arizona State University School of Human Evolution & Social Change — School of Computing & Informatics

Project Home

What is tDAR?

With NSF support, ASU archaeologists and computer scientists are building a prototype digital information infrastructure, called tDAR for "the Digital Archaeological Record." tDAR is an open-source, Internet accessible foundation for a global archaeological information infrastructure. tDAR provides integrated, cross-project, sustainable access to dynamic archives of archaeological, physical anthropological, and environmental data that will:

• advance our ability to conduct synthetic and comparative research;
• and maintain the long-term utility and accessibility of archaeological data.

While we are focusing on systematically collected datasets (databases), tDAR also archives text and images. tDAR is based at ASU, but the servers reside at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. tDAR is an open source and incorporates elements of geosciences' GEON platform.

tDAR Version 1

tDAR Version 2

Computer Science Challenges

An ultimate integrated view of multiple data sets is usually impossible and unnecessary. Thus, we reconcile the semantic demands of a query with the semantic content of the available datasets (rather than attempting global reconciliation of data sources). tDAR uses a novel strategy of query-driven, ad-hoc data integration in which, given a query, the cybertools will identify relevant data sources and perform interactive, on-the-fly metadata matching to align key portions of the data while reasoning with potentially incomplete and inconsistent information.

Substantive Focus

The research value of tDAR must be demonstrated. The initial testbed project will investigate the socio-environmental conditions that lead to depressed abundance of preferred game—over two millennia in the Southwest and lower Illinois River Valleys in the US. So far we have compiled data on 176,000 faunal elements from 81 Southwestern sites. This faunal research is being conducted with the cooperation of the International Council for ArchaeoZoology.

History and Partners

Principal Investigators: Keith W. Kintigh (kintigh@asu.edu), K. Selçuk Candan, Hasan Davulcu, Subbarao Kambhampati, Margaret C. Nelson, and Katherine A. Spielmann
Key ASU Collaborators: Huiping Cao, John Howard, Allen Lee, Mallorie Hatch, Yan Qi, and Ben Schoville
Supported by: NSF Grants SES 0433959 and IIS 0624341 and a Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Home

Top

Overview

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0433959 and 0624341. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.