Probing, Publishing, and Promoting the Use of Digital Archaeological Data

On the wintery morning of 5 January 2018, the panelists in the scheduled session, “Probing, Publishing, and Promoting the Use of Digital Archaeological Data,” at the 119th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and a small, but engaged audience participated in the session. Unfortunately, the blizzard conditions of the day, and “severe winter weather” warnings of the previous day prevented more of the panelists and potential audience members from attending. In Boston, the session benefited from the last minute addition of a presentation by Andrew Vaughn and Marina Gabriel describing the digital data being collected concerning damage to cultural heritage properties in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, part of the Cultural Heritage Initiative of the American Schools for Oriental Research (ASOR). These data are being compiled, reported, and assessed to monitor cultural heritage damage caused by the conflicts in these countries. Displaying true intellectual grit, for which all of them are well-known and refusing to be stifled by weather-related flight cancellations, all of the panelists who were prevented from attending sent notes and/or digital slides that illustrate their comments. The notes and slides prepared by all of the participants, those present and those in absentia, are gathered in this document for wider distribution. Modern archaeological investigations produce vast amounts of digital data. Fieldwork, laboratory analysis, collection research, and literature-based studies all utilize and produce data and information in digital formats. Individual professionals and the discipline as a whole are now challenged to develop and implement methods and techniques to explore, present, publish, and preserve a wide range of digital data. In their recent edited volume on digital archaeology, Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future, Averett, Gordon, and Counts (2016: 20) assert the need for more professional focus on digital “…publication and its attendant issues of long-term accessibility and preservation,…a central concern of the discipline since its inception, …[and] a notable omission in the digital archaeological process at present.” Digital data present distinct challenges and opportunities, making digital archaeological practice particularly complicated. For example, what works for access and (re)usability in published data might not be optimal for the long-term preservation of digital data. In addition, there are practical aspects related to the treatment of digital data that are unfamiliar to archaeologists and different from dealing with physical archaeological resources remains and records. The forum brought to the fore discussions related to access, sharing, and publication, as well as preservation of digital data. The topics to be discussed in this workshop cover key aspects of this challenge: • How can digital data be made discoverable and accessible to others for education and research? • What metadata is needed to provide sufficient contextual and descriptive information for data to be re-usable? • What is the range of detail in metadata available for legacy and new digital data? How can archaeologists make best use of what is available? • How can data be preserved and made available in the long-term for re-use? • What are the examples of archaeologists being credited professionally for curating and using digital data? How can such crediting be made more common, in particular in academic evaluations for tenure and promotion?2018年1月5日的冬日清晨，美国考古学会（Archaeological Institute of America）第119届年会上，原定的“探索、发布与推广数字考古数据应用”专题研讨会的与会专家与少量热忱到场的听众共同参与了本场讨论。不幸的是，当日的暴雪天气以及前一日发布的“极端冬季气象”预警，使得更多专家与潜在听众无法到场参会。 在波士顿分会场，安德鲁·沃恩（Andrew Vaughn）与玛丽娜·加布里埃尔（Marina Gabriel）临时增补的报告为本次研讨会增色不少。二人介绍了为监测伊拉克、利比亚及叙利亚境内冲突造成的文化遗产损毁而收集的数字数据，该项目隶属于美国东方研究学院（American Schools for Oriental Research, ASOR）文化遗产倡议项目。相关数据正被汇总、记录与评估，以追踪这些国家冲突引发的文化遗产破坏情况。 所有因天气导致航班取消无法到场的专家们，展现了广受认可的治学韧劲，并未因恶劣天气造成的出行阻滞而却步，纷纷提交了阐述自身观点的笔记与/或数字幻灯片。本场所有参与者（到场与未到场者）所准备的笔记与幻灯片均收录于本文件，以供更广泛的传播。 现代考古调查会产生海量数字数据。田野工作、实验室分析、藏品研究以及基于文献的研究，均会生成并使用数字化格式的数据与信息。如今，无论是个体从业者还是考古学整体学科，都面临着开发并落实相关方法与技术的挑战，以探索、展示、发布并保存各类数字数据。在他们近期主编的数字考古学专著《为数字未来动员过去》（Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future）中，埃弗雷特、戈登与康茨（2016：20）指出，学界需要更多聚焦于数字“出版及其伴随的长期可访问性与保存问题——这一议题自考古学诞生以来便是学科的核心关切，也是当前数字考古流程中显著缺失的环节”。数字数据兼具独特的挑战与机遇，使得数字考古实践尤为复杂。例如，适用于已发布数据的可访问性与（重）用性方案，未必是数字数据长期保存的最优方案。此外，还存在诸多与数字数据处理相关的实操层面问题，这些是考古学家所不熟悉的，且与处理实体考古遗存及记录有着本质区别。 本次论坛聚焦于数字数据的可访问性、共享、发布与保存相关议题。本研讨会将讨论该挑战的核心层面： • 如何使数字数据可被发现并获取，以供教育与研究使用？ • 需要何种元数据（metadata），才能为数据的重复利用提供充分的上下文与描述性信息？ • 针对遗留数字数据与新生成数字数据，元数据的详细程度存在何种差异？考古学家应如何最大限度利用现有元数据资源？ • 如何实现数据的长期保存并确保其可重复利用？ • 考古学家因管理与使用数字数据而获得专业认可的案例有哪些？如何让这种认可更为普及，尤其是在学术评聘与晋升的考核体系中？