In September, 2012, the AAI launched Exploring Biogeography of Early Domestic Animals using Linked Open Data, a one-year project using Linked Open Data to enhance archaeological data sets. A collaborative undertaking by the AAI, Prof. Benjamin Arbuckle (Baylor University), and a team of international zooarchaeologists, the project was one of two winners of the Computable Data Challenge from the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). The project brought together a group of international scholars to collaboratively analyze datasets and address questions about human exploitation of early domestic animals in Anatolia. Taxonomic data published in archaeological datasets in Open Context were related to EOL taxa using a Linked Open Data approach. Skeletal element data were also linked using the Uber Anatomy Ontology (UBERON) vocabulary, and measurements and fusion data were linked using vocabularies developed by Open Context. This project demonstrates the power of Linked Open Data to disambiguate and enhance data published on the Web. See more about the competition and the winning projects.
Datasets resulting from this project:
The following datasets were published and annotated as part of this project, resulting in an integrated dataset of more than 200,000 records:
- Barçin Höyük
- Çatalhöyük (East and West Mounds
- Çatalhöyük (TP area)
- Cukurici Hoyuk
- Domuztepe
- Erbaba Höyük
- Ilipinar
- Karain Cave
- Kösk Höyük
- Okuzini Cave
- Pinarbasi (1994)
- Suberde
- Ulucak Höyük
Publications and reports resulting from this project:
Publishing and Pushing: Mixing Models for Communicating Research Data in Archaeology
Published in the International Journal of Digital Curation (April 2014)
This paper won the “best paper” prize at the International Digital Curation Conference in San Francisco (February 2014).
Data Sharing Reveals Complexity in the Westward Spread of Domestic Animals across Neolithic Turkey
Published in the PLOS ONE (June 2014)
This paper presents the collaborative research results from 23 co-authors who analyzed primary archaeozoological data for over 200,000 faunal specimens excavated from seventeen sites in Turkey.
