The ARIADNE Network extends globally and the ARIADNEplus project, consisting of 41 partners, works with many organisations and initiatives whose aims vary widely. Some are focussed on the provision of specialised services, others have geographical or topical remits – several of the partners are members of and/or involved with these organisations,  fostering collaboration and communication across the network.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a major, pan-European initiative and now a legal entity (as the EOSC Association) which aims to provide an infrastructure for researchers and scientists across Europe that enables the storage, management, analysis and re-use of research data compliant with the FAIR Principles for data management. This aligns with the aims of ARIADNEplus which is specific to archaeology – for example, datasets can be stored in EOSC and metadata provided to the Portal for ‘finding’ this data along with specialist services for analysis and presentation. The project is closely involved with the EOSC to ensure smooth integration of both infrastructures.

A collaboration between OpenAIRE, whose aim is to facilitate Open Science throughout scholarly research, and ARIADNEplus started in April 2020 to explore each other’s Data Management Planning (DMP) products capabilities and exchange know-how that would complement current work and accelerate new advancements. The result of this will be a DMP template for archaeological data compliant with RDA standards and the additional benefits offered by OpenAIRE such as integration with Zenodo.

ARIADNE collaborates with major associations and international bodies, notably the European Archaeological Council (EAC) and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). The President of EAA and the former President of the EAC both sit on the ARIADNEplus Scientific Advisory Board, ensuring regular dialogue with both organisations.  The EAA Board has proposed a collaboration with ARIADNEplus for the implementation of the FAIR principles in Archaeology, and this will be taken forward through 2020-21.

SEADDA (Saving European Archaeology from a Digital Dark Age) is a COST Action led by ADS to build capacity and foster the development of archaeological data repositories in countries where the research community lacks an appropriate repository, bringing together  archaeologists and data management specialists to share expertise, provide knowledge and training in matters of data archiving and access. ARIADNEplus works with SEADDA (several partners belong to both) to ensure that repository data is FAIR and can be easily included in the Portal. For example, a joint workshop was organised at EAA 2020.

Digital Antiquity is a multi-institutional, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the long-term preservation of irreplaceable archaeological data and to broadening access to these data. It oversees the use, development, and maintenance of the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), an international repository for the digital records of archaeological investigations, organizations, projects, and research which is hosted by partner Arizona State University.

Working with Digital Antiquity and others ARIADNEplus has established FAIRArchaeology.org and a proposal has been submitted to the US National Science Foundation to hold a series of  workshops and develop recommendations on the implementation of the FAIR principles for key bodies such as the EAA and SAA.

CONICET, which is developing a consortium of Argentinian repositories for archaeology, organised two workshops with ARIADNEplus in Buenos Aires and is supporting adoption of the FAIR Principles nationally.

CfAS, the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis,  promotes large-scale collaborative research projects to address major cross-disciplinary research questions, which can only be tackled by the aggregation of large data sets. ARIADNE is a member and in 2019 participated in a workshop in Arizona on migration, and in 2020 joined a CfAS workshop in historical archaeology in Boston which has resulted in applications to the National Science Foundation for funding for future work with our American colleagues.

E-RIHS, the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science is closely allied to ARIADNEplus, especially with regard to scientific data. Close co-operation with E-RIHS has led to the development of the CIDOC CRM extension CRMhs (Heritage Science) which will enable scientific data to be described and mapped, enabling its discovery and reuse through the Portal in addition to providing a standard metadata schema and ontology for this specific type of data.

Initiated in 2008,  ROCEEH joined ARIADNEplus as an Associate Partner

Several Associate Partners have joined ARIADNEplus in order to provide data and benefit from the work being undertaken:

  • ROCEEH (The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans), based at the Heidelberg Academy of Humanities and Sciences, is a multidisciplinary research project involving both the cultural and natural sciences . Its ROAD database encompasses the time period from three million to 20,000 years before present, across Africa and Eurasia, and their palaeontology records are now available in the Portal.
  • The Archaeology Unit of the University of Minho (UAUM) in Portugal will supply two datasets of Roman coins.
  • University College London, working with partner the University of South Wales on Natural Language Processing, is our first technical associate partner, and is developing a series of NLP tools for the extraction of terms derived from controlled vocabularies.
  • The British Institute At Ankara (BIAA) is working to standardise its datasets and digitise its collections, while producing a list of toponyms and coordinates of settlements in Turkey. The BIAA aims to share its data with the network once it is converted into the appropriate new formats.
  • The British School at Athens (BSA) exists to promote research of international excellence in all disciplines pertaining to Greek lands, from fine art to archaeometry and in all periods to modern times. A dataset of the archaeological project activity (excavations, surveys, study seasons, laboratory work) conducted and facilitated by the BSA from 1886 to the present day will be provided to the Portal.
  • The Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb undertakes research, higher education, publishes scientific and professional journals, monographs and proceedings, as well as organising international events in Croatia. They are participating in the working groups and testing the ARIADNEplus Portal and services.
  • The Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic (MBSR) has been the specialised state administration authority established by law for the protection of monuments and historic sites, including archaeology. They are also participating in the working groups and testing the ARIADNEplus Portal and services.
  • Takin.solutions Ltd., a consultation and services company supporting the implementation of information management solutions in the cultural heritage sector, are participating in the working groups and testing the ARIADNEplus Portal and services.
  • The Directorate for Protection of Cultural Heritage (DPCH) is legally responsible for the protection of cultural heritage in North Macedonia, directing projects and national strategy and plans, as well as the implementation and maintenance of IT systems, databases and inventories. They are interested in the training and keeping up to date with latest developments.
  • The University of Innsbruck will provide an archaeological dataset created in the project “Prehistoric copper production in the eastern and central Alps” and published as Open Research Data, and contribute to the development of an application profile for excavation data, developing a mapping to CIDOC-CRM.
  • The North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) community initiated the dataARC Project to develop digital research infrastructures to support transdisciplinary research on long-term human-ecodynamics in the North Atlantic and collaborating on the formulation of data standards and protocols to support interoperability.
  • The Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MISANU) is the leading Serbian institution involved in multidisciplinary projects for more than 20 years dedicated to the digitisation of scientific and cultural heritage. They will upload metadata of their CH assets into the Portal.

The project is also in discussions with EAMENA (Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa) who maintain satellite image maps of at-risk archaeological sites and NAHAN (North African Heritage Archive Network) which works to make North African excavation archives held by regional and European institutions accessible online.

Japanese ARIADNEplus partner, the Nara Research Institute, will be providing over 200,000 records to the Portal on archaeological investigations, bibliographies and online fieldwork reports. They have translated parts of the Guides to Good Practice, enhanced in ARIADNEplus, used them in training programmes, and distributed them to every research organisation in Japan.

The CARARE Association has several members from Central and eastern Europe and is helping promote ARIADNEplus and the FAIR Principles in this area, filling in the gaps not represented by partners.

ARIaDNEplus Special Interest Groups

Archaeology consists of many different sub-domains, each with their own processes, terminology, and data types. In order to ensure that the data from each of these specialist areas are properly represented and described in the Portal, 14 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have been set up within the project to develop the mappings and vocabularies required by ARIADNEplus as follows:

  • Paleo-anthropology
  • Bio-archaeology and Ancient DNA
  • Environmental Archaeology
  • Inorganic Materials Study
  • Dating
  • Field Survey
  • Archaeological finds made by general public
  • Remote Sensing
  • Standing Structures
  • Spatio-temporal data
  • Maritime and underwater archaeology
  • Archaeological fieldwork
  • Inscriptions
  • Burials

Partners belong to the relevant SIGs and liaise with external experts to ensure that each of the SIG mappings and ontologies meet the needs of the whole community.