Internet Archaeology and the Archaeology Data Service are pleased to announce the winner of our 2015 Digital Data Reuse Award.
The award was instigated to recognise the outstanding work being carried out through the re-use of digital data and raise awareness of the research potential of data re-use in archaeology and beyond.
The winner receives the opportunity to publish free of charge in Internet Archaeology, and all the finalists will receive a certificate and one of our coveted trowel-shaped USB sticks.
Find out about the winner, the finalists and the highly commended entries below!
Winner
Amphora Profiling
Andrew Bevan, Tom Haines, Young Sam Winter, Daniel Pett, Chiara Bonacchi, Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert, Jennifer Wexler , Neil Wilkin.
Amphora Profiling is a staged, multi-application crowd-sourcing initiative developed and hosted as part of the MicroPasts project. The app builds on on one of the most highly regarded ADS resources, the University of Southampton’s Roman Amphorae archive. The app takes scanned line drawings of Roman period Mediterranean amphora and serves them up to the public who are asked to properly scale the line drawing, draw around the exterior, the interior, the mid-line, the neck area, both handles and the handle section, all which then allows the creation of clean (edge-matched) 2D vector polygons. These in turn can be turned into 3D models.
The project was chosen as our winner because of the innovative way in which the ADS digital archive has been used and because the new data created provides a vast opportunity for more detailed research and reuse.
“Innovative use of technology and strong public engagement potential” – Mike Heyworth, Director, Council for British Archaeology.
Finalists
In the Line of Fire: A GIS Analysis of Bosworth Battle
Paul Durdin, Tom Entwistle, & Charles Chichester Kaner
This project analysed portions of data from The Bosworth Battlefield Project archive in a Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to further understand the events of this famous battle in 1485. Viewshed analysis, hydrological modelling, kernel density analysis and lines of fire were examined alongside historical accounts to aid interpretation and shed new light on the events that happened on the battlefield. This entry made it to the finals because it is a strong example of how data can be re-use to aid interpretations.
“A great example of how data re-use can allow us to revisit & add to previous interpretations” – Judith Winters, Editor, Internet Archaeology
Cryptoporticus
Anthony Masinton
Cryptoporticus is a game about museum architecture. The game places the player inside an empty gallery. As the player moves around and engages with the space, the museum literally ‘opens up’, revealing its collections. One gallery exhibits two datasets distributed by the ADS: drawings from the Society of Antiquaries of London’s Catalogue of Drawings and Museum Objects; and 3D models drawn from the Egypt Exploration Society’s Virtual Amarna Project.
This entry was chosen as one of our finalists because of the excellent endorsement for the access and reuse of digital data which in turn strengthens arguments for their conservation and preservation.
“Clever idea, well implemented” – Mike Heyworth, Director, Council for British Archaeology.
Highly Commended
AR Prototype
Luke Botham & Mathew Llewllyn Fisher
This project was the prototype of a concept for using Augmented Reality (AR) to create a more immersive and interactive museum experience. One particular fun idea was to use markers on museum staff clothing, so that when viewed through a device, staff would be clad in period clothing based on the collections they were working alongside. The prototype used the model for the Wooden Mask (Object ID: 38819) from the Virtual Amarna Project.
“Real potential to aid public engagement with museum displays” – Mike Heyworth, Director, Council for British Archaeology.
Where there’s muck there’s brass!’ Coinage in the Northumbrian landscape and economy, c.575 – c.867
Tony Abramson
This project used the The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy (VASLE) Project archive to investigate the monetization of Northumbria in the ‘Conversion Period’ during the seventh to ninth centuries CE. The project combines the ADS’s VASLE dataset with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) finds database for recent artefactual discoveries. With both a regional and settlement level analysis alongside a substantial numismatic database, the close association of portable antiquities and early Anglo-Saxon coinage in the study area could be demonstrated.
“A textbook case of data re-use in action” – Judith Winters, Editor, Internet Archaeology
We will be publishing full blog posts about each of our finalists and highly commended entries over the next few weeks!
