Internet Archaeology 18: ARENA (Archaeological Records of Europe: Networked Access):

The ARENA project was created to confront issues of data preservation and archiving, dissemination and European information interoperability in archaeology. In achieving these goals the project raised many issues that deserve deeper discussion. This paper provides some of this discourse considering aspects of:European identity and projects funded by European money.The importance of technical and human networking to interoperability.Dealing with Language.Spatial Issues.Describing Data, the role of Metadata.Digitisation of historic data.Preservation and Publication.This paper sets out to draw together these vital pathways that must all be followed if archaeology and heritage management in Europe is to be served by a suitable network and information infrastrucure. Some of the issues raised here have a resonance in other papers in this ARENA special edition of Internet Archaeology, others are discussed in greater detail elsewhere.

This article reflects the participation of the Museum Project, Norway in the actions of the ARENA project. In particular the article highlights issues along the pathway to interoperability that the Museum Project found most important in its participation; that is the digitisation of archaeological records and the connection of information from these resources. The article includes the problems encountered due to the fact that the data from the various collections often do not fit together, at least not without extensive human interaction. The article describes in particular the presentation of digital data from selected locations in Norway, the settlements at Hegge and Egge. A solution to linking data is suggested using an event based (CIDOC CRM) model.

For the visitor to the ARENA Portal for Archaeological Records of Europe Networked Access, the first option is to choose the language of the interface: Danish, English, Icelandic, Polish, Norwegian or Romanian. These are the languages of the six partners in the European project developed between 2001 and 2004. We expect a significant number of visitors from these countries, which made the choice of each respective mother tongue a natural one.Is the option of several languages just a courtesy for our public? It is more than that - it is a tool to facilitate access to multilingual archaeological information. Before we were ready for visitors to our sites, we had to understand each other, to index our digital resources using common terms, to find the right equivalents for archaeological realities described in several languages, to explain the concepts behind the words. Language is related to culture, identity and memory. There is a growing concern about the dominance of English as a global language of communication, while probably the majority of known languages are in danger of disappearing and cultural diversity is menaced. If we wish to make cultural heritage resources accessible to more people and to share knowledge, language is a key. My article is an attempt to address these issues. I will explore the role of language in scientific communication, multilingualism on the Internet, language policies, and also have a closer look at terminological tools for cultural heritage, especially for archaeology.

Arctic archaeologists have long suspected that the whalebones used to construct semi-subterranean winter houses by Thule culture peoples were symbolically resonant. These assumptions are based on observations of the non-utilitarian use of jaw bones and crania in Thule house ruins, and ethnographic descriptions of architectural symbolism relating to the whale hunt in Historic Alaskan Inupiat houses. In this paper, we use a 3-dimensional computer reconstruction of a semi-subterranean whalebone house to search for visual expressions of whaling-related ritual in Thule architecture. Results suggest that the whalebone superstructure may have been designed to evoke important themes when viewed from specific locations within the house, and under different lighting conditions. These themes, which appear in Inupiat myths and stories, involve the belief that women transform houses into living whales during the time of the hunt.

Editorial for Internet Archaeology issue 18