University of Southampton OCS (beta), CAA 2012

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Material Culture Living Conditions: a digital platform for the publication of large artifact assemblage´s datasets
Jesús Bermejo Tirado, Irene Mañas

Last modified: 2011-12-18

Abstract


The study of households and the living conditions in ancient societies must necessarily dedicate a big effort to catalogue, present and analyze a large display of the material culture inside the archaeological record of domestic units. We present a project for publication and interrelation of data from archaeological interventions focused on domestic spaces of various historical periods. 

Firstly, the theoretical and practical constraints that led us to undertake this project will be explained. One of its main elements of this project consisted in the design and maintenance of the website http://www.materialculturelivingconditions.com. The creation of this digital platform can be conceived as a collaborative process that involves various agents (researchers, companies, and public institutions). In this paper we take care to explain our experience in the management of this digital platform and the possibilities offered to us throughout his short life.

Finally we reflect on how the use of digital platforms changes the research process, generating new practical tasks for the archaeologist and allowing new research horizons. These new conditions for archaeological research made ​​possible the emergence of methodological innovations but also rise new historiographic issues.


Keywords


Artifact assemblages; large datasets; digital publication; household archaeology; ancient society and economy.