Persepolis Fortification Archive Lawsuit

An article by Gwenda Blair in the December 2008 issue of Chicago Magazine is an excellent overview of the issues surrounding the lawsuit which hopes to force the sale of the Persepolis Fortification Archive which has been on loan to the Oriental Institute University of Chicago.

Gwenda Blair
Paying with the Past
Chicago Magazine, December 2008

You'll find it as the first link in the Persepolis Tablets in the News page of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project blog.

"Publish in Wikipedia or perish"

What an excellent requirement!

Web 2.0 and Beyond: New Tools for Archaeological Collaboration and Communication

The presentations from Web 2.0 and Beyond: New Tools for Archaeological Collaboration and Communication (Vancouver, March 26-30, 2008) are now online.

• Open Access for Archaeological Literature: A Manager's Perspective (Jingfeng Xia, Rutgers University)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: Open Access as new scholarly communication has provided free, unrestricted access to digital material. With content of peer-reviewed articles, open digital repositories will facilitate online dissemination of research data and discoveries. In archaeology, several online databases have been available for journal articles, such as AnthroSource. However, these databases are accessible through subscription and are limited to certain journals. Scholars need a repository containing archaeological literature and free of charge. Modern technologies and changed copyright rules by publishers have made the implementation of the repository possible. This presentation discusses how a repository can be effectively managed to support archaeological research.

• Creating a Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology (Michael Rains, York Archaeological Trust)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: The Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) began as an excavation recording and post-excavation analysis tool but during more than ten years of development its scope has widened to include archiving and publication. In recent years, work has focused on the development of more sophisticated interfaces and tools within the IADB to create a collaborative research environment and publication framework for all aspects of fieldwork based archaeological research. This presentation will focus on how technologies usually associated with the term Web 2.0 have enabled and to some extent driven this development.
  

• Think Globally, Act Locally: Scholarly Collaboration through the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (www.daacs.org)
  (Jillian Galle, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery Monticello)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: Since 2004, The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) has provided archaeologists with detailed archaeological data from slave quarter sites throughout the Atlantic World. Forged through collaborative partnerships in the US, Caribbean, and UK, DAACS’s success lies in its regional focus, freely accessible data, and direct communication with scholars. DAACS also recognizes that archaeologists have difficulty keeping up with their own research and are frequently unable to contribute to collaborative digital projects without direct help. This paper discusses the philosophy behind DAACS and focuses on the methods used to facilitate data sharing and collaboration among scholars.

• Web 2.0, Archaeotools and the Archaeology Data Service (Julian Richards, ADS; Stuart Jeffrey, ADS; Stewart Waller, ADS; Sam Chapman, University of Sheffield; Ziqi Zhang (University of Sheffield); and Fabio Ciravegna, University of Sheffield)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: The ADS has been preserving and disseminating digital research data in the UK for ten years. This presentation will outline how we are embracing technologies broadly termed Web 2.0. It will discuss Archaeotools, a two-year project funded by AHRC-EPSRC-JISC under their eScience programme. This is a collaborative project with the Natural Language Processing Group at the University of Sheffield UK in which we are conducting data mining and content tagging of archaeological grey literature and journal literature, and permitting user searching via a facetted classification interface, allowing users to ‘click and browse’ rather than ‘type and hope’.

• iAKS: A Web 2.0 Archaeological Knowledge Management System (Ethan Watrall, Michigan State University)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: Currently in development, iAKS (Interactive Archaeological Knowledge Management System) is designed to address data collection, archiving, and analysis problems encountered by many archaeological projects. Based on Web 2.0 technologies, iAKS features a flexible setup and install model that allows archaeologists to customize the types of data they want to collect and archive. Further, iAKS features a variety of connectivity models, making it an appropriate tool for projects that have regular network connectivity and those that do not. In addition, iAKS features robust data visualization, allowing archaeologists to browse and creatively visualize data. Finally, iAKS is designed with a keen sense of usability, thereby making it appropriate for a broad user base.
  

• UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology Data Access Level (Willeke Wendrich, UCLA)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation). Abstract: Since two years UCLA is developing an online encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE) which sets out to be a comprehensive scholarly web resource. Apart from article texts, images, interactive maps, VR models and enhanced search functionality, the UEE also allows archaeologists to archive and publish data, which in future will be connected to online publications. The UEE-DAL is envisioned as an open source service which will encompass both ongoing field work, excavations and 'heritage' data (unpublished data from past excavations). Project information can be found at www.uee.ucla.edu.
  

• A marriage of convenience: the possibilities of Service Oriented Architecture and Web 2.0 for digital archaeology (Stuart Dunn, Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation)
  (view slideshow) Abstract: Service-oriented architectures (SOAs) integrate and repackage heterogeneous computer services and data, so they do not have to be redesigned for new purposes. Web 2.0 technologies allow users to integrate and repackage services and data themselves. The relationship between Web 2.0 and SOA is therefore important. Here we review ways of combining them to deliver online archaeological services and complex data to user communities. We will draw on the UK’s Web 2.0-type portal (www.arts-humanities.net), various theoretical SOA approaches, and existing archaeological and related collections, services and data; and present a research agenda for linking Web 2.0 and SOA for archaeology.
  

• Beyond Open Access: Open Data, Web services, and Semantics (Eric Kansa, UC Berkeley) and Sarah Whitcher Kansa, The Alexandria Archive Institute)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation)
  (view slideshow) Abstract: Simple web services delivering machine-readable data can help make archaeological information truly open and reusable for research, instruction, and creativity. Open Context (www.opencontex.org), is an open source publishing system that facilitates sharing, collaboration, and integration of field research and museum collections. It includes Web 2.0 features: folksonomies, dynamic weblog linking, maps, and browsable navigation through multiple collections. RESTful web services will soon enable new interface and presentation options. However, “user-generated content” (a web 2.0 hallmark) requires difficult schema-mapping steps to make data interoperability possible in Open Context. Can community-based solutions meet the complex semantic challenges of archaeological data?
  

• Web 2 and the Sociology of Archaeological Knowledge (Robin Boast, University of Cambridge and Peter Biehl, SUNY Buffalo)
  (download audio file of the 15 minute presentation) Abstract: Our traditional understanding of knowledge, of a discipline or in a discipline, on-line or off-line, assumes either a direct correspondence with the world or a systematic semantic correspondence with concepts. Even Web 2 largely ignores the past 70 years of sociological and philosophical arguments for an understanding of knowledge as situated skillful practice. This paper explores, through several on-going projects, how both Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 fail to recognize this vital aspect of disciplinary knowledge and public understanding of knowledge, and how many of the tools of Web 2 could be used to enable a diversity of perspectives.

Discussion: On the Web, Nobody Knows you’re an Archaeologist (Fred Limp, University of Arkansas)
(download a pdf of the discussion points)

Willeke Wendrich, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology Data Access Level

Eric Kansa and Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Beyond Open Access: Open Data, Web services, and Semantics (slides)

Your c.v. might be on your blog, but...

...is your blog on your c.v.?

Does the (academic) blog carry enough respect in the academic world to be thus enshrined?

Is blogging as dangerous to the potential graduate student as it was to the job-seeker, ca. 2005?

What about other online activities, such as organizing scholarly, semi-scholarly, or potentially scholarly efforts on flickr and other digital media?

Of course, one answer might be, "It depends on the blog".

(For easy reference, I link Bill Caraher's fundamental essay on the topic, 'Blogging Archaeology and the Archaeology of Blogging')

New Open Access Classics Journal

Rursus: Poétique, réception et récriture des textes antiques
Université de Nice
ISSN: 1951-669X

La revue numérique Rursus, conçue par les chercheurs de langues anciennes de l’Université de Nice, réunis depuis 2003 dans la jeune équipe LA.LI.A est consacrée à des études portant sur la récriture. La littérature dite ‘au second degré’ n’est pas une zone érudite, marginale, voire décadente du champ littéraire, mais la clé même de ce champ, puisque le régime original et originel de l’écriture est le second degré. Cette conviction d’une nature foncièrement hypertextuelle de la création n’est pas un dogme mais une attention de fond aux facteurs de mutation, de détournement et de renouvellement de la tradition.

N°1 Actes du XXXVIIIe Congrès International de l'APLAES: «L'animal, un modèle pour l'homme» dans les cultures grecque et latine de l'Antiquité et du Moyen-Age.

N°2 Le modèle animal.

N°3 Varia.

New in JSTOR

Announced by JSTOR a moment ago

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Arts & Sciences Complement)
Release Content: Vol. 93, No. 1 (2003) – Vol. 94, No. 5 (2004)
Moving Wall: 3 years
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISSN: 0065-9746

Including the following titles relating to the ancient world:

Studies on the Neoplatonist Hierocles (pp. i-vi, 1-97, 99-125, 127-131, 133-152)
Ilsetraut Hadot, Michael Chase

Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, ca. 800-1500 (pp. i-iii, v-xiv, 1-21, 23-71, 73-115, 117-147, 149-158)
Bruce Eastwood, Gerd Graßhoff

Titles of interest from this series since 1995 also include:

Astral Magic in Babylonia (pp. i-150)
Erica Reiner

The Manuscripts of Sedulius a Provisional Handlist (pp. i-244)
Carl P. E. Springer

Boundaries and Frontiers in Medieval Muslim Geography (pp. 1-73)
Ralph W. Brauer

Ptolemy's Theory of Visual Perception: An English Translation of the "Optics" with Introduction and Commentary (pp. iii-300)
A. Mark Smith

The Denotation of Generic Terms in Ancient Indian Philosophy: Grammar, Nyāya, and Mīmāṃsā (pp. i-336)
Peter M. Scharf

Vita Viri Clarissimi et Famosissimi Kyriaci Anconitani (pp. i-246)
Francesco Scalamonti, Charles Mitchell, Edward W. Bodnar

The Later Roman Colonate and Freedom (pp. i-144)
Miroslava Mirković

Babylonian Horoscopes (pp. i-164)
Francesca Rochberg

Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics: A Source Based Guided Study (pp. 1-172)
A. Mark Smith

Kos between Hellenism and Rome: Studies on the Political, Institutional and Social History of Kos from Ca. the Middle Second Century B.C. Until Late AntiquityKos between Hellenism and Rome: Studies on the Political, Institutional and Social History of Kos from Ca. the Middle Second Century B.C. Until Late Antiquity (pp. i-189)
Kostas Buraselis

An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian DictionaryAn Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (pp. i+iii-v+vii-xi+xiii-xvi+1-41+43-67+69-73+75-91+93-97+99-101+103-107+109-131+133-135+137-140)
Erica Reiner, Robert McC. Adams

Ancient World Bloggers Group Facebook Application

Readers who have facebook accounts can read this blog also at the Ancient World Bloggers Group Facebook Application.

You can also add an entry for your own blog, which will eventually allow you import news feeds from your blog to your personal profile.

Open Access: The Cuneiform Digital Library

The Cuneiform Digital Library: free online resources about the Ancient Near East from the dawn of writing to the end of cuneiform.

The CDL is a collaborative network of projects centered around the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. We provide a global registry for cuneiform documents (the CDLI catalog), tools for corpus-development (the ATF specification and related software and web-services), educational pages (the CDLI wiki) and a free hosting service to support the development of special-interest projects (this portal!).

At the time of writing (December 4, 2008), the Cuneiform Digital Library includes the following components:

• CAMS Corpus of Ancient Mesopotamian Scholarship


• CDLI The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative


• DCCLT The Digital Library of Cuneiform Lexical Texts


• ePSD The electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary


• HBTIN Hellenistic Babylonia: Texts, Images, and Names


• SAA State Archives of Assyria

and the following doocuments

• CDL Introduction


• Corpus-building


• ATF specification


• Fonts

New CBA website

The CBA is delighted to announce the launch of its brand new website today.
www.britarch.ac.uk
______________________________

The site has all the latest information on CBA events, publications and campaigns, and also acts as a gateway to archaeology in the UK. Find outhow to get involved in archaeology, find contacts and events, and how tovolunteer on an archaeological project. The site uses a new design and structure, and much of the previouscontent has been revised, refreshed and rewritten.
There's a new'Archaeology Latest' section, with all the latest archaeological news,blogs and resources as they are released:www.britarch.ac.uk/archaeologylatest

To find a local society, community group, contracting unit or universityarchaeology department, visit our Archaeology Online section:www.britarch.ac.uk/archonline

For all the latest books, Internet Archaeology, Scottish ArchaeologicalInternet Reports, the British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography andmore, visit the brand new Publications section:www.britarch.ac.uk/publications
A new and expanded membership section includes details of the Christmasgift membership offer: www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/membership

Help us spread the word by forwarding this link on to any otherinterested parties! Look out for several more website developments over the coming months: afantastic new Young Archaeologists' Club website is being created now and is due for launch soon, and the British Archaeology magazine pages will undergo a redesign in 2009.

We'd like your opinions on the new website: what do you think of thedesign, content and new features? What further new facilities or pageswould you like to see? Are there any links to other resources we shouldinclude?
Let us know either by filling in a short online questionnaire:www.britarch.ac.uk/websurvey or by sending an email to webmaster@britarch.ac.uk
________________
Dr Dan Hull
Head of Information & Communications

Newly open access Classics journal - Rheinisches Museum für Philologie

Rheinisches Museum für Philologie
Institut für Altertumskunde der Universität zu Köln
Das Rheinische Museum wird in Verbindung mit Prof. Dr. Carl Werner Müller (Universität des Saarlandes), Prof. Dr. Stephan Schröder (Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) und Prof. Dr. Clemens Zintzen (Universität zu Köln) herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Bernd Manuwald Institut für Altertumskunde der Universität zu Köln
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
D-50923 Köln

Volumes 93 (1950) - 147 (2004) are available in open access format

HERITAGE SCIENCE STRATEGY WEBSITE LAUNCHED

The steering group for the National Heritage Science Strategy arepleased to announce the launch of the strategy's website: www.heritagesciencestrategy.org.uk
Over the next few months, work will be taking place to produce three reports which will provide the evidence base for drawing up the strategy.
* the first report will detail the current use of science in preserving and protecting cultural heritage (available April 2009)
* the second will assess the use of science in enhancing ourunderstanding of the past (available end of May 2009)
* the final report will address issues of sector skills and considerpractitioner and institutional capacity to deliver improvements in theapplication of heritage science. (available July 2009)
Each of these reports will be available on our website, with a one month consultation period to ensure that the views of the heritage sector arefully represented and integrated in the final strategy. If you have any questions about the strategy please have a look at the website, or get in touch with the strategy coordinator:
Dr Jim Williams National Heritage Science Strategy Coordinator