A puzzle in 4D is a project dealing with the general problem of integration of heterogeneous and incomplete digital and non-digital records of archaeological long-term excavations to prepare them for spatio-temporal analysis, long-term archiving based on national and international standards and open-access online publication for specialists and the general public.
The project is based on the resources from the Austrian excavation project at Tell el-Daba in Egypt, where fieldwork has taken place since 1966. During this time, the archaeological discipline has undergone many technological as well as methodological changes. Most notably, developments in information technology have caused a shift from analogue to digitally-born data. As a result, the Tell el-Daba archive at the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology (OREA) contains a large and heterogeneous resource of digital and non-digital documents, such as photographs, plans, drawings and notes. The aim of the project is therefore to create a standardized, open-access archive to ensure the preservation of analogue and digital resources and make them available to researchers and general public.
Moreover, the project partner Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro), uses the datasets to develop a tool for reconstructing undocumented and missing stratigraphic information through reverse excavating (reconstruction of the order of deposition of stratigraphic units). For the creation of such a 4D archaeological information system (AIS) that will allow spatio-temporal analysis, geographical information systems in combination with Harris Matrix Composer is used.
- Project leader: Dr. Barbara Horejs, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology.
- Scientific coordinator: Dr. Edeltraud Aspöck, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology.
- Project management: Dr. Angela Schwab,Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology.
- Tell el Daba Archivarin: Dr. Karin Kopetzky, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology.
- Project leader partner: Dr. Wolfgang Neubauer und Mag. Matthias Kucera, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology.
