Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Upper House Seminar

Prof Mark Jackson and Dr Dr. Eleni Gkadolou, “Transforming Access – Archaeology and Open Heritage Science for Small Cultural Heritage Institutes”

Abstract: Archaeological fieldwork and laboratory research in the Mediterranean have generated exceptionally rich datasets and archives over more than a century. Growing awareness of open science principles and ongoing efforts to platform digital data promotes their reuse and synthesis, yet legacy and archival data is largely isolated from borne digital field and lab data. Furthermore, impact outside narrow disciplinary bounds remains limited. The Transforming Access to Mediterranean Cultural Heritage Science project attempts to address these two problems by combining an open, standards-based digital infrastructure that integrates legacy archives with born-digital field and laboratory data with both a standards-based data portal and AI-assisted tools for researchers as well as school teachers. Anchored in a robust, extensible ontology, laboratory, and archival domains, the Omeka S-based platform enables the curation, discovery, and reuse of heterogeneous datasets, including ceramic, lithic, botanical, and geological reference collections. By implementing FAIR principles, the platform provides machine- and human-readable access to primary research data, supporting both conventional analytical workflows and emerging approaches. To extend impact beyond specialist research communities, the platform incorporates two tailored engagement environments -the ResearchLab and the LearningLab that illustrate how heritage science infrastructures can advance research integration, long-term data stewardship, and broader public engagement.

Hybrid lecture

Registration links coming soon.