Europeana Archaeology

This project aimed to increase the volume of high-quality digital content for Europe’s rich heritage of archaeological monuments, historic buildings, cultural landscapes and artefacts that are accessible online through the Europeana Archaeology Collection.

Europeana Archeology. A bronze brooch from the Iron Age with coiled details, on a white background. Europeana Archeology

Coiled Bronze Brooch, Hunt Museum, CC0, Iron Age

Europeana Archaeology

Visit the Project Website.

About the Project

Making Europe’s rich archaeological heritage digitally accessible for all. Europeana Archeology project aims to increase the amount of high-quality digital content for Europe’s rich heritage of archaeological monuments, historic buildings, cultural landscapes and artefacts. It should be accessible online through Europeana and available for reuse.

The project partners delivered more than 352,000 archaeological records from 28 data partners across Europe and Israel. 50% of the delivered content is of very high quality (Tier 3+) and almost 100% of the metadata is in Tier B+. From these records, 655 are new 3D high-quality records, which are available in Europeana.

Furthermore, the project developed a new enrichment pathway which focuses on improving the discoverability and multilinguality of Europeana archaeological content. The Europeana Archaeology Vocabulary Services tool allows enriching the metadata provided by organisations and aggregators to Europeana according to the Europeana Data Model.

Additionally, the project engaged the Europeana audiences by creating an online exhibition called ‘Uncovering hidden stories: an introduction to European Archaeology‘ and 28 editorial works.

3 pieces from the Hunt collection; a decorated pot, a statuette of a figure, and a drinking vessel.

During the project, partners will enrich the quality of existing collections, add new collections and carry out targeted digitisation. The mapping of vocabularies and increase in the use of multilingual Linked Open Data will help to raise the quality of the metadata. It will also result in a set of services for archaeology being made available to Europeana aggregators and content providers. The content provided by the project will be directly available to users through the Archaeology thematic collection.

A circular ivory game piece with 6 small figures inside, on a white background.

Ivory Game Piece with Figures, Hunt Museum, CC0, 12th Century

We are delighted to announce that as a result of this project, 200 archaeological artefacts from the Hunt Collection have been photographed, or 3D scanned. The research from museum Docents have been included in meta-data and then published on the Europeana website as part of the Archaeology collection. You can see the full collection here.

As a result of this project, artefacts from the Hunt Collection are now more easily located by researchers, educators and students through online searches, thus increasing the audience for our cultural heritage. 

A bronze brooch from the Iron Age with coiled details, on a white background

Coiled Bronze Brooch, Hunt Museum, CC0, Iron Age

The Europeana Archaeology project is lead by the University of Vilnius Faculty of Communication, with the following consortium members:

  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (KNAW-DANS), The Netherlands
  • Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche (ICCU), Italy
  • Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis (KMKG-MRAH), Belgium
  • Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna (UNIBO), Italy
  • Universidad de Jaén (UJA-IUIAI), Spain
  • Athina – Erevnitiko Kentro Kainotomias Stis Technologies Tis Pliroforias Ton Epikoinonion Kai Tis Gnosis (ATHENA R.C.), Greece
  • Technologiko Panepistimio Kyprou (CUT), Cyprus
  • The Hunt Museum (HM), Ireland
  • Institutul Naţional al Patrimoniului (INP), Romania
  • Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK), Germany
  • Lunida Ltd (Lunida), United Kingdom
  • Musée d’Archéologie nationale Domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (MAN), France
  • 2Culture Associates Ltd (2Culture), United Kingdom
  • Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen Stiftung Oeffentlichen Rechts (UGOE), Germany
  • Muzej za umjetnost i obrt (MUO), Croatia

 

Co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union.

Explore the database of 3D objects here.

 

For more information:

Overview of the Europeana Archaeology Project 

Europeana Full Collection 

Europeana Recent Posts

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