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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
06:18
Optimized Bone Sampling Protocols for the Retrieval of Ancient DNA from Archaeological Remains
Published on: November 30, 2021
The Archaeotools project: faceted classification and natural language processing in an archaeological context
S Jeffrey1, J Richards, F Ciravegna
1Archaeology Data Service, Department of Archaeology, The King's Manor, University of York, York Y01 7EP, UK. sj523@york.ac.uk
Summary
Archaeotools, a major e-Science project, integrates UK archaeological data using faceted classification and natural language processing. This unlocks information from diverse sources, enhancing archaeological research accessibility.
Area of Science:
- Digital Archaeology
- Information Science
- Cultural Heritage Informatics
Background:
- Archaeological research faces challenges in integrating diverse data formats.
- Vast amounts of valuable information exist in grey literature and historical accounts.
- Standardization and vocabulary control vary across monument inventories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an advanced e-Science infrastructure for archaeological research.
- To integrate structured, semi-structured, and unstructured archaeological data.
- To create a unified faceted browser interface for accessing diverse archaeological information.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing faceted classification for data organization.
- Applying natural language processing (NLP) for information extraction.
- Integrating over one million structured database records with extracted data.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated the successful integration of diverse archaeological data sources.
- Highlighted variable levels of standardization in monument inventories.
- Achieved high success rates in information extraction due to existing ontologies.
Conclusions:
- Archaeological ontologies and thesauri facilitate successful information extraction.
- The project enhances accessibility of grey literature and antiquarian accounts.
- The methodology offers valuable lessons for allied scientific disciplines.
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