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Is it the Thought that Counts? An evaluation of digital archaeological data archiving in Catalonia

Sabina Batlle Baró

Cite this as: Batlle Baró, S. 2021 Is it the Thought that Counts? An evaluation of digital archaeological data archiving in Catalonia, Internet Archaeology 58. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.58.25

Summary

Archaeological data archiving has not been a major concern in Catalonia. The heritage legal corpus does not engage with the archiving and curation of archaeological data other than the excavation reports. However, it highlights the responsibility of the administration in cataloguing and disseminating the cultural heritage. For this reason, a lot of effort has been invested during the past few years in inventorying known archaeological sites and publishing archaeological reports, with the aim of increasing the transparency of the administration towards its citizens.

This article describes the present situation for archaeology in Catalonia, its legal framework and the main initiatives carried out to archive, manage, and publish archaeological data from a user's point of view. Its main aim is to evaluate the current state of archaeological data archives and public databases by analysing the existing platforms with a set of indicators. This assessment leads to the conclusion that the current repositories and databases could be more worthwhile if some limitations were overcome, but also that the advance in archaeological data archiving is restricted by existing law.

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  • Keywords: digital repositories, archaeological reporting, heritage management, Spain, Catalonia
  • Accepted: 9 November 2021. Published: 16 December 2021
  • Funding: This article was funded by SEADDA as part of COST Action 18128, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union
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Corresponding author: Sabina Batlle BaróORCID logo
sabina.batlle@ub.edu
Department of Library and Information Science and Audiovisual Communication,
University of Barcelona

Full text

Table 1: Description and definition of the indicators used to evaluate the repositories, databases, and platforms

Table 2: Description of the different platforms according to the established indicators

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