Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database (BIAD)
Thu
27
Mar
Thursday 27 March, 2025at 13:00 - 15:00
HUM.J.118
The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental archaeology invites you to a seminar with Natalia Riabogina, "Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database (BIAD): Building Experience of the Workable Structure, Internal Connections and Harmonization of Pan-European Data".
Abstract: The Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database (BIAD) is an initiative that standardizes and consolidates a wide range of archaeological data, providing a pan-European perspective on prehistoric processes from the Balkans to the Scandinavian peninsula and from the French Atlantic coast to the Urals. The structure of BIAD's collected data adheres to a specifically designed template, integrating many modern and older sources. Qualitative and quantitative information is meticulously gathered from original publications and links with occupation phase, chronology and other archaeological site data to ensure accuracy and consistency over time and space.
I would like to focus on archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data within BIAD, and notice a significant advance in their collection, harmonization, interpretation and potential for extensive analytical research. To date, BIAD has synchronized primary data from approximately 2000 archaeozoological and 1100 archaeobotanical phases from numerous sources from the Neolithic and Bronze Age, and data collection efforts are ongoing. Collecting archaeozoological and archaeobotanical data has led to a variety of challenges, such as searching for "raw data" in multilingual scientific literature, integrating information from different scientific schools into a unified database, dealing with misidentifications or lack of contextual information, addressing sampling and preservation biases. That's why in our paper (open access), we advocate for the publication of primary data following the standardized protocol developed in BIAD, which maximizes the potential for robust data and enables comprehensive analysis.
It is important to emphasize that BIAD is not just a data warehouse, it is not a repository, but a full-fledged relational database. All plant macro-remains and faunal assemblages from archaeological contexts are linked within BIAD to other scientific data - radiocarbon dating, isotope data, strontium, and of course archaeological information about the site - chronology, monument type, material culture, material objects, human data (burials, body features and positions, diseases, DNA). In the future, BIAD will offer new analytical possibilities to facilitate dietary reconstructions, study agricultural practices, explore cultural and exchange networks, and compare regional variations in economies. However, extracting meaningful insights from the data will require interdisciplinary collaboration and contextual analysis.
The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology presents and discusses current research in archaeology and environmental archaeology. See more upcoming seminars in the series
