What have the Romans ever done for us? Digital strategies for research syntheses & fieldwork reports
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-03-17

Tim Evans
Archaeology Data Service

The paper presents the ongoing work on the dissemination of the research data produced by the Roman Rural Settlement of Roman Britain project; a collaborative endeavor of the University of Reading, Cotswold Archaeology and the Archaeology Data Service. Although large-scale research syntheses incorporating the datasets and reports produced by research and commercial fieldwork are now relatively common, this project is arguably unique in planning for online dissemination from the outset. The paper will discuss the online interface (due for release in April 2015 in tandem with the traditional hard-copy monograph), which combines a database/ Web Mapping front-end, with digital versions of the unpublished reports identified by the research team; thus allowing the capacity for broad or detailed interrogations of these grey reports on detailed thematic and methodological criteria that was previously achievable. In addition the paper will also discuss the lessons learned from planning and building a model for simultaneous paper and digital publication during the lifetime of a project, particularly the respective merits of Web Mapping technologies, but also a noticeable shift in attitudes towards the free dissemination of data by the community as a whole. Finally, the paper also looks to the possibilities and challenges for incorporating the results of future fieldwork into such academic syntheses. It is suggested that by using online technologies, it should be possible to move away from the recent, yet essential, trend of retrospective syntheses of decades of unpublished and sometimes amorphous backlogs, towards a model that allows the participation of commercial units, community groups, researchers and curators in identifying and contributing to specific research themes. Thus offering the potential for a more holistic yet immediate culture of research.