Pofatu Database

The Pofatu Database is a resource for archaeologists and contains contextual and geochemical information on rock material and stone artefacts. This is used by archaeologists to determine the source of the material. In the spring of 2020, the data contained over 7700 samples from sites in the Pacific Ocean region. The samples are from both archaeological sites and geological sites. The geological samples are used for comparison, to identify the source of the archaeological samples. In addition, information on provenience, context, analytical methods and bibliography are maintained. "The database also provides instrumental details, analytical procedures and reference standards used for calibration purposes or quality control." The open-access database is supported by CNRSand Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and was built in collaboration with research organizations from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States.Aymeric Hermann, Robert Forkel, Andrew McAlister, Arden Cruickshank, Mark Golitko, Brendan Kneebone, Mark McCoy, Christian Reepmeyer, Peter Sheppard, John Sinton, Marshall Weisler. Pofatu, a curated and open-access database for geochemical sourcing of archaeological materials. Scientific Data, 2020; 7 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-0485-8

The database uses an open-source storage system (GitHub) and file formats that are common and non-proprietary. 
This makes it easy to access and use the data and to retest it. Access to Pofatu is at  The data can be seen in the Pofatu web application.

References

Other websites
https://pofatu.clld.org/

category:Archaeology
Category:Databases