Toward Standardised Vocabularies for Norwegian Archaeology

Abstract

The Museum of Cultural History (MCH) at the University of Oslo, Norway, has undertaken a series of infrastructure projects with the aim of improving the standardisation of archaeological data and increasing data integration at both a national and international level. This builds on decades of earlier work and includes a revision of shared National database systems (unimus), integration of previously disparate data types and spatial data (ADED), and more recently the development of a 3D publishing platform (BItFROST). These projects feed into broader aims of large-scale data integration as part of the European-wide ARIADNE Research Infrastructure. This article provides an overview of the history and development of these systems in Norway and takes a look at some of the roads still ahead.

Organically Grown Archaeological Databases and their ‘Messiness’: Hobby Metal Detecting in Norway

“…Data fields are largely identical in all five databases. Yet, despite a common standard being the goal, normalization and standardization of the individual records across and within museum regions have not been a priority (Uleberg & Matsumoto, 2009: 3;Uleberg et al, 2023: sections 2 and 3). Many fields are freetext entries, with as little or as much text as a data recorder wants to enter and in a manner that suits them best.…”