Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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As illustrated by this def<strong>in</strong>ition, archaeology is a complex and <strong>in</strong>terdiscipl<strong>in</strong>ary field that has many of
its own specializations but is also closely related to classics. The <strong>in</strong>novative use of digital technology
<strong>in</strong> archaeology has a history that is at least three decades old. 187 Proceed<strong>in</strong>gs and reports of numerous
conferences conta<strong>in</strong> papers <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g the use of 3-D visualizations, digital reconstructions, and
electronic publication <strong>in</strong> archaeology—<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods <strong>in</strong>
Archaeology (CAA), 188 the Virtual Systems and Multimedia Society (VSMM), 189 Virtual Reality,
Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (VAST), and the International Committee for Documentation of
Cultural Heritage (CIPA). 190 In addition, the importance of cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure and of digital
preservation for archaeology has been addressed by a number of recent projects as well as by longerstand<strong>in</strong>g
organizations. This section looks at several major digital classical archaeology projects and
provides an overview of some of the literature on this topic.
Electronic Publish<strong>in</strong>g and Traditional Publish<strong>in</strong>g
One of the oldest e-journals <strong>in</strong> archaeology is Internet Archaeology, 191 a peer-reviewed journal that
was established <strong>in</strong> 1996 and sought to make full use of electronic publish<strong>in</strong>g. There are some other
<strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g examples of electronic publication <strong>in</strong> archaeology, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g FastiOnl<strong>in</strong>e. 192 Nonetheless, a
major new report from the Center for Studies <strong>in</strong> Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of
California, Berkeley, 193 that <strong>in</strong>vestigated the potential of digital scholarship and scholarly
communication across a number of discipl<strong>in</strong>es, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g archaeology, by <strong>in</strong>terview<strong>in</strong>g scholars at elite
<strong>in</strong>stitutions (Harley et al. 2010) found that most archaeologists were still very distrustful of electronic
publication, peer-reviewed or not.
This same report surveyed how digital technology was affect<strong>in</strong>g the nature of publish<strong>in</strong>g, tenure, and
scholarship <strong>in</strong> archaeology. Traditional publish<strong>in</strong>g of archaeological scholarship is typically done
through monographs and less frequently through journal articles, although <strong>in</strong> more technical fields
such as epigraphy or papyrology, journal articles are more likely to be the standard. The complicated
nature of archaeological data, with its extensive use of images and other multimedia, <strong>in</strong> addition to the
limitations of pr<strong>in</strong>t publish<strong>in</strong>g, however, have led many projects to create complex archaeological
websites or to pursue more sophisticated digital publish<strong>in</strong>g options. Two <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g examples are
Ostia: Harbour City of Ancient <strong>Rome</strong> 194 and the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project. 195
Despite this grow<strong>in</strong>g practice, the CSHE researchers documented a fairly strong resistance to the
consideration of digital publications for tenure dossiers; this was largely because of the lack of
precedent, a general uncerta<strong>in</strong>ty regard<strong>in</strong>g how to peer review electronic publications, and a belief that
such projects often failed to make scholarly arguments. A quote from one scholar reflects this general
view:
But I would say the test for me is not do you have computer wizards do<strong>in</strong>g classics—the
answer is yes—but <strong>in</strong>stead, are there works <strong>in</strong> classics that have come up, which are excellent
187 For a detailed overview of how digital technologies can be used <strong>in</strong> archaeology, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g data record<strong>in</strong>g, GIS, CAD model<strong>in</strong>g, the digitization of both
legacy and newly collected data, and digital preservation, see Eiteljorg and Limp (2008). An earlier article by Eiteljorg serves as a useful <strong>in</strong>troduction to
the topic of archaeological comput<strong>in</strong>g Eiteljorg (2004). An still earlier but also exhaustive survey of the use of comput<strong>in</strong>g applications <strong>in</strong> archaeology can
be found <strong>in</strong> Richards (1998).
188 http://www.leidenuniv.nl/caa/
189 http://www.vsmmsociety.org/site/
190 http://cipa.icomos.org/
191 http://<strong>in</strong>tarch.ac.uk/
192 http://www.fastionl<strong>in</strong>e.org/<strong>in</strong>dex.php
193 http://cshe.berkeley.edu/
194 http://www.ostia-antica.org/
195 http://classics.uc.edu/PRAP/