This month, the Archaeology Data Service had the privilege of hosting a delegation from the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. This visit marks an important moment in an ongoing collaboration between our organisations, one that began with Nara Researcher Yuichi Takata’s first visit to the ADS in 2017.
During that initial meeting, the Nara Research Institute team was inspired by the ADS model of publishing grey literature online via the ADS Library, which prompted them to do the same. Their efforts led to a policy shift within Japan’s National Heritage Agency, which collaborates with the Nara Institute, that allowed for a more open and collaborative approach to archaeological data.
In a paper published in 2019, the Nara Research Institute reflected on this shift, acknowledging that their database was originally “entirely a domestic project built to satisfy the needs of Japanese researchers and excavators”. However, they noted how their perspectives and goals evolved after meeting with ADS Director, Julian Richards.
Ensuring their grey literature was publicly available online, resulted in over 1.4 million downloads, with the majority of the users being members of the general public. This has had a profound impact, and as a direct result of this success, more than 1,400 Japanese municipalities now require contractors to make their archaeological reports available online via their database Nabunken, ensuring that this resource continues to be accessible.
Following this change, in 2019 the Nara Research Institute also became a member of the ARIADNE Research Infrastructure. Through this collaboration, Japanese archaeological reports are now accessible through the ARIADNE portal. The Nara Institute has also translated the ADS Guides to Good Practice (G2GP) to establish clear data standards for contractors in Japan, helping them meet the growing demand for accessible archaeological data.
The latest visit by the Nara delegation was an opportunity to refresh our ongoing collaboration. During their time with us, the discussions focused on several key areas within digital archaeology. These included: exploring the electronic publication of fieldwork data; the evolving data requirements for large infrastructure projects; using an API-based approach to supply data to ARIADNE; and a discussion of the latest developments in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within archaeology.
