Archaeological archives and legacy data contain critical information about ancient cultures, but it needs to be made accessible in order for the data to have an impact. This is the subject of a new publication by the project Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra's Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt's Digital Archives (funded by the ALIPH foundation):

Written by Assistant Professor Olympia Bobou, Postdoc Amy Miranda, and Centre Director Professor Rubina Raja, the article uses the Ingholt Archive as a case study for what is possible for the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage studies when data is made accessible. The Archive Archaeology project has made the Ingholt Archive and the excavation diaries available as open data (Bobou, Miranda, and Raja 2021; Raja and Steding 2021), meaning that they are freely available on the internet. Such access to 'raw' data allows for a wide-ranging audience to conduct research using material that would otherwise by restricted by such factors as geography or institutional permission.

With such conflicts and crises as the Syrian civil war and COVID-19 pandemic, making data accessible has become increasingly important. The digitization of the Ingholt Archive not only allowed research on Syrian heritage to continue when scholars were cut off from physical resources, but the dissemination of knowledge about Palmyra through the digital archive and excavation diaries can provide a foundation for much forthcoming research on the ancient city from anywhere in the world.

Ingholt's excavation diaries have already been published and the Ingholt Archive is forthcoming (Bobou, Miranda, Raja, and Yon forthcoming; Raja, Steding, and Yon 2021). These efforts to make the Ingholt material available in multiple formats strives to reach a wide audience and invigorate future research on Palmyra.

Full reference to the publication

Bobou, O., Miranda, A. C., & Raja, R. (2022). "Harald Ingholt's Twentieth-Century Archive of Palmyrene Sculptures: 'Unleashing' Archived Archaeological Material of Modern Conflict Zones", Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 1 February 2022, 10 (1): 74–101. DOI: 10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.10.1.0074

Further info

For more about the Archive Archaeology project, see https://projects.au.dk/archivearcheology/

For the Palmyra Portrait Project, see https://projects.au.dk/palmyraportrait/

Bibliography

• Bobou, O., Miranda, A. C. & Raja, R. (2021). "The Ingholt Archive. Data from the project, 'Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra's Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt's Digital Archives'", Journal of Open Archaeology Data 9 (6): 1–10. DOI: 10.5334/joad.78
• Bobou, O. Miranda, A., Raja, R. & Yon, J.-B. (Forthcoming). The Ingholt Archive: The Palmyrene Material, Archive Archaeology 2, 4 vols. Turnhout: Brepols.
• Raja, R., & Steding, J. (2021). "Harald Ingholt's Excavation Diaries from his Fieldwork in Palmyra: An Open Data Online Resource", Journal of Open Archaeology Data 9: 8. DOI: 10.5334/joad.84.
• Raja, R., Steding, J. & Yon, J.-B. (eds.) (2021). Excavating Palmyra. Harald Ingholt's Excavation Diaries: A Transcript, Translation, and Commentary, Studies in Palmyrene Archaeology and History 4, 2 vols. Turnhout: Brepols.