Archaeological data that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (i.e. FAIR) enable all sorts of things that we can’t do with “hidden” or “siloed” data. As such, FAIR practices have clear impacts on archaeological data use and reuse. In our article (out now in Advances in Archaeological Practice and open access), we highlight some of these impacts and encourage archaeologists to consider how FAIR their data are (or can be). In addition to this article, we are collaborating on a longer-term effort to build and sustain FAIR practices in our discipline in conjunction with CARE practices (more on this below).

Here’s an example showing relevant content from several different data sources being pulled into a map visualization of archaeological sites in the Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) project in Open Context. We note that the site locations are obscured within a 20×20 km grid and DINAA never had the location of these sites or any sensitive information about them. Nevertheless, because DINAA does have the trinomial for each site, that unique identifying name can be used to link the site to related descriptive information from across the web—information that is sufficiently FAIR to make it discoverable and understandable.

In the example, the DINAA system is pulling in information from elsewhere on the Web that is related to 2,437 sites in DINAA. This information is coming from JSTOR, the Federal Register, and tDAR—systems where Smithsonian trinomials (unique identifiers assigned to many United States archaeological sites) are clearly shared.

Cross referencing different collections by linking common identifiers like this helps make data more FAIR. While we did the work of finding Smithsonian trinomials in JSTOR and the Federal Register, building these cross-references can be done more collaboratively. This kind of collaboration is evident in the case of tDAR: the DINAA links in Open Context feed into tDAR, and tDAR links back to the DINAA records in return!

Such collaboration helps make data stewardship a collective, community undertaking —from repositories to publishers—and can include all sorts of things like published reports, gray literature, images, and museum objects. This linked information provides rich context for archaeological sites or data sets or images—anything shared following FAIR practices. Making this content Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable supports clearer, more nuanced understandings of the past.

The more FAIR data out there, the more we can richly contextualize information about sites (or objects, people, etc.). And because the data are open, they can be incorporated into other systems and can be used, studied, and visualized in new ways. FAIR and open data is a necessary precondition to making data meaningful and useful to different communities. Of course, to realize these benefits, the skills and capacity to make use of open data with open source tools needs to be developed. That’s why making data literacy much more inclusive will help make FAIR more equitable across communities.

However, in order for FAIR to work toward greater equity, we must focus more attention on communities. Considering the CARE Principles in archaeological data management adds another layer of understanding—one that should occur even before FAIR considerations (see Gupta’s paper in the same issue as well as Nicholas & Gupta 2022). While FAIR is the more technical side of good data management, CARE adds the human element. Given that CARE is about the cultural and community integrity of data, it requires attention to relationships and trust building. That is, it’s not just about the free flow of data, but about descendant communities having the authority to shape the flow and uses of data that represent them. So knowing what data exists and where, is a step toward initiating these conversations toward ethical and equitable benefits for descendant communities. Given that archaeological data management is still in the early stages of FAIR development, now is the time to pair FAIR with CARE moving forward.

Nicholas, Ramona & Neha Gupta. 2022. Ethics, Community, and Data. Conservation Perspectives: Heritage Data Management (Fall 2022). The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter 37(2):16-18.

Sarah Kansa is Executive Director of the Alexandria Archive Institute and Open Context, where she collaborates on projects that advance data publishing and data literacy in various archaeological and cultural heritage communities.

Neha Gupta is assistant professor in anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, and leads the DARE lab which focuses on building capacity in digital and geospatial methods in heritage research from postcolonial and decolonial lenses.

Chris Nicholson is the Director of the Center for Digital Antiquity and tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record) in the School for Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research focuses on environmental archaeology, digital data preservation, and open access platforms.

Rachel Fernandez is the Program Manager for Digital Preservation at the Center for Digital Antiquity in the School for Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. Rachel is a digital preservation specialist with a background in Mediterranean archaeology.