Adopt, Adapt, and Share! FAIR Archeological Data for Studying Roman Rural Landscapes in Northern 'Noricum'

Abstract

This paper offers a detailed overview of the archeological data from the “Roman Rural Landscapes in Noricum” (RRLN) project. It focuses on the less-explored northern and northeastern rural regions of Roman-period Noricum (c. 16/15 BC to 488 AD). The University of Vienna’s PHAIDRA system was employed for the long-term archiving of selected new archeological data, adhering to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. The project adopted an innovative digital archeology approach, combining open geodata with various unstructured datasets within a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Accordingly, this method aimed to deepen our understanding of Roman rural landscapes in a specific Area of Interest (AoI). The paper highlights the selective preservation of crucial archeological data in a specialized repository and also promotes open science to improve the discoverability and usability of data related to Roman-period objects.

Keywords

• findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (fair) principles
• roman noricum
• rural landscapes
• open archeological data
• long-term data archiving
• geographic information system (gis)