Internet Archaeology (Sep 2005)
Issue 18: Editorial
Abstract
This issue of Internet Archaeology begins with a paper from Dawson and Levy at the University of Calgary in Canada. They combine archaeology and anthropology with 3 dimensional computer reconstructions to view semi-subterranean winter houses from the arctic during the 12th and 13th centuries. The archaeological tradition for the peoples behind these buildings is known as Thule. The Thule have used whale bone extensively in the construction of their houses. Dawson and Levy use reconstructions and ethnographic observation to suggest the ritual and symbolism of the Thule architecture. The rest of the edition is a special issue dedicated to the ARENA (Archaeological Records of Europe: Networked Access) project. ARENA was a three year project supported by the European Union through the Culture 2000 programme. It began in late 2000 and finished in December 2001 and was completed in November 2004. The object of the project was to promote preservation and access to digital data in European archaeology and to investigate and demonstrate the possibility of creating a European information infrastructure for archaeology. Three years of work has covered many areas of interest for the cultural heritage management community and archaeology as a discipline. The set of seven papers presented here can be read in their own right, each taking a separate and vital topic, or they can be seen as a collection. As a collection of papers, it highlights the many difficulties that face us as we seek to find pathways across national boundaries, but they also show us the routes that these pathways can take towards sharing archaeological data across Europe and beyond.
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