Managing Data from Maritime Archaeology Investigations: AIR at Gribshunden

Abstract

Maritime archaeology excavations, even in a more complex environment, have the same objectives and requirements as terrestrial ones: documenting digging operations to analyze data in the best way, interpreting it, and producing new knowledge for the benefit of multiple communities. 3D documentation and management methodologies have spread widely among practitioners; however, 3D comprehensive tools for scholarly publications still require development. This article contributes to the discussion on archaeological data management and its need to encompass every aspect of the archaeological practice (Kansa & Kansa 2021). It presents the evolution of the documentation and data management strategies employed within the multidisciplinary project at the shipwreck site of Gribshunden (Rönnby 2021), profoundly conditioned by the project’s goals to optimize collection and analysis of its multidisciplinary nature. The use of the Archaeological Interactive Report (AIR) represents the most suitable solution for achieving such goals, as it addresses the issue of scattered data and allows for maintaining the connection between archaeological datasets and their interpretation and publication, which is crucial for performing archaeological Digital Data Curation (Dallas 2015a).