Paper short abstract:

The Transatlantic Archaeological Gateway Project is developing tools for the cross-searching of both US and UK digital archives (the ADS in the UK and tDAR in the US). We will discuss the opportunities the project will provide, and some of the epistemological implications it raises.

Paper long abstract:

On both sides of the Atlantic, the discipline of Archaeology has been a relative early adopter of ICT in teaching and research. Archaeologists routinely create vast quantities of primary digital data. As the only record of unrepeatable fieldwork it is essential that these data are preserved, for re-use and re-interpretation. In the UK the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has developed into a national repository for digital data from the UK historic environment sector, cross-cutting the academic and public and private sectors. In the USA, it has taken longer to establish a national archival infrastructure but in December 2008 the Digital Antiquity initiative and its digital repository, the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), was established at Arizona State University. The Transatlantic Archaeology Gateway (TAG) project aims to develop tools for transatlantic cross-searching and semantic interoperability between ADS and tDAR. This paper will explain how the project will be of use to researchers on both side of the Atlantic and explore some of the epistemological implications of opening these geographical discreet datasets to these powerful search mechanisms.