Content:
Contemporary hillfort research uses a large amount of multidisciplinary data from various sources, including archival information, records of archaeological excavations, remote sensing, palaeoenvironmental studies, etc. The management and integration of this diverse data require a flexible tool that is also suitable for analysis. Varying degrees of data accuracy as well as the frequent use of subjective and interpretative cultural and chronological attributions in archaeological contexts increase the challenges for such a data management system.
In our presentation, we present a web-based and GIS-supported database for multiple users that contains cultural and typological interpretations and relative chronological sequences as well as absolute dates and geodata. It is our solution for an international cross-disciplinary system for the integration of data extracted from hillforts. It is based on the use of a graph database (Neo4j) that allows us to store, analyse and manage complex relationships between archaeological features, their context, and interpretations in an intuitive but sophisticated way. The graph structure of our database corresponds ideally to the complicated structure of archaeological records. It allows different assemblages (sites, occupation layers, artefacts, archaeological cultures, etc.) to be treated separately, taking into account data with different levels of accuracy. Newer data enhance the older ones instead of replacing them. The functionality of our multi-user system includes data mapping, visualization, selection, and processing of archaeological data and their relationships; furthermore, the analysis tools offer a clustering according to the attributes of the registered objects as well as the calculation of chronology curves based on the summed probability distribution of the 14C data.
Our database is being tested on hillforts along the Daugava River in Latvia that are currently being studied in an international research project („Interdisciplinary Hillfort Studies at the Daugava River: Merging and Decoding Archaeological, Environmental and Linguistic Data“ - INHILLDAUGAR).