Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database

Title

eng Big Interdisciplinary Archaeological Database

Alternative Title

BIAD

Description

en BIAD is an constantly growing decentralized archaeological database. Its geographic scope is currently predominantly Europe, however it continues to expand beyond this, and will become global. BIAD is a relational MySQL database, and this wiki provides all documentation for its use and ongoing development. From the outset BIAD was conceived of as a relational database rather than a data repository. This means that, wherever possible, the different types of information contained within BIAD (e.g. published radiocarbon dates, mortuary data, isotopic data, faunal data, botanical data and material cultural data) are interlinked, allowing cross-referencing and deeper levels of data analysis. Since work on BIAD began in 2021, the COREX team and its collaborators have been very focused on building the database and linking the data contained within it. This is being done using SQL. Currently, BIAD can be accessed to input or retrieve data using command line queries, or any of a number of SQL graphical user interface clients (e.g. Sequel Pro). However, one of the end goals of BIAD is to create a web interface through which even non-experts can contribute and query with the ever-growing and ever more interconnected amounts of data that BIAD contains.

Date

2021 – 2025

Status

Ongoing

Subject

eng SH6_5 Archaeological science, bioarchaeology, environmental archaeology, geoarchaeology

eng SH6_7 Historiography, theory and methods of history, including the analysis of digital data

Homepage

https://biadwiki.org

Creator

Department of Historical Studies