Open Context

Open Context is an open source tool for publishing archaeological data.  It is not a repository but it is a place for sharing details about data gathered in archaeological research. According to their website, they use services provided by the California Digital Library. Materials deposited in Open Context are intended to be used by others and shared with the research community. It is possible to do searches for specific kinds of materials. There is very detailed metadata for each entry along with a bibliographic citation and persistent identifier.  This isn't free by the way. Their website says they will charge a researcher between $250 to $6000 depending on the size and complexity of the material contributed.

A search for the word "bones" might be obvious, and it does, indeed yield literally thousands of hits.  You can further refine your search by country/context, project name, category (such animal or human bone), date range, and type of media.  You can also choose particular descriptive properties, such as retrieval method, species, size, etc. I especially enjoyed "Lightbox' which is a collection of thousands of images from various projects and sites.

On the left is a skull from a search for human bones from 6,500 BCE - 5,500 BCE from Domuztepe, Turkey found in a death pit.  In the center is a wall relief from 1,100 BCE - 650 BCE, from a palace in Ninevah, Iraq.  And on the lower left is a coin showing the emperor receiving victory from Jupiter from 200 BCE - 360 CE collected from the Petra Great temple in Jordan. On the lower right is an image of a tomb from 25 CE - 250 CE, photographed in Direvli, Turkey.


I find the tools and site to be pretty comprehensive and if researchers enter all the detail possible, then Open Context is a rich resource of materials. For researchers who consider this as a possible site it would be important to be sure to fully understand what CDL does or does not do in terms of preservation. Assistance is provided for estimating costs to deposit for grant applications. The site provides details on what kinds of file types are accepted and all entries are first peer-reviewed before they are published to the site.