Monika Linder

Networking Archaeological Knowledge: Projects of the German Archaeological Institute

The German Archaeological Institute consists of eleven branch offices, within Germany and abroad. Head office is in Berlin. In its early years the Institute's focus was on the Mediterranean and Middle East. Today, the Institute's pursues worldwide its mission to conduct basic research on historic cultures.
All divisions of the Institute possess objects from the material categories common to the fields of archaeology: modern and historic documentation of excavations, collections compiled by researchers of antiquities, materials relating to the history of the institution, photographic collections, historic and present-day bibliographic materials and, last but not least, more than a few original objects. Our objective is two-fold: to create an institutional architecture that serves as a central instrument for the scientists and offers an uniform approach to diverse categories of material.
To this end, an object-oriented environment will pool and verify data from the Institute. It will also link to other portals from co-operating institutions. In this presentation existing and planned structures will be introduced, from virtual catalogues to the possibilities of reference over by the Semantic Network (CIDOC-CRM).