Preserving the past for the future generations of Australians
The
challenge
To date there is no formal management process to make these data
available in a ‘grid environment’ for wider access. For archaeology to
benefit from the advances made in high performance computing, it is
critical to facilitate and automate many basic data management
processes. ‘Data grids’ can provide these functions by establishing and
developing infrastructure and tools needed to facilitate discovery and
analysis. They also address the problem of long-term preservation of
data by providing persistent archives.
The project
The central goal of this project is the development and
implementation of an Australian archaeological digital collection
platform based on existing High Performance Computing techniques and
infrastructure.
The digital collection will facilitate the dissemination and
interchange of archaeological data both across disciplines and
institutions and across the public and private sectors; enhance the
ability of archaeological research to reach its full potential; and
contribute to discourses about Australian cultural heritage and
identity.
Our case study is the Mill Point Archaeological Project in
Southeast Queensland as the model for future digital
collections.
This initiative builds on existing developments made overseas and
through strategic collaborations between UQ and ANU and the San Diego
Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego.
The
challenge