A citizen science approach to archaeology

Abstract

In this paper, we present an ongoing project called Finnish Archaeological Finds Recording Linked Open Database (Suomen arkeologisten löytöjen linkitetty avoin tietokanta – SuALT), including the reasons why this citizen science project is underway. SuALT will be a digital web service catering for discoveries of archaeological material made by the public; especially, but not exclusively, metal-detectorists. SuALT engages the citizens by providing them access to contextualized data about other related finds by linking data from different data sources in Finland and beyond. SuALT is a collaborative consortium project. The project team members work in three sub-projects, each led by a different organization and thus represents a broad interdisciplinary group, that combines specialisms from archaeology, semantic computing, cultural heritage studies, and archaeological heritage management. Subproject 1, which is based at the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki, focuses on user needs research and onthe public Cultural Heritage interactions. Subproject 2, based in both Aalto University and in Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki, is specializing on the technology and implementation of the SuALT prototype. Subproject 3 works with ensuring the sustainability of SuALT at the Finnish Heritage Agency, the organization that will manage the database after the end of this project in 2021.