Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Online dissemination of 3D bioarchaeological data: an exploration of ethics, user preferences, and contextualisation in an official digital archive setting
Solange Bohling (Archaeology Data Service): solange.bohling@york.ac.uk
The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is a UK-based, CoreTrustSeal accredited digital repository for archaeological and historic environmental data. As digital recording technologies such as photogrammetry become more frequently used in archaeological excavations, the ADS increasingly receives archives that include large volumes of digital bioarchaeological data (e.g., 3D models of in situ burials). This presentation summarises an MSc project which explored how potential ADS users prefer to be presented with this type of data and investigated how these preferences can inform the ADS’s protocol for the dissemination of digital bioarchaeological data.
A Qualtrics survey was designed and shared online with relevant audiences (344 participants included). A majority of respondents thought that 1) a content advisory should appear prior to viewing human remains (66.0%), 2) contextual information should accompany 3D models of human remains (94.2%), 3) archive-specific ethics statements should be included (50.9%), and 4) users should be reminded to reuse digital bioarchaeological data with respect before downloading 3D models (65.1%).
The survey results informed the development of a series of suggestions for how the ADS might proceed with regards to providing content advisories, prioritising contextualisation of individuals, addressing ethical considerations specific to an excavation/project, and including a reminder requesting users to consider the human behind the data.
Since completion of the MSc project, the ADS has prioritised contextualisation of excavated individuals in three large-scale HS2 cemetery archives. This has focused on linking 3D models of in situ inhumations with associated excavation photographs, context sheets, burial location, and post-excavation analysis, and dissemination through an interactive digital map. The suggestions formed as part of this MSc project and the contextualisation process adopted by the ADS can encourage other digital repositories to consider how they can disseminate digital bioarchaeological data in an ethical and respectful manner.
Online dissemination of 3D bioarchaeological data: an exploration of ethics, user preferences, and contextualisation in an official digital archive setting
Solange Bohling (Archaeology Data Service): solange.bohling@york.ac.uk
The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is a UK-based, CoreTrustSeal accredited digital repository for archaeological and historic environmental data. As digital recording technologies such as photogrammetry become more frequently used in archaeological excavations, the ADS increasingly receives archives that include large volumes of digital bioarchaeological data (e.g., 3D models of in situ burials). This presentation summarises an MSc project which explored how potential ADS users prefer to be presented with this type of data and investigated how these preferences can inform the ADS’s protocol for the dissemination of digital bioarchaeological data.
A Qualtrics survey was designed and shared online with relevant audiences (344 participants included). A majority of respondents thought that 1) a content advisory should appear prior to viewing human remains (66.0%), 2) contextual information should accompany 3D models of human remains (94.2%), 3) archive-specific ethics statements should be included (50.9%), and 4) users should be reminded to reuse digital bioarchaeological data with respect before downloading 3D models (65.1%).
The survey results informed the development of a series of suggestions for how the ADS might proceed with regards to providing content advisories, prioritising contextualisation of individuals, addressing ethical considerations specific to an excavation/project, and including a reminder requesting users to consider the human behind the data.
Since completion of the MSc project, the ADS has prioritised contextualisation of excavated individuals in three large-scale HS2 cemetery archives. This has focused on linking 3D models of in situ inhumations with associated excavation photographs, context sheets, burial location, and post-excavation analysis, and dissemination through an interactive digital map. The suggestions formed as part of this MSc project and the contextualisation process adopted by the ADS can encourage other digital repositories to consider how they can disseminate digital bioarchaeological data in an ethical and respectful manner.
