RADIOCARBON, BIG DATA AND INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE

Abstract

Radiocarbon data are the most commonly used chronometric measurement technique in archaeology. The introduction of the radiocarbon method offered new potential for independent, internationalized research projects. Today millions of radiocarbon measurements exist globally. However, the many strengths of radiocarbon for research in archaeology have also created an internationally significant challenge in heritage practice. How can we attempt to curate huge volumes of radiocarbon “legacy” data in systematic ways that facilitate interdisciplinary, international research? How can we contend with a dataset that is rapidly scalable, and needs to be kept live—updated, validated, curated, and related to existing national archives and data systems—beyond the timescale of any individual project? In this paper we introduce an international project, “Project Radiocarbon; Big Data, integrated cross-national heritage histories”, working across the historic environment sector in Ireland and the United Kingdom, that is developing a solution to these issues. We argue that we need to think critically about how we classify and curate radiocarbon data, to render them interoperable and findable. Such work requires inter-sector approaches to ensure sustainability and scalability, and to anticipate the increasing value of these data into the future.