A06_P01

Project Radiocarbon: big data and cross-border histories

Griffiths S¹, Bayliss A²,  Brown L³, Carlin N⁴, Evans T⁵

¹Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom, ²Historic England, London, UK, ³Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, ⁴University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, ⁵University of York, York, UK

The development of radiocarbon dating revolutionised the practice and philosophy of archaeology internationally by providing independent time reckoning. Radiocarbon is the global scientific dating technique because suitable samples and high-precision calibration curves are available internationally. It could provide the potential for a truly internationalised research agenda. As relative processing costs have fallen and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry has reduced required sample sizes, the number of radiocarbon measurements produced annually has increased hugely.

However, the boom in the production of measurements has led to a fundamental problem. Structures for conserving and accessing these data are not matched by data production. International research is impoverished by the lack of interoperability. There are no international datasets that are supported inter-jurisdictionally by national historic environment agencies, with periodic updates to keep them dynamic and scalable. As a result, millions of euros worth of data are being lost, becoming inaccurate, corrupted, or inaccessible, damaging our collective inheritance understanding the archaeological record.

Project Radiocarbon is designed to assemble and validate radiocarbon results along with detailed metadata from across six national jurisdictions on the islands of Ireland and Britain We will produce an open-access digital repository for radiocarbon results and their associated archaeological information making them interoperable, with a commitment to support a live, dynamic resource, which we believe represents a first in radiocarbon big data projects. The project will make a significant contribution to understanding our shared European heritage, and to the management of heritage assets and the historic environment.