US-India Cooperative Research: Development of a Digital Artifact Archive: An American and Indian Collaboration for Pottery Visualization and Analysis

North Dakota State University Fargo, Fargo ND

Investigators

Abstract

0138493 Clark Description: This award supports US-India cooperative research entitled Development of a Digital Artifact Archive: An American and Indian Collaboration for Pottery Visualization and Analysis. Jeffrey Clark of Archaeology Technologies Laboratory (ATL) at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, North Dakota and Vinod Nautiyal of the Department of History and Archaeology at HNB Garhwal University in Srinagar will link their databases to create a digital archive of historic and prehistoric artifacts, with special emphasis on archaeological collections of Indian pottery. These databases will become part of an NDSU project, the Digital Archive Network for Anthropology (DANA), which is a federation of distributed, interoperable databases, each with specific content that is of value to archaeology, anthropology, and related fields. DANA will contain three-dimensional (3D) models of artifacts that are sufficiently precise to allow for detailed measurements and analyses. Scope: This research will make archival data and 3D renderings of physical objects through DANA available to researchers and eventually to other users via the internet using state-of-the-art technology for digital archiving and distributed networking. While the intention is to provide a unique and innovative set of products and services, the underlying technologies are understood on both sides and the collaboration will draw upon the strengths and experience of both partners. The immediate goal of the India collaboration is to demonstrate the viability of the DANA project internationally. In the long term, this effort is an important step toward enabling the conduct of research in a virtual environment. The Indian Department of Science and Technology(DST) is funding this research under the NSF/DST joint program.