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There are large numbers of published (and unpublished) archaeological sites and monuments in South Asia, but much of the available documentation is not available in a digital format, and paper publication remains the default. Information about archaeological heritage varies in detail, and there is considerable variation in how archaeological sites are documented. This paper explores the work and challenges of the Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia (MAHSA) project in digitising, modelling, re-interpreting, linking, and re-using non-digital archaeological data into a structured and standardised digital format using a common and unique controlled vocabulary, so that it may become findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable data. Working with partners in South Asia, the MAHSA project is compiling existing and published data (from published documents, reports, and surveys) to be published in an Open Access database (Arches platform), which can be used for research and preservation. New and previously undocumented sites identified through the analysis of historic maps, remote sensing, automated site detection methods, and field documentation will also follow the same data standards and recording methodology. Retaining context while delivering ‘cleaned’ usable data is a key challenge to this type of data modelling, and the meanings of the original source and context are inevitably subject to re-interpretation during this process. The project is working collaboratively between South Asian and international stakeholders, each bringing their own expectations of data use, management, and accessibility, in addition to navigating the post-colonial space in which the project operates. To ensure usability, different use cases scenarios have been identified and are being developed with collaborators and database end-users. We argue that through linking archaeological data to their original sources and following best practices in modelling techniques, we can remain faithful to the original context while incorporating any change and enhancements where data needs to be verified and updated.

Funder: The University of Pennsylvania Museum, Funder: The Isaac Newton Trust Small Grant Fund, Funder: Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme (CHRGS), The University of Cambridge, During the third millennium BC, Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in modern Iraq-Syria), was dominated by the world's earliest cities and states, which were ruled by powerful elites. Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, was one of the largest and most important of these cities, and irrigation-based agriculture and large herds of domesticated animals were the twin mainstays of the economy and diet. Texts suggest that the societies of the Mesopotamian city-states were extremely hierarchical and underpinned by institutionalised and heavily-managed farming systems. Prevailing narratives suggest that the animal management strategies within these farming systems in the third millennium BC were homogenous. There have been few systematic science-based studies of human and animal diets, mobility, or other forms of human-animal interaction in Mesopotamia, but such approaches can inform understanding of past economies, including animal management, social hierarchies, diet and migration. Oxygen, carbon and strontium isotopic analysis of animal tooth enamel from both royal and private/non-royal burial contexts at Early Dynastic Ur (2900-2350 BC) indicate that a variety of herd management strategies and habitats were exploited. These data also suggest that there is no correlation between animal-management practices and the cattle found in royal or private/non-royal burial contexts. The results demonstrate considerable divergence between agro-pastoral models promoted by the state and the realities of day-to-day management practices. The data from Ur suggest that the animals exploited different plant and water sources, and that animals reared in similar ways ended up in different depositional contexts.

“Map overestimation,” or “the contemporaneity problem,” derives from the assumption that settlements identified during surface surveys were occupied throughout individual periods. Inductive and simulation analysis have been used to ascertain the degree of contemporaneity in surface survey data sets, as variation in settlement location is critical for understanding population density and demography, which inform social, economic and political interpretations. This paper revisits the inductive approach to interrogating survey data developed by W. M. Sumner and the simulation model approach developed by R. E. Dewar to explore the survey data from two regions within South Asia’s Indus civilization. This analysis demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. It also highlights the variability in settlement systems in different areas within the Indus civilization and shows that consideration of stability and instability within settlement systems is an important factor when considering dynamics of resilience and sustainability.

The role of seasonality is indisputable in climate and ecosystem dynamics. Seasonal temperature and precipitation variability are of vital importance for the availability of food, water, shelter, migration routes, and raw materials. Thus, understanding past climatic and environmental changes at seasonal scale is equally important for unearthing the history and for predicting the future of human societies under global warming scenarios. Alas, in palaeoenvironmental research, the term �seasonality change� is often used liberally without scrutiny or explanation as to which seasonal parameter has changed and how. Here we provide fundamentals of climate seasonality and break it down into external (insolation changes) and internal (atmospheric CO2 concentration) forcing, and regional and local and modulating factors (continentality, altitude, large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns). Further, we present a brief overview of the archives with potentially annual/seasonal resolution (historical and instrumental records, marine invertebrate growth increments, stalagmites, tree rings, lake sediments, permafrost, cave ice, and ice cores) and discuss archive-specific challenges and opportunities, and how these limit or foster the use of specific archives in archaeological research. Next, we address the need for adequate data-quality checks, involving both archive-specific nature (e.g., limited sampling resolution or seasonal sampling bias) and analytical uncertainties. To this end, we present a broad spectrum of carefully selected statistical methods which can be applied to analyze annually- and seasonally-resolved time series. We close the manuscript by proposing a framework for transparent communication of seasonality-related research across different communities.

International audience

Forschungen zur Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen, Band 1, Der erste Band der Reihe "Forschungen zur Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen". Die Siebzehnte Internationale Konferenz für Südasiatische Archäologie fand vom 7. bis 11. Juli 2003 in Bonn statt. Die Konferenz wurde gemeinsam von der Kommission für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen (vormals Kommission für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Archäologie) und der Eurasien-Abteilung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts ausgerichtet und organisiert. Fast 200 Wissenschaftler und Studenten aus Asien, Europa, Amerika und Australien nahmen an der Konferenz teil. Mehr als 100 Vorträge wurden gehalten, und die Forscher, die nicht in das Vortragsprogramm aufgenommen werden konnten, präsentierten Poster-Sessions.Vortragsprogramm aufgenommen werden konnten. Schließlich fanden 66 Beiträge zur südasiatischen Archäologie ihren Weg in den Tagungsband - mit Themen, die von oberpaläolithischer Felskunst in Belutschistan bis zum Leben und der Zeit von Sir Mortimer Wheeler im Indien der späten 40er Jahre reichen., The first Volume of the series "Forschungen zur Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen". The Seventeenth International Conference on South Asian Archaeology was held in Bonn from 7th–11th July 2003. The conference was jointly hosted and organized by the Kommission für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen (previously the Kommission für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Archäologie) and the Eurasien-Abteilung of the German Archaeological Institute. Nearly 200 scholars and students from Asia, Europe, America, and Australia participated in the conference. More than 100 lectures were given and poster-sessions were presented by those researchers, who could not be incorporated into thelecture programme. Finally 66 papers on South Asian Archaeology found their way into the proceedings – covering topics from Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art in Balochistan to life and times of Sir Mortimer Wheeler in India in the Late 40s.