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.

中文翻译：

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放射性碳、大数据和国际遗产


放射性碳数据是考古学中最常用的计时测量技术。放射性碳方法的引入为独立的国际化研究项目提供了新的潜力。如今，全球存在数百万次放射性碳测量。然而，放射性碳在考古学研究中的诸多优势也给遗产实践带来了国际性的重大挑战。我们如何尝试以系统的方式整理大量的放射性碳“遗留”数据，以促进跨学科的国际研究？我们如何应对可快速扩展、需要保持实时更新、验证、管理并与现有国家档案和数据系统相关的数据集，超出任何单个项目的时间范围？在本文中，我们介绍了一个国际项目“Project Radiocarbon；大数据，综合跨国遗产历史”，在爱尔兰和英国的历史环境部门开展工作，正在为这些问题制定解决方案。我们认为，我们需要批判性地思考如何对放射性碳数据进行分类和管理，以使它们具有互操作性和可查找性。此类工作需要跨部门方法来确保可持续性和可扩展性，并预测这些数据未来的价值不断增加。