Learn more about the ZooArchNet mission and its interdisciplinary community of scholars and contributors!
Mission Statement
ZooArchNet is a project that aims to mobilize data about archaeological animal remains in a way that best supports open data and open science approaches for both biological and anthropological research. ZooArchNet publishes zooarchaeological specimen data records in formats that allows these records to be shared in open biodiversity networks. It also links these records, through shared site and specimen identifiers, to open archaeological repositories and data publishers. The end result is maximally usable data adhering to community standards, and with biodiversity and culture heritage information intact.
Why are we passionate about sharing archaeological animal data?
Zooarchaeological remains are a significant source of biodiversity and cultural data that are representative of the long history of human interaction with the environment in a context of changing climate. The combination of biological and cultural data over time are vital for reconstructing shifting baselines from the earliest periods of human occupation to fully understand how human-environment coupled systems work. By sharing data in standardized formats, we hope to catalyze the ability to answer broad-scale questions about human relationships with biota from the dawn of the Anthropocene.
Interested in publishing data?
We invite any institution with zooarchaeological collections to join our growing community of data publishers. To publish data to the ZooArchNet network you will need:
- Digitized zooarchaeological data.
- The desire to share your data with scientists, researchers, educators, and others around the world.
- A willingness to maintain and improve your data over time.
If you have all three, or if you have questions, please contact ZooArchNet’s support team and we’ll get you and your data started on the path to publication and discovery.
Interested in discovering data?
We invite anyone, and we mean anyone, to explore the zooarchaeological specimen data that ZooArchNet publishes. We encourage everyone to use our portal to explore the broader world of biodiversity data including archaeological data about animal-associated contexts, as well as from paleontological and neontological sources through our biodiversity collaborator network, VertNet. Our search functionality is still in development, but we welcome you to contact us to see how you can begin your data search immediately.
Who are we?
Originating at the Florida Museum, Gainesville, ZooArchNet is a collaborative community composed of archaeologists, biologists, and informatic specialists equally motivated to mobilize and disseminate zooarchaeological data sets across bio- and archaeoinformatic open access platforms. Collaborators include VertNet, Open Context (Alexandria Archive Institute), and additional partners from wide range of archaeological and biodiversity projects.
Learn more about the ZooArchNet Team!