Grabungsgeschichte(n) digital: Ein neues Format zur Erschließung, Publikation und Git-basierter Bearbeitung von Archivdokumenten

Abstract

In spring 2024, the publication of the digital images and transcription of the Olympia excavations’ diaries from the 1875/1876 and 1876/1877 campaigns, which are held in the Central Archive of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, laid the foundation for a series of publications documenting the early excavations at Olympia. The original diaries were created primarily as internal documents which arose within the context of archaeological research and not as result of an explicit editorial project aimed at a broader audience; this publication represents a pragmatic way to make this type of archaeological data available to a wider community. The article describes the approach and objectives, since some aspects could be of interest to other comparable projects. This collaborative strategy for organizing collaborative work on archival materials, and in particular the enrichment with metadata using Git-based workflows more commonly used in software development, represents an experimental approach in the field of archeology.