Digital archaeological data management in Türkiye

Experts and researchers from different disciplines and different institutions and organisations, such as libraries, museums and archives, work to protect and transfer the cultural heritage to future generations. In parallel with the developments in the information and communication technologies, protecting cultural heritage is not only physically but also digitally has become an important for national and international policy makers. This issue is also emphasized by UNESCO. In the digital era, archaeological investigations also changed and digital archaeology brought new techniques and methods. Archaeological research now produces more and diverse data and transforms it into information, resulting in the formation of large amount of data in different formats for different stakeholders. Thus, it becomes a necessity to manage the results of archaeological research data, together with researchers in such a way to ensure that the data is open access and findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). Researchers need to do research data Management from the beginning to the end of the research in order to manage their data, store, protect and made openly accessible and apply FAIR principles. This dissertation presents case studies and examples chosen among the archaeological digital data archives, and studies and projects carried out internationally in the field of archaeological data management. In order to assess the current context of information and records management in archaeological research data in Turkey, the dissertation examines the literature, legislation, projects and the current websites of the excavations carried out by Ankara University, Archeology Department, and existing digital data archives. This dissertation demonstrates that various studies and projects are carried out in the world to manage digital archaeological data. Different institutions and organizations and many stakeholders are involved archaeological research in Türkiye and, as a result, various databases and websites are created. The dissertation provides a set of recommendations, including the need to establish policies for the management of digital archaeological data. For the management of digital archaeological data in Türkiye, suggestions have been made to create a policy and model. In order to apply the international standard for data management actors needs to work together and make collaboration. Recommendations suggested for standards for data management, creating ontology and controlled dictionaries, using permanent identifiers, using a common data sharing platform, updating university open archive infrastructures for archaeological data, working in the field of copyright and digital rights management, investing in human resources and providing financial resources, recommendations have been made.