ARENA Project: a Multilingual Portal for Archaeology

1
ARENA Project a Multilingual Portal for
Archaeology

• Irina Oberländer-Târnoveanu
• CIMEC Institute for Cultural Memory

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Greetings

• Good afternoon (EN)
• Bon giorno (IT)
• Bonjour (FR)
• Buna ziua (RO)
• From a simple greeting we can notice
• What languages belong to the same family
  (Italian, French and Romanian as Romance)
• Some languages use diacritical characters which
  indicate the pronunciation and may change the
  meaning (see a)
• Buna good but Buna also granny

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Why does language matter?

• Language is related to identity, culture, and
  memory.
• Loss of language could mean loss of valuable
  culture and irreplaceable knowledge.
• Therefore diversity of languages is a value in
  itself, similar to biodiversity. It should be
  protected like endangered species.

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Cultural heritage is especially sensitive to
language issues because

• Terminology is less standardised
• Terms may have different meanings from one
  language to another
• Names of historical periods cover different
  chronological limits (starting and ending dates),
  depending on geographical area
• Terms from one language may have no equivalence
  in another
• Professional vocabulary is often not included in
  general language dictionaries.

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One or many languages?

• The diversity of languages is a strong reality.
  We cannot speak all the same language.
• Languages are vivid organisms that always
  survive, transform themselves, assimilate and
  transmit.
• We think, write and read in our native languages,
  for a specific language community.
• English the modern lingua franca.

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Why English?

• 'A language does not become a global language
  because of its intrinsic structural properties,
  or because of the size of its vocabulary, or
  because it has been of a great literature in the
  past, or because it was once associated with a
  great culture or religion A language becomes an
  international language for one chief reason the
  political power of its people - especially their
  military power. The explanation is the same
  throughout history. (Crystal 1997)

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One or many languages?

• In humanities, most of the scientific information
  is still written in national languages (including
  databases and other large cultural heritage
  resources).
• There is no easy way to improve access and
  communication among languages.

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Getting access to knowledge

• By learning others' languages
• By translating from one language to another
• By using a common international language
• Scientific vocabulary easier to understand

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Clues for content

• Scientific text is accompanied by many
  representations non-linguistic in character
  maps, plans, charts, diagrams, drawings and
  photographs.
• Therefore, it is easier understood by specialists
  in a field than any literary text in the same
  languages.

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Small languages and translation

• Small languages remain isolated from the great
  fluxes of scientific literature. Few people in
  the world would understand Norwegian, Polish or
  Romanian.
• The only scientific information cited abroad is
  that available in largely spread languages.

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The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights,
Barcelona, 1996

• the right to be recognized as a member of a
  language community
• the right to the use of one's own language both
  in private and in public
• the right to the use of one's own name
• the right to interrelate and associate with other
  members of one's language community of origin
• the right to maintain and develop one's own
  culture.

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Languages on the WebSource Global Internet
Statistics (http//global-reach.biz/globstats/inde
x.php3)

• 50.4 of Web users speak a native language other
  than English
• 43 of Web users do not speak English at all
• only 35.8 from the almost 80 a couple of years
  ago.

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ARENA - Archaeological Records of Europe
Networked Access

• European Project (2001 - 2004)
• Culture 2000 Programme (ref. no. 430 CLT2001)
• Extending online access and digital preservation
  of European archaeological archives
• Website http//ads.ahds.ac.uk/arena/

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ARENA - Participants

• United Kingdom - Archaeology Data Service (ADS),
  York University project coordinator
• Denmark - National Agency for Cultural Heritage,
  Copenhagen
• Iceland - The Institute of Archaeology
  Fornleifastofnun lslands - FSÍ, Reykjavík

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ARENA - Participants

• Norway - Museum Documentation Project,
  University of Oslo
• Poland - Poznan Archaeological Museum
• Romania - cIMeC - Institute for Cultural Memory,
  Bucharest

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Main results on-line

• ARENA Portal for Archaeological Archives
• ARENA Portal for Sites and Monuments Records

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Multilingual access interface why and how

• To allow the first contact in the language most
  familiar to potential visitors of the site
• to facilitate access, translation and reading of
  archaeological information in the languages of
  the participating countries
• To provide the basic information and search terms
  (periods, site categories, location) in several
  languages.

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ARENA Multilingual Approach

• User interface, introduction and search index in
  six languages (Danish, English, Icelandic,
  Polish, Norwegian and Romanian)
• Content in the language of each country (for the
  records of sites and monuments and the
  archaeological archives made available on-line by
  the partner organisations).

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Six flags for Six Languages the ARENA Portal
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Is the language option just a courtesy for our
public?

• A tool to facilitate access to multilingual
  archaeological information
• Not just a simple translation from the English
  version in five other languages we had to
• Understand each other
• Index our digital records using common terms
• Find the right equivalencies for archaeological
  realities described in several languages
• Explain the concepts behind the words.

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Search for sites and monuments

• You can choose to search for sites within a
  certain period range.
• Choose a type of monument/site from a list of
  archaeological themes.
• Using a map of Europe choose the area you would
  like to search.

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Search by period
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Search by category
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Definition of category
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Search where on the map of Europe
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Search where in the selected country by zooming
in
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Selection criteria defined
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Selection criteria (in Polish)
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Search result
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List of sites
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Full record
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ARENA Archives Portal
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Search for archives
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ARENA - List of Archives

• Dankirke, Denmark
• Hjelm, Denmark
• Vorbasse, Denmark
• Hofstaðir, Iceland
• Egge, Norway
• The Archaeological Repertory of Romania Archive
  Digitisation Project
• The Chronicle of the Archaeological Researches in
  Romania (1983 - 2002)
• Cottam, United Kingdom.
• Danebury, Hampshire, United Kingdom
• Ager Tarraconensis, Spain
• Kowalewko, Poland
• Biskupin archaeological reserve, Poland

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Danish excavation archive Dankirke (in Danish,
with English summary)
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Romanian archives (in Romanian or English)
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Romanian archives drawings from 1876 by
Butculescu
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Romanian archives images of archaeological sites
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Romanian archives Axiopolis Roman City by 1900
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Polish archives Kowalewko cemetery 1st - 3rd
centuries A.D.
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Polish archives Biskupin Late Bronze Age
settlement
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British archives Cottam an Anglian and
Anglo-Scandinavian Settlement in East Yorkshire
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British archives Ager Tarraconensis (Spain)
Field Survey
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British archives The Danebury Excavations
Digital Archive
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Norwegian archives two farms, Egge and Hegge
46
Icelandic archives Viking pagan temple at
Hofstaðir, in NE Iceland
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Icelandic archives Hofstaðir in Mývatn, NE
Iceland
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Multilingual approach limited to

• multilingual main search screens
• a short list of general sites and monuments
  categories, accompanied by short definitions
• a restricted list of historical periods and
• short introductions to archaeological archives.

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Work behind the scene

• Each of the six partners had to assign hundreds
  of sites types in the national records to common
  categories.
• A chart of historical periods, showing
  chronological covering in each country and area,
  was designed.
• Translations from original version to other
  languages using Excel spreadsheets and
• Lots of e-mails and discussions.

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Benefits for the users

• This analytical process 'behind the scene' is to
  the benefit of the users their time and effort
  to put together records in many languages and
  establish the equivalencies in each case will be
  spared in part.
• Access in a familiar language favours longer
  visits, deeper understanding, and more
  satisfactory results.

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Conclusions

• Terminological tools for cultural heritage
  communication need large scale co-operation
  projects.
• They cannot be only by-products of other
  projects.
• Until this area will not enjoy proper attention
  we cannot expect significant progress.

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Multilngualism in a broader sense

• Multilingual access is effective if users get
  more than a thin multilingual surface.
• Money should go to translating content, mapping
  controlled vocabularies, explaining concepts and
  regional terminology
• Cultural heritage presented on-line in
  minorities' languages and for people with
  disabilities too.

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Conclusions

• The linguistic aspect of access to cultural
  heritage resources is just the surface of a much
  deeper phenomenon cultural and scientific
  interest for other regions. Are we really wishing
  to share knowledge?
• Multilingualism should be promoted not only in
  official statements and international conventions
  but also at the level of each cultural heritage
  organisation and educational body.

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Conclusions

• The web is a good medium to disseminate
  multilingual information in digital format.
• But language is not enough understanding depends
  on common theoretical approaches in
  interpretation, on common standards and
  procedures in research and documentation.

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Conclusions

• Multilingual multicultural multidisciplinary
  the first addresses to understanding, the second
  to cultural specificity, and the third to other
  fields of knowledge.
• They all mean open-mindness, tolerance, curiosity
  and respect, key factors to progress and a
  healthy social environment.

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Conclusions

• Globalisation and Information Society seem to
  push us in different directions either accepting
  English as a 'lingua franca' or preserving
  cultural and linguistic diversity. However, these
  do not need to be in opposition to one another.
• As difficult to reconcile as they seem, these
  trends are complementary. We must openly discuss
  and identify the needed actions.