Arachne is the central object-database of the German Archaeological Institute (http://www.dainst.org/index_3455_de.html). In 2004 the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture at the University of Cologne (FA) joined their efforts in providing and further developing Arachne as a tool for free internet-based research.

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  • Arachne is the central object-database of the German Archaeological Institute (http://www.dainst.org/index_3455_de.html). In 2004 the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture at the University of Cologne (FA) joined their efforts in providing and further developing Arachne as a tool for free internet-based research. Arachnes database-design uses a world model that tries to build on one of the most basic assumptions one can make about archaeology, classical archaeology or art history: all activities in these areas can most generally be described as contextual objects. So Arachne tried to avoid the basic mistakes of earlier databases, who limited their object modelling to specific project-oriented aspects, thus creating separated containers of only a small number of objects. All objects inside Arachne share a general part of their object model, to which a more class-specific part is added that describes the specialised properties of a category of material like architecture or topography. Seen on the level of the general part, a powerful pool of material can be used for general information retrieval, whereas on the level of categories and properties, very specific structures can be displayed. Started in 1995 as a database for ancient sculpture on FileMaker, the development of Arachne since 2001 benefited from the newly established chair for Humanities Computing at Cologne university. Since then Arachne ist also a testbed for students engaged in complex and serious database-related development projects. Thanks to significant and ongoing support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft since 2001, Arachne started to integrate negative archives of ancient sculpture that went beyond the specialised documentation retained in Cologne itself: the Malter- and Fittschen Archives, and since 2003 the negatives of ancient sculpture of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. All that totaled in 40.000 high quality scans of ancient sculptures, that are presented with a state-of-the-art scientific documentation. Starting in 2006, the digitalization of historic glass plate negative collections will result in another 40.000 digital images, beginning with those of the German Archaeological Institutes in Athens, Cairo and Istanbul. Beside this larger projects lots of activities are going on on different levels, for example the online preparations for the »Corpus der Antiken Sarkophagreliefs«. In 2004 Arachne has been reworked from the bottom structurally as well as editorially. After that it has been rebuilt from scratch using an MAMP environment. Being strategically positioned as a central object-database for a large federal institution which possesses about 2 millions of images inside their photographic archives and produces even more data each year in the course of its research activities, Arachne's potential is not too modest. To meet it, there is still a long way to go. (en)
  • Arachne ist die zentrale Objektdatenbank des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (DAI) und des Forschungsarchivs für Antike Plastik des Archäologischen Instituts der Universität zu Köln, administriert von [http://www.archaeologie.uni-koeln.de/?q=node/86 Reinhard Foertsch]. Arachne soll als kostenloses Werkzeug der Internetrecherche für die Archäologie(n) und die Klassische Altertumswissenschaft Objekte und Zustände erschließen helfen und aus Hunderttausenden von Datensätzen schnell auffindbar machen. Dies gilt einerseits für den Bereich der seit langem bestehenden analogen Dokumentationsbestände, die teilweise zerfallsbedroht und weitestgehend unerschlossen sind: hier wird aktive digitale Erschließung betrieben. Es gilt aber andererseits auch für den Bereich der zunehmend überbordenden Neuproduktion digitaler Objekt- und Bilddaten: hier gilt eine niedrigstschwellig vorgehende Strukturierung, die auf der Ebene maschinenlesbarer Metadaten Strategien des Semantic Web verwendet. Alle digitalisierten, bildlichen und textuellen Objektinformationen werden auf einem mehrfach redundanten Tivoli Storage System langzeitgesichert und im Kölner Storage Area Network via AFS weltweit online gehalten. (de)
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  • Arachne is the central object-database of the German Archaeological Institute (http://www.dainst.org/index_3455_de.html). In 2004 the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture at the University of Cologne (FA) joined their efforts in providing and further developing Arachne as a tool for free internet-based research. (en)
  • Arachne ist die zentrale Objektdatenbank des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (DAI) und des Forschungsarchivs für Antike Plastik des Archäologischen Instituts der Universität zu Köln, administriert von [http://www.archaeologie.uni-koeln.de/?q=node/86 Reinhard Foertsch]. (de)
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  • Arachne (Archaeological Database) (en)
  • Arachne (Bilddatenbank) (de)
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