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In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on the curation and preservation of digital data produced by archaeological projects across the Mediterranean and the world. The model projects in this process have traditionally been large, wealthy, and able to leverage the considerable resources necessary to digitize substantial bodies of archaeological data and to develop pioneering methods to collect and analyze data with digital tools. These projects have often created elaborate, bespoke applications to collect, organize, and disseminate highly-visible, long-term digital archives. The standards established by these projects over the past 25 years have exerted significant influence over conversations regarding data formats, legacy terminologies, and ontologies in archaeology. The results of efforts by projects like the American excavations at the Agora-to name one well-known example–represents a significant example of how a large project can leverage their archival and archaeological material to produce an important digital collection. The Agora with its sister site at Corinth took advantage of the institutional support of the American School of Classical Studies under whose administrative structure both projects work. That such large projects can develop significant and substantial digital collections is hardly remarkable. The audience, resources, and institutional support will consistently produce results that are model for archaeologists working across the Mediterranean more broadly.

This paper is not about these large projects as impressive and important as they are. My paper today will focus on smaller projects. This is, in part, because …