Digital Archive Network for Anthropology and World Heritage (DANA-WH)
Archaeology Technologies Laboratory
North Dakota State University
Minard Hall 402
PO Box 5075
Fargo
North Dakota
USA
58105
24/7
DANA-WH is a distributed database network, comprised of multiple constituent data sets controlled by separate Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs) running on independent computer systems, housed at different institutions, and connected to the network. It is designed to function as a federation of distributed, interoperable databases, each with specific content of value to the study and preservation of human cultural and biological heritage.
DANA-WH contains an array of textual, metric, and visual information about human heritage objects. In addition to textual descriptions and metric and non-metric attribute information about each object, the system displays two-dimensional (2D) images of artifacts and fossils, as well as accurate, three-dimensional (3D) models of the artifacts. The 3D models are digital surrogates of actual specimens that can be manipulated and viewed from all angles, and are sufficiently precise to allow for a wide range of detailed measurements and analyses.
Content for DANA-WH comes from the academic discipline of anthropology (archaeology, biological anthropology, ethnography, and linguistics) along with the fields of biology, classical studies, history, art history, geology, geography, architecture, and other fields of relevance to human heritage.
Still in the early stages of development, the Archive is presently limited to archaeological collections from NDSU (Samoan stone, shell, and coral artifacts; Fijian stone tools and ceramics; Native American (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Tribes) stone, shell, ceramic, bone, and antler artifacts and Euro-American Fur Trade Era trade goods; the University of Minnesota at Moorhead (Archaic Projectile Points from North Dakota); HNB Garwahl University, Srinagar-Garwahl, Uttaranchal, India (Indian Pottery).
A Biological Anthropology Collection (BAC) is in initial development, with proposed content to include osteological resource information and multimedia for anatomically modern Homo sapiens, ancestral human (e.g., Homo erectus, Homo habilis, etc.) hominid forebears (e.g., Australopithecines), and other living and extinct primate specimens (e.g., gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gibbons, etc.). Collections for ethnography and linguistics have not yet been implemented, but are planned for the future.
Borchert, Otto, A. Bergstrom, J. Hockemeyer, J. Clark, P. Juell, P. McClean, B. Saini-Eidukat, D. P. Schwert, B. M. Slator, A. R. White, C. Hill, J. Bauer, F. Larson, B. Vender, B. Bandli, B. Chen, M. Dean, R. Frovarp, G. Hokanson, C. Johnson, J. Kittleson, N. Kruger, J. Landrum, M. Li, B. Nichols, J. Opgrande, R. Potter, P. Regan, L-O. Teo, A. Tokhi, S. Tomac, J. Turnbull, J. Willenbring, Q. Xioo, X. Ye, M. Zuroff. 2001. Recent Advances in Immersive Virtual Worlds For Education. In, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium (MICS-01), Cedar Falls, IA. April 5-7.
Clark, Jeffrey T., A. Bergstrom, J. Landrum, III, F. Larson, and B. Slator. 2001. Digital Archiving Network, for Anthropology. In, Proceedings of the Virtual Archaeology Between Scientific Research and Territorial Marketing Conference, Arezzo, Italy, November 2000. F. Niccolucci, ed. Pp. 71-76. Oxford: British Anthropological Records (BAR) International Series.
Clark, Jeffrey T., B. M. Slator, A. Bergstrom, S. Fisher, J. Hawley, E. Johnston, J. E. Landrum, III, and M. Zuroff. 2003. Virtual Archaeology as a Teaching Tool. In, CAA 2002, The Digital Heritage of Archaeology: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 30th Conference Heraklion, Crete, April 2002. Martin Doerr and Apostolos Sarris (Eds.), pp. 29-35. Archive of Monuments and Publications, Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
Clark, Jeffrey T., B. M. Slator, A. Bergstrom, F. Larson, R. Frovarp, J. E. Landrum III, W. Perrizo, W. Jockheck. 2002. DANA (Digital Archive Network for Anthropology): A Model For Digital Archiving. In, Symposium on Applied Computing, at the 17th Association of Computing Machinery Conference, March 10-14, 2002, Madrid, Spain. Pp. 483-487. New York: ACM.
Clark, Jeffrey T., B. M. Slator, A. Bergstrom, F. Larson, R. Frovarp, J. E. Landrum III, W. Perrizo. 2001. Preservation and Access of Cultural Heritage Objects Through a Digital Archive Network for Anthropology. In, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Virtual Systems and MultiMedia, in Berkeley California, USA, 25-27 October 2001. H. Thwaites and L. Addison (Eds.), pp. 28-38. Los Alamitos: IEEE.
Clark, J. T., B. M. Slator, W. Perrizo, J. E. Landrum, R. Frovarp, A. Bergstrom, S. Ramaswamy, and W. Jockheck. 2002. The Digital Archive Network for Anthropology (DANA), A National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Initiative. Journal of Digital Information, vol 2, no. 4. (http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/)
Landrum, James E. III, Jeffrey T. Clark, Aaron Bergstrom, Brian M. Slator, Richard Frovarp, Ryan Kranitz, and William Perrizo. In Press. The Digital Archive Network for Anthropology and World Heritage (DANA-WH): Current Content and Future Potentials. Proceedings of the Fifth World Archaeology Congress (WAC5), June 21-26, 2003, Catholic University, Washington, DC (WAC5). Digital Imprint (Adobe PDF format): http://godot.unisa.edu.au/wac/pdfs/119.pdf
Nautiyal, V., J. T. Clark, J. E. Landrum III, A. Bergstrom, S. Nautiyal, M., Naithani, R. Frovarp, J. Hawley, D. Eichele, J. Sanjiv. In Press. 3D Modelling and Database of Indian Archaeological Pottery Assemblages--HNBGU-NDSU Collaborative Initiative. In, Proceedings, Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference, 8-12 April 2003, Vienna, Austria, Wolfgang Börner, ed.
Niewoehner, Wesley, Aaron Bergstrom, Derrick Eichele, Melissa Zuroff, and Jeffrey T. Clark. 2003. “Manual Dexterity in Neanderthals.” Brief Communications. Pp 395. Nature: Vol. 422, 27 MARCH 2003. Nature Publishing Group: New York.
Slator, B. M., J. Clark, P. Juell, J. Latimer, P. McClean, B. Saini Eidukat, D. Schwert, A. White, N. Amalraj, S. Anderson, R. Balakrishnan, J. Bauer, A. Bergstrom, O. Borchert, J. Bozovsky, B. Chen, K. Dauner, F. Erickson, G. Farooque, C. Hill, L. Holden, J. Huck, K D. Jian, W. Jockheck, B. Kautzman, S. Kanala, U. Kedla, T. Klein, S. Kolipaka, N. Kruger, A. Majeed, S. Maram, K. Peravali, R. Potter, M. Rose, J. Sebelius, M. Sharma, J. Stompro, L. Tilly, B. Vender, D. Vestal, P. Vorugu, E. Vossler, J Wang, H. Wu, Y. Wu, Q. Xiao, J. Zelenak, J. Zhou. 1999. Research and Development of Virtual Worlds for Immersive Instruction. In, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Small College Computing Symposium, April 15 17, in La Crosse, WI.
Slator, Brian M., Jeffrey T. Clark, Lisa M. Daniels, Curt Hill, Phil McClean, Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Donald P. Schwert, Alan R. White. 2002. Use of Virtual Worlds to Teach the Sciences. In, Virtual Environments for Teaching and Learning. L. C. Jain, R .J. Howlett, N. S. Ichalkaranje, and G. Tonfoni, eds. Pp. 1-40. River Edge, NJ: World Scientific.
Individuals, organizations, and institutions interested in contributing human biological and cultural heritage content to DANA-WH are strongly encouraged to contact the Project Director , Dr. Jeffrey T. Clark, via web form (see http://dana-wh.net/contact/), telephone 01-701-231-8921 or 01-701-231-6434, or FAX 01-701-231-1047.