Defining Methodologies and Protocols for the Use and re-use of Archaeological legacy data. The Case Study of the Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature

This article deals with some methodological aspects related to the use of the so-called ‘legacy data’ and proposes some theoretical and practical points of reflection based on best practices that archaeologists can follow in their daily work with diverse data manipulation and creation. Moreover, the concept of ‘legacy data’ requires deeper consideration, to better define and contextualise its use within the scope of digital archaeological theory and practice. To offer a more concrete and solid framework to the general considerations, the case study of the Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature will be introduced, a research project that makes a consistent and systematic usage of data previously created by other projects, but pursuing rather different goals and having as a focus Coptic literary manuscripts. This project offers, in fact, some interesting illustrations of the different meanings that the term ‘legacy data’ may assume. Finally, a particular attention is paid to the transparent documentation of the research process and to the most efficient ways of publishing the documented dataset on the World Wide Web, in order to facilitate a scientifically consistent reuse of the data.