About the Research Application

The Research Application is originally built for the project 'Against Opacity' and adjusted for the HackaLOD Hackathon, focusing on archaeological finds and archives from Arnhem. This hub serves as a central access point for researchers, developers, and heritage professionals to explore and connect archaeological datasets from various Dutch institutions. Through the Research Application, users can access these datasets to answer questions such as: What has been found in Arnhem? and What do these finds tell us about the city’s past?

The application not only makes archaeological data more accessible but also supports collaboration between stakeholders, researchers, and the public. It enables users to add interpretations, contextual information, and links to related data, fostering a shared understanding of Arnhem’s archaeological heritage.

Project

The HackaLOD Hackathon brings together developers, data experts, and cultural heritage professionals to create innovative tools and applications that enhance access to linked open data in the cultural heritage domain. For the 2025 edition, we chose to focuse on archaeological finds in Arnhem, with the goal of making archaeological datasets more transparent, interconnected, and usable for both professionals and the public.

The project is structured around three work areas:

1. Building collaboration – fostering partnerships between museums, archives, municipalities, and developers. 2. From data fragmentation to data integration – improving data interoperability and linking across institutions. 3. Creating knowledge together – encouraging reuse of heritage data to tell new stories about Arnhem’s archaeological landscape.

Within the data integration work area, the main task is the development of an online research guide and the data hub. This is particularly valuable for collections distributed across multiple repositories. The hub enables matching of datasets across institutions based on categories such as objects, excavation sites, and chronology.

Context

For more information about the broader HackaLOD initiative and its focus on cultural heritage data, visit the HackaLOD website.