Remaking FACEM: A Repository for Mediterranean Ceramics

Ceramic provenance studies help to reconstruct ancient trade networks. The online repository Fabrics of the Central Mediterranean (FACEM) comprises data on the origin of 7th-2nd c. BCE pottery from the Central Mediterranean. The website was launched in 2011 and has become an efficient web-based tool for tracing the origin of ceramics to about 40 production sites in Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Greece, and Turkey. More than 10 years after the launch, however, FACEM needs substantial reconstruction and adherence to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles to continue uploading and sharing new research data with the research community. In the project Remaking FACEM, the Department of Classical Archaeology will work closely with the IT-Support for Research at the University of Vienna to achieve two main goals: 1) To develop new software and transfer research data from the current FACEM repository to the new application, taking into account FAIR data principles and IT security; 2) To upload research data from new research projects. More specifically, data from three ongoing projects will significantly expand the chronological and geographical setting of the FACEM repository, with ceramics from production sites in Greece, Turkey, and North Africa, dated between the 7th c. BCE and the 7th c. CE. While the core of the project comprises a technical implementation in the FACEM database, its embedding in the IT-Support for Research will be innovative and ensure the long- term storage of both old and new research data. Therefore, the planned renewal of the database will be a benchmark to ensure the availability, interoperability, and reusability of ceramic research data. Moreover, the addition of new research data will significantly increase knowledge about the origin of, and trade in, ancient ceramics in the wider Mediterranean, enabling new dialogues that can shed light on intercultural and interregional contacts between ancient communities across the Mediterranean.