Keywords

1 Introduction

DBAS—@egeanLab (http://dbas.sciant.unifi.it/) starts in 2005 as the web-portal of the Laboratory of Aegean Civilisations of the University of Florence.Footnote 1 With the name of ‘Data Bases about Aegean Subjects’, it was initially created as an online resource containing tools for scientific consultation, such as highly specialized Databases [14, 15, 16]. Along the years it developed in something more complex and includes now a wider range of contents, especially digitalization of museum collections and excavation materials, with scientific and educational aim [17, 19,20,21]. Consequently, we decided to maintain the same acronym while changing the whole name in ‘Digital Bank on Aegean Subjects’ (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
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The Homepage logotype of DBAS—@egeanLab

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Actually, the visitor may also start from a second portal, MUSINT (http://www.aegean-museum.it/) (Fig. 2), especially devoted to create interactive Aegean museums, where objects coming from different sites and collections are often presented as 3/dimensional models.

Fig. 2
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The Homepage of MUSINT

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Both these containers are good examples of the multiple potential of Digital Cultural Heritage. The on-line resources created by DBAS-MUSINT about the societies of the Bronze Age Greece, Crete and Aegean in general (3000–1000 BCE/from the third to the beginning of the first millennium BCE) open a field of research, but the specialists of Bronze Age Aegean, though largely using the new technologies, remained substantially out of the main stream of the discussion. Actually, despite the debate on the complex link between digitization and archaeology/ancient history is presently quite extended, involving various branches of the antiquities, the Aegean field is only marginally affected.

The main aim of DBAS-MUSINT is to present together and connect resources for academic research and resources for a wider public, covering educational contents. Research, didactics and interaction are the key-words. The sites actually include tools for scholarly research, teaching materials for University classes, and dissemination and interaction contents for a wider public and school pupils [18]. Most of the resources are conceived for an active use by the audience: interrogating databases, performing games, answering questions and choosing pathways in the tale.

In addition, they illustrate in the best way how University and Museums can cooperate within the Digital Cultural Heritage. They provide various online resources to explore contextually the materials of various Museums that could not be seen together otherwise.

In this paper we decided to focus on three sections chosen from the two websites, that are in our opinion good examples as for methodology and best practice. The first is a database on the cretulae from the Villa of Haghia Triada (Fig. 3), that puts together all these small objects discovered in this site.

Fig. 3
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Cretulae from Haghia Triada and other Minoan sites

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This database is included in DBAS (in the English version) and in MUSINT II (in both English and Italian versions). The second is a database on textile work areas which will soon appear on DBAS. The third is an interactive story-telling concerning the reconstruction of a ‘special’ day and events occurred at HaghiaTriada, and is included in MUSINT II.

2 DB-HTS (Acronym for Database on Haghia Triada Sealings)

DB-HTS is the new database on the DBAS web-portal and improves considerably the study of the Haghia Triada sealed documents: it concerns not only the cretulae collected in two Italian Museums, the Archaeological Museum of Florence and the Pigorini Museum of Rome, where many objects have been transferred from Haghia Triada and Phaistos during the excavations of the Italian Expeditions in Crete at the beginning of the twentieth century, but also the whole of the cretulae which remained in Crete and may be found in the Heraklion Museum.Footnote 2 This is a unique possibility for scholars to see all these materials together and we will illustrate it better in a while.

2.1 The Content

The cretulae are one of the main Aegean administrative systems used by the Minoan Palaces. They are small clay nodules bearing the impression of a seal and, in most cases, an inscribed sign of the Cretan script, the Linear A.

We have gathered in two correlated catalogues all the information concerning the various aspects of these objects. The 175 numbers of Cat. A (Nrs. 1-175) focus each one on a different seal (Fig. 4) which may be impressed on different cretulae,Footnote 3 but give further information, many of which we may find also in Cat. B. This latter Catalogue is based on the carved symbolsFootnote 4: the single numbers (Nrs. 1-179) concern the whole of the cretulae which have the same sign and the same impressed seal (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4
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Example of a Cat. A number

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Fig. 5
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Example of a Cat. B number

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As to the cretulae discussed in MUSINT II (i.e. the sealed documents kept in the two Italian Museums) we have the opportunity to present not only the images kindly offered by ARACHNE/CMS, but also 3/D models that our team created with laser scanner acquisition and uploaded on the Sketchfab platform (see next paragraph on technical devices).

These objects were found in different parts of the Villa (Fig. 6). We shall limit to describe three areas where cretulae have been found, since the exact localization of the documents is still under discussion ([33], with exhaustive bibliography), apart from a very limited portion whose original position has been reconstructed:

Fig. 6
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The Villa of Haghia Triada

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  1. (1)

    SW Quarter. This is the only area inside which an exact placing may be given: on the threshold or window-sill between room 27 and corridor 9, 45 dome noduli, without inscription but stamped by the same seal (Cat. A No. 20) have been found.

  2. (2)

    NW Quarter. In this exclusive quarter various groups of cretulae have been found, but a reconstruction of their original location, partly at the first floor and partly at the ground floor, is difficult because the layout of the rooms was not clear since the beginning of the excavations. A more general differentiation has been made on the basis of the discovery of the objects on smaller distinguished areas: one of them includes rooms 4-49-12 and 47-48, where likely the objects had fallen down from above or slipped from near areas; a second area includes room 13 (the so-called ‘stanza dei sigilli’) and the adjacent corridor 50; a third area, not well distinguished from the previous one, includes porch 11.

  3. (3)

    N Quarter. In the area of northern magazines, where the major group of Linear A tablets has been found, also some nodules and/or noduli have been discovered. The identification of a specific room (room 59) remains uncertain since the same structure of the room, mostly destroyed by the following construction of the Mycenaean megaron, is not clearly defined.

These Catalogues and the related Database represent the starting point to enter new and diversified routes by means of distinct but connected queries, which try to answer as many questions as possible. This relational database gives information about shape, motifs, inscriptions and so on of single objects; offers queries to correlate such information from both files of stamped and incised motifs, and gives also statistical data (percentages, recurrences, etc.). In this way, it allows extensive and overlapping cross-correlations that can lead to new interpretations of both seals and written signs. In the next paragraph the technical aspect will be briefly described.

2.2 Technical Devices

The first step of elaboration from these two distinct data sets, which differ from each other in some entries, is the creation of a table that gathers the information for all the items. Each string corresponds to a single object and is the union of the information from both the data sets/catalogues (seal impression and carved sign). Each object has been identified with a couple of identification numbers (IDs): the first represents the number of the objects inside each catalogue and the second represents the number of the catalogue itself. In this way, it is possible to make a query to identify only the information for this object from one or the other data set.

The second step is the creation of tables to be used to implement direct queries, or first-level queries. A table has been constructed for every search parameter. The tables relate the search parameter and the objects of the catalogues. Each parameter has been associated to a number and the iconographies have been associated to each object through this list of numbers (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7
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Example of numbers associated to iconographic motifs

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The example here is about iconography of the impressed seal: to the left, the structure of the table, and to the right the associated research form. As one can see, in the table each motif has a different number.

This is the basis for a further step.

The third step is the creation of correlation tables, to be used for the crossed queries or second-level queries. These tables allow the crossed correlation of data, so that multiple research options can be combined (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8
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Example of correlation tables

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In the correlation table each ID can appear various times, since it aims to allow all the possible variations of a certain element, or to combine different characteristics of the same object.

Particularly, the figure shows the correlations of the iconographies where information about their distribution among the objects in both catalogues may be obtained.

The general behaviour of the database is managed by the programming language. The suffix _IT or _EN to the table names allows the automatic selection of the language by PHP scripts (postprocessing hypertext protocol). This is one of the most used programming language and has been selected as the most suited interface with the SQL structure of the database.

Some data sheets embed link to interactive 3D images, coming from the platform SketchFab (https://sketchfab.com/). HTML/PHP code has been embedded into the web pages in order to retrieve information from SketchFab remote archives. Meanwhile SQL queries have been written to read information from SketchFab and some tables have been customized for this aim. The database has been connected to the 3D model in SketchFab to give flexibility to the content of the web pages, the carved signs and the seal impressions. SketchFab is perfectly inserted in the context of Musint II for the interactive experience it offers.

3 DB-TWC (Acronym for Textile Work Areas in Bronze Age Crete)

Other data bases have been already realised in DBAS and have been already presented in press. Some more are still under construction and we hope to implement the range of addressed topics in the future. Presently, another quite complex data base that is still in progress is the DBAS-TWC, on textile work areas of Bronze Age Crete. The aim of the work is to move a step further beyond current scholarship, that is mainly concerned with the technical details of tools and craftsmanship to reconstruct the actual textiles being produced then. This is a quite developed domain and our understanding of the Minoan textile techniques has considerably improved in the last decade [1,2,3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 22, 31, 36]. However, a comprehension of the wider organisation of textile production is still missing, as it is a reappraisal of the interconnections among various production cycles of the agricultural and domestic economies within their own setting.

One of the main obstacles is that the evidence is widespread throughout the many and dispersed sites of the island, that are investigated and published in a variety of ways and languages. The lack of uniformity is thus the main scientific issue. How can we compare things that are not homogeneous? That is why the data base has been created. It aims to provide an unified and homogeneous data set of the evidence related to textile activities from Bronze Age Crete, re-organising the information from a variety of publications and languages. The effort has been made to create a grid of indicators to be applied to every context taken into account.

Actually, one of the most important factor to be considered is that in a number of the relevant contexts indicators of various activities are found together: liquid processing, food processing and cooking, storage and textile production. Many tools are multi-purpose, other very specialised. This suggests a real mixed use of spaces in antiquity [3, 8, 11, 41]. The documented textile activities are only part of the productive processes carried on the examined work areas. One of the aim of the DB is to explore the way all these implements overlap, what can mirror the different types of activity organisation in the various considered contexts. We also intend to propose a preliminary typological classification of the analysed contexts and a first differentiation between various scales of production (Figs. 9 and 10).

Fig. 9
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a Experimental loom set up with replicas of Minoan loomweights (modified from Andersson Strand—Nosch [6, Fig. 4.1.17, p. 90]); b cooking pots from Petras, Crete, LMI (Alberti [4, Fig. 1]); c loomweights and stone tools from Sector Pi, Malia, Crete (courtesy of Efa, M. Pomadère)

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Fig. 10
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DBAS-TWC—sectors of activity and relevant archaeological indicators to be considered

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As result, the record for each single entry/context is quite complex, since it contains not only the information related to textiles, but also those connected to the other spheres of activity. It includes:

  1. (a)

    Site identification: name, chronology, exact context (if a room or a group of rooms, and not a whole structure, are concerned), bibliography and special notes.

  2. (b)

    Functional specialisation: presence or absence of the following indicators:

    1. (1)

      dye-stuffs; mordents or other chemical substances;

    2. (2)

      liquid processing installations and tools: considerable variations are possible;

    3. (3)

      typical domestic assemblage (cooking and storage vessels, stone tools, hearths, etc.);

    4. (4)

      textile tools proper (spindles, spinning bowls, spindle-whorls, loom-weights);

    5. (5)

      other.

The search to be implemented in this DB will be then quite complex. It would be necessary to intersect every indicator with the others, to see how implements of the various activity sectors overlap. Are always liquid processing and textile tools together? Are large pots and dye-stuff in the same spot, as to suggest dyeing operations? What can we say about the organisation of craftwork? Are there larger and more specialised areas than the others?

We are still at the very beginning, but we hope that the experience we are making with the DB-HTS on cretulae will help us to reach the desired result (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11
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DBAS-TWC—example of the various fields of a single context/file

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4 The Tale La Mattina Di Zuzù (Zuzù’s Morning)

The last example we would like to illustrate here is the tale La mattina di Zuzù (Zuzù’s morning). It is an interactive tale for children and has been planned as educational device linked to MUSINT II, where the Minoan cretulae are the main focus. The tale takes place in Haghia Triada, Crete, during the Bronze Age and features as main characters the joung girl Zuzù, her friends Bri Bri and Pim and the Secretary of the ‘Villa’. During the morning, Zuzù and her friends help weavers and grinders, admire frescoes, interact with the Secretary, store-keepers and other administrators, and, last but not least, discover various cretulae that have been lost, helping in this way the Secretary and the Lord of the ‘Villa’ to solve a mystery [5]. The tale could give some hints on the ‘best practices’ for Digital Cultural Heritage (Fig. 12).

Fig. 12
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The main character of the tale: from left, Zuzù, Bri Bri and Pim (P. Kruklidis)

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The first point to stress is the strict connection among the tale and the databases presented in our sites. The idea is to take the various items that are part of the scientific DBs in our websites and to represent them in use, to show the audience a possible slice of ancient life. In this way, the somehow inert material culture so often quite aridly recorded acquires vitality and scope, and inscribes the more abstract informatics tools within a framework of practices and sense.

This process is grounded on the extreme accuracy of the scientific documentation: each step of Zuzù and his friends has precise archaeological references, both in the archaeological remains and in specialised publications. The frescoes they admire are exactly those found in the “Villa”, and the wool-store is exactly where some administrative documents concerning wool have been found [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32, 35, 37,38,39,40]. However, and this is the great challenge for the archaeologist/narrator, the tale goes on as a tale, with no scientific details or footnotes: all the relevant information has been embedded in the narration (Fig. 13).

Fig. 13
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The most famous fresco from Haghia Triada, the cat chasing a bird, as appears in the online tale (P. Kruklidis)

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Interaction is the key for a good “edutainment” result. The users must act and be stimulated by the story, assimilating in the meanwhile the various details on the ancient life. That is why the tale is interactive. It has four sections, three linked to different seal imprints and having Zuzù as main character, and a fourth one for the Secretary. Each section can be read independently. The reader can move from one section to the other, answer questions, follow links to educational materials and play games. Last but not least, the end of the tale is open: it is up to the reader to decide the finale.

These features have been achieved by a smart use of links. They allow the characters to make decisions and the reader may hop through several points of the story. The way we choose to present the tale and the archaeological and historical contents are multi-media graphics: hand-drawing, vector images, virtual reconstructions and others, 2D and 3D reconstructions, pictures and reproductions of remains and archaeological materials. Thanks to this, the story is more attractive and educational sections are more informative and complete (Fig. 14).

Fig. 14
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The beginning of the tale. Zuzù on the left and the Secretary on the right. Above, the reconstruction of the ‘Villa’ of Haghia Triada (P. Kruklidis)

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Collaboration is obviously the key-word to achieve such a complex result. The tale as it is online now is the outcome of the work of the archaeologist/narrator, the illustrator, the IT specialist and the game-makers. Each page has been reworked many times, especially to tune illustrations and the various links to educational materials. We had discussions on the hair-style of children, on the age of characters, on the right clothes for a scribe and for a Lord. We actually learned a lot, building a learning resource.

5 Conclusions

These three examples of our work to implement the DBAS and MUSINT websites underline the role that new technologies can play even for the study of these remote ages and societies. Three aspects are worth of note:

  1. 1.

    strict connection between academic research and the creation of online contents

  2. 2.

    interaction between research and didactic issues

  3. 3.

    cooperation of various institutions and different specialists, such as archaeologists, philologists, school teachers, illustrators, IT specialists and game-makers. Cooperation is indeed, in our opinion, one of the best asset of the Digital Cultural Heritage.