This book presents the impact of data derived from large repositories and synthesis projects in archaeology. It discusses the opportunities and challenges for archaeology in a number of ways: from practical, theoretical and methodological issues in the collection, sharing, management, and use of data to examples of (potential) impact of such newly constructed datasets, to identified or foreseeable difficulties in maintaining and further developing the databases.

This volume examines best practices and strategies for handling large data sets in archaeology. It looks at opportunities for better contextualization of present challenges and how can data mining or modelling applied to large datasets bring new understanding to archaeological questions. With strong attention to bioarchaeological data, the book includes contributions from different fields (zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, anthropology, etc.) and focus (osteology, funerary archaeology, science-based approaches,etc.). The book illustrates these different initiatives and share some views about best practices.

Francesca Fulminante, After a Cambridge PhD (2008), a Marie Curie Sklodowska Fellowship at the University of Roma Tre (2014-2016) and post-doctoral positions at excellent universities across Europe, Francesca Fulminante teaches Italian, Mediterranean and European Archaeology from 1000 BC to 1000 AD in the UK (Oxford, Lifelong Learning, Cambridge, PACE, Royal Holloway, UCL and Bristol). And Italy. Her research focuses on urbanization in Central Italy during the first Millennium BCE, from socio-political and religious aspects to more intimate subjects such as infancy and infant feeding (Le Sepolture Principesche, L’Erma di Bretschneider 2003, The Urbanization of Rome, CUP 2014, The agency of infant and children in past and present urban societies, Special Volume of Childhood in the Past 2021, The Rise of Early Rome, CUP 2023). She has contributed to many excavations at key sites for Mediterranean Archaeology (Rome, Veii, Pompeii, Crustumerium, Col di Marzo).
Projects (ROUT-AI, Mediterranean Network to study Pre-Roman routes with AI; MEDA_BREAST: Breastfeeding in the Mediterranean from Prehistory to the Middle Ages; EUREKA: European Network for Open Acess Funerary Datasets; WARRIORS AND WEAVERS: Challenging Gender stereotypes in Antiquity )

Emeri Farinetti, After a Leiden PhD (2009) and post-doctoral positions at excellent universities across Europe, Emeri Farinetti is currently Associate Professor in Landscape Archaeology and Methods and Theory in Archaeology at the Department of Humanities (RomaTre University), where she teaches Mediterranean Landscape Archaeology and GIS Applications in archaeology. She is assistant director for research at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens and chair of the CAA - Greek chapter since 2021. She is member of the advisory board of the Master’s degree in Digital Earth & Smart Governance (RomaTre University) and she teaches at Master’s degrees at the Department of History of the Ionian University (Corfu-Greece). She is GIS and database manager of the Boeotia Survey Project (Durham-Leiden-Edinburgh Universities) and leads the research unit on palaeo-landscapes and geomatics for the Therasia Island Research Project (Ionian University). She directs and coordinates research projects in Greece and Italy, among which the WeMALP Western Megaris Archaeological Landscape
Project (Italian Archaeological School at Athens and Ephorate of Western Attica) and the MoLuLAP Monti Lucretili Archaeological Survey Project (Monti Lucretili regional Park – Roma Tre University – Latium Archaeological Service).