Databases

The programming of the TALAR (Archaeology Database of Tallinn University) started in 2005 as part of a national programme “Research Collections of the Humanities and Natural Sciences”. A very large amount of archaeological data is now accessible in it. Since the beginning of 2020, TALAR has been hosted on the servers of the Academic Library of Tallinn University. Archaeology database is primarily intended for archaeologists and is accessible to registered users.

As the archaeological bone collection is registered in TALAR only by bone boxes, the need arose in 2015 for a new database in which the content of these boxes would be “open”. That year, the archaeozoological collection was one of the development objects of the research infrastructures roadmap “Natural History archives and information Network” (NATARC), and ARHIS, an updated archaeological data system, was established within the project period. ARHIS is intended as a working space only for registered users, specialists of both Tallinn and Tartu universities.

The Open Data of archaeology is displayed on the ARHEST (Estonian Archaeology Datasets) website. Once the system is completed, archaeological data from the TALAR, ARHIS, TARA (Archaeology Database of Tartu University) and MuIS (Museums Public Portal) can be brought together.