Recent Advances in Querying the Road Database to Make Data FAIR

The “ROCEEH Out of Africa Database” (ROAD) is the largest compilation of archaeological datasets covering Africa and Eurasia from 3,000,000 to 20,000 years ago. When the project began in 2008 (https://www.hadw-bw.de/en/research/research-center/roceeh/home), one goal was to create an open-access, online, research database to answer large-scale questions about early humans expansions. ROAD gathers data from fields of archaeology, paleoanthropology, paleontology and paleobotany in a geographic framework. Here, we present recent advances in querying ROAD. We discuss how ROCEEH provides its users with data andfocus on a new, user-friendly feature that facilitates data retrieval. The new interface, called “Ask ROAD,” embodies our philosophy of making the data we collect as FAIR as possible. Queries in ROADWeb are performed in various ways: simple filters on one table provide basic results; an SQL query tool allows the joining of several tables; a SPARQL endpoint is also available; finally, we collaborate with partners to tailor complex queries. Results can be viewed in ROADWeb or accessed through a URL, and exported in several interoperable formats. Experience with users motivated us to create “Ask ROAD”. This intuitive interface works in a scaffolded way with five sequential steps: 1) select geographic region and/or site type; 2) choose types of assemblages and/or define timeframe; 3) specify details about assemblages; 4) perform unions of datasets; and 5) conduct detailed searches. After each step, a table pops up, which users can download in their preferred format. References are generated after the first step and attributes displayed at any time. We plan to add more features in the future, for example a routine to extract data from ROAD and process it using statistical packages such as R. We encourage you to visit ROAD (https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb/) and provide expanded access to anyone interested. Discover for yourself what ROAD can do! Abstract taken from the EAA 2024 Abstract Book: 30th EAA Annual Meeting (Rome, Italy 2024) - Abstract Book Names, titles and affiliations are reproduced as submitted by the session organisers and/or authors. Language and wording of titles and abstracts were not revised. Technical editing: Sára Tylšová, Magda Karabáš (EAA) Design and layout: Sára Tylšová, Magda Karabáš (EAA) Design - cover: Symposia srl Design - logo: Caterina Amendola European Association of Archaeologists Rome, August 2024 © European Association of Archaeologists, 2024 ISBN 978-80-88441-08-3 30th EAA Annual Meeting (Rome, 2024) https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2024/scientificprogramme