Elar delivered equipment to Irkutsk State University

2022: Digitalization of the Irkutsk School of Archeology with the help of ElarScan A2-400R

A domestic planetary scanner has appeared at Irkutsk State University, with its help specialists will create electronic copies for excavation documentation, which was previously stored only on paper. This was announced on December 21, 2022 by ELAR.

The archaeological research system (Irkutsk School of Archeology) at Irkutsk State University has more than 100 years. Famous Soviet/Russian archaeologists and anthropologists are associated with it: B, E. Petri, A. P. Okladnikov, M. M. Gerasimov, G. F. Debets, G. P. Sosnovsky,  G.I. Medvedev. Experts are convinced that such a long history of archaeological research needs total systematization and digitalization.

It is planned to digitize for accessibility and widespread use rare and unique books, non-digital publications, for long-term archival storage: archival documents, manuscripts, various field documentation of excavations, which is on paper, photographs. All of their digital entities will be associated with an existing database. The number in numbers is still difficult to determine, because the calculations have not yet been given, but on average for each object the amount of field documentation can reach 100 or more units. And registered in the database of such objects more than 200, says Natalya Evgenievna Berdnikova, senior researcher at the Baikal Region Research Center of ISU.

ElarScan will allow contactless mode to carefully digitize documents of any physical condition and create electronic copies of good quality. The University notes that the ElarScan scanner combines convenience and ease of use. Feedback from colleagues also played an important role in choosing equipment.

We had information about the use of such scanners in various institutions, cultures science and, education said Natalia Evgenievna Berdnikova.

Among the most interesting materials that await digitization, for example, are sketches and descriptions of stratigraphy of deposits of geoarchaeological objects of Baikal Siberia from a fund that has been created for more than 40 years and is only on paper. It is also planned to digitize the manuscript fund of the Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor G.I . Medvedev, who for a long time headed the archaeological units of the University of Irkutsk.

Electronic copies will be used in scientific work, in the system of university special education, in educational work, including in museum expositions, exhibitions, in various presentations and publications, commented Natalia Evgenievna Berdnikova.