A Map to Navigate the Data Archipelago: “Open-archeOcsean”, a Collaborative Catalogue of Resources for Maritime Asia and Oceania Archaeologies

Sébastien Plutniak

The study of island migration and human dispersal in maritime Asia and Oceania requires diverse data and interdisciplinary expertise. Archaeologists integrate palaeoenvironmental records (sea-level and climate change), zoological and zooarchaeological evidence, geochemical sourcing of raw materials, technological and stylistic analyses of artefacts (lithic, pottery, shell), and chronological data to build coherent historical narratives. The OCSEAN (Oceanic and Southeast Asian Navigators) project sought to combine linguistic, genetic, and archaeological datasets, but its ambition was constrained by the lack of a comprehensive, structured archaeological repository for the Pacific, Southeast, and East Asia—regions without a supranational hub comparable to Ariadne, tDAR, or the ADS. To address this gap, we developed Open-archeOcsean, a curated, interactive online catalogue that enhances discoverability of preferably open-source datasets across disciplines relevant to long-term human presence and movement in Maritime Asia and Oceania (https://analytics.huma-num.fr/open-archeocsean/). Designed for both scholarly and local communities, the platform is continuously updated through monitoring and user contributions. It adheres to FAIR principles for scientific data management and implements CARE principles for Indigenous data governance in two ways: by documenting and highlighting resources that follow these principles, and by publishing the platform’s own data and code under open licences to permit reuse and derivation. This presentation outlines Open-archeOcsean’s contents, software infrastructure, documented metadata, and challenges encountered in applying FAIR and CARE. Ultimately, the initiative aims to support and stimulate research into the long-term maritime histories of Asia and Oceania. It invites collaboration from researchers, Indigenous communities, and institutions to expand and refine regional archaeological knowledge further.