About

About LOD-AM

Linked Open Data for Ancient Metallurgy (LOD-AM) is a sandbox to experiment on questions of (mostly copper based) metallurgy of Eurasia and all RDM questions connected to that.

Hi, I’m Fabian. Welcome to my digital sandbox, where I play with Linked Open Data for Ancient Metallurgy (LOD-AM)—a little scientific side hustle of mine.

This is my private experiment, a one-man show where I get to ask questions about copper-based metallurgy in Eurasia and all the Research Data Management (RDM) chaos that comes with it. No institutions, no big initiatives, no pressure—just me, my curiosity, and the occasional existential crisis over data models.

By day, I work at the German Archaeological Institute, tucked away in the Executive Office of NFDI4Objects. But by night (and weekends, and sometimes lunch breaks), I’m here, practicing Learning by Doing (LBD). I’ve picked up some new skills in NFDI4Objects, and rather than wait for the perfect project to use them, I decided to throw them at the messy world of ancient metallurgy. Why? Because if I break something, the only person I’ll disappoint is myself—and honestly, I’m used to it.

In archaeometallurgical research, we often have to collect and combine data from a dizzying array of sources. So I’m trying to tame this chaos with an RDF-based triple store. The blog posts you’ll find here are my actual notebook—raw, unfiltered, and occasionally wrong. But the site will also display the entities I’m storing in the database, so you can see the results of my experiments in real time. This isn’t (yet) about building a long-term infrastructure. It’s about playing without the fear of failing. If LOD-AM grows into something bigger one day, great! If it stays my little LBD hobby, that’s fine too. Either way, I’m learning, and that’s the point. So consider this my public notebook: part archaeometallurgy, part RDM, and 100% me figuring things out as I go. If you stumble upon this and have thoughts, critiques, or just want to laugh with me (or at me), drop me a line at info@lod-am.net. I’d love to hear from you.

Project Goals

  • Experiment with Linked Open Data for Ancient Metallurgy in a low-pressure sandbox
  • Practice Learning by Doing – applying new RDM skills from NFDI4Objects to a real research domain
  • Build an RDF-based triple store to collect and combine archaeometallurgical data from diverse sources
  • Use blog posts as a public notebook to document the journey, mistakes included
  • Display entities from the database directly on the site
  • Keep it private and responsibility-free – for now, at least
  • Invite feedback and commentary at info@lod-am.net

Disclaimer

This is a personal, non-commercial blog. All content is provided for educational and illustrative purposes only. No revenue is generated from this site.