Arachne (archaeological database)

iDAI.objects arachne (short form: Arachne) is the central object-database (administrator: Reinhard Förtsch) of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Cologne Digital Archaeology Laboratory (CoDArchLab) at the University of Cologne.

Arachne is intended to provide archaeologists and Classicists with a free internet research tool for searching hundreds of thousands of records on objects and their attributes. This combines an ongoing process of digitizing traditional documentation (stored on media that are both threatened by decay and largely unexplored) with the production of new digital object and graphic data. All digital (graphic and textual) information is secure on a Tivoli Storage System (featuring long-term multiple redundancy) and distributed online through the Storage Area Network in Cologne.