About the Mare Nostrum LAB Platform

Bridging Technology and Heritage

The Mare Nostrum LAB Platform is a digital initiative developed as part of the broader Mare Nostrum LAB project under the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Together, we are building the digital infrastructure necessary to modernize archaeological research and safeguard cultural heritage.

From streamlining complex data collection in the field to enabling advanced spatial analysis and semantic visualization, our ultimate goal is to make archaeological workflows faster, more accurate, and highly efficient.

A Multidisciplinary Synergy

The true strength of the Mare Nostrum LAB Platform lies in the seamless combination of domain expertise and advanced systems engineering.

Researchers from the Institute of Archeology provide critical architectural knowledge, guide complex data modeling using the CIDOC CRM ontology, and lead the specialized gathering and curation of field data, while dedicated engineering efforts drive the software development, system architecture, and seamless integration of the platform.

Extending Open Source Solutions

We believe in the power of open knowledge and open data. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we customize, integrate, and extend industry-standard open-source platforms. By tailoring these tools specifically for the complex needs of modern excavation, we provide researchers with an unparalleled digital ecosystem.

Our integrated stack includes:

Arches: Our flagship environment (Arches for JU Excavations) acts as the digital foundation for fieldwork, managing trenches, stratigraphic contexts, 3D/IIIF digital resources, and custom workflows.
- View Arches for JU Excavations Repository
GeoNode: A robust spatial data infrastructure used for managing, sharing, and analyzing complex GIS data and interactive maps.
- View GeoNode for MN LAB Repository
Recogito: An intuitive platform tailored for semantic annotation of texts and images, allowing researchers to link source materials to geographic and bibliographic data.
- View Recogito Studio for MN LAB Repository
Wikibase: We leverage open knowledge bases to power our custom Mare Nostrum LAB Thesaurus, providing controlled, ontology-backed vocabularies across all our applications.
- View Wikibase for MN LAB Repository

Empowering Archaeologists

By bringing these powerful tools under one unified umbrella, the Mare Nostrum LAB Platform eliminates data silos. Field researchers can now capture precise GNSS coordinates, upload drone basemaps, link 3D artifact models, and query controlled vocabularies, all within an interconnected digital workspace built for the future of archaeology.

Find Us:
Mare Nostrum Lab
Institute of Archeology, Jagiellonian University
ul. Gołębia 11, 31-007 Kraków, Poland