Presenting the PHOTARCH web archive at Nordic TAG in Kalmar

The PHOTARCH web archive was shown for the first time at Nordic TAG in Kalmar, held at Linnaeus University on 6–9 May 2026 under the theme Activate Archaeology for just futures: a conference about how archaeology produces knowledge, and whom it is for.

Until now the method and the archive had mostly been shown as pictures and principles. In Kalmar the working archive was shown: real records, every one made by the same method, searchable and readable in the browser.

The presentation turned on scale. An archive that looks good with fifty objects is easy to make; what decides whether a method is worth adopting is what happens at fifty thousand. A consistent capture and a structured, machine-readable record keep the archive fast and legible as it grows. A shared method is what makes that scale possible, and scale is what makes an archive useful to more than the collection that made it.

Thanks to Linnaeus University and the Nordic TAG organisers.