David Novák

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Head of Department, Deputy Director at Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Prague

Managing and archiving archaeological data is a long-term challenge in archaeology. For research on excavated remains, it is pivotal to know where they are stored and have access to basic information about them. Persistent identifiers (PIDs) offer this functionality in a digitized world. PIDs are unique identifiers that are permanently and unambigu...

Airborne Laser Scanning (sometimes referred to as lidar) has been described as revolutionary for the understanding and management of cultural landscapes. The ability to create highly accurate three dimensional (3D) models and visualise the topographic features that represent past human interaction with the land surface has undoubtedly changed our v...

Prague, with its historical significance dating back over a millennium, has evolved into the focal point of the Czech state. The city's intricate development has not only resulted in the presence of distinctive archaeological remains, but has also secured its place on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Wor...

Gathering, curating and storing research data during field work is not a trivial task. In fact, it can quickly get messy. Archaeologists often have to deal with less-than ideal working conditions and heterogeneous research methods and diverse documentation requirements. On top of that, projects often involve specialists from different disciplines,...

There is a significant disparity in the value of archaeological data and their handling within heritage management practice. This imbalance threatens the preservation of cultural heritage being continuously removed from the landscape and transformed into archives of (digital) archaeological documentation. To mitigate the risks, systemic changes are...

The Saving Archaeology from the Digital Dark Age (SEADDA) COST Action ran from 2019 to 2023 and produced a wide range of publications, opportunities for capacity building and knowledge transfer. This paper will discuss the less tangible forms of impact resulting from the work of the SEADDA members working within and across their own networks. These...

The cultural character of the landscape stems not only from its current economic structure but also from the anthropogenic past reflected in numerous relics, which show that people in the past also used the part of the landscape that is now protected for its natural values. However, the intensity of these activities was linked to general settlement...

This article discusses the importance of the Portal of Amateur Collaborators and the Register of Individual Finds of the Archaeological Map of the Czech Republic (AMCR-PAS) in preserving data from metal-detecting activities in the Czech Republic. The context and legal framework of metal detecting in the country are explained along with the establis...

Tracing human-vegetation interactions that occurred in the past has always been one of the key topics of paleoecology. Here we use the pollen and archaeological databases available for the Czech Republic to determine links between individual pollen taxa and archaeological data and search for the spatial scales of comparability. The datasets include...

Summary A map of Europe showing countries or regions in color that have responded to a survey Countries or regions with recorded responses to the survey. Administrative boundaries: European Commission – Eurostat/GISCO The digital transition in archaeology is often taken for granted, yet the process is far from complete. The topic of digital archivi...

Human population has affected natural ecosystems since prehistoric times in many ways, causing disturbances in existing ecosystems and creating novel habitats, and altering the colonisation and extinction rates with potentially long‐lasting effects on biodiversity. Here, we explored the pervasive effects of past human occupancy on present‐day diver...

Nad archeologickými fondy se příliš často uvažuje až zpětně – jako o sbírkách nálezů a dokumentů, které zbydou po ukončení intelektuálního procesu odkryvu, popisu, analýzy a interpretace a po sepsání a vydání knihy nebo článku. Nic nemůže být dále od pravdy. Archeologický fond je trvalým dědictvím neopakovatelné události a představuje – nebo by ale...

Estimating past population dynamics has become a major research topic for archaeology, which uses several proxies for studying past demography. The Czech Republic represents a unique region with abundant digital archaeological and palynological datasets comprising tens of thousands of records covering the whole Holocene. We used these datasets to q...

LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) have transformed the archaeological study of landscape features, broadened our technical capabilities, and enhanced the accuracy with which terrain relief is described. These models also place demands on how researchers and analysts interpret DEM content in the context of the modern landscape. LiDAR-bas...

Metodika zpracování a archivace dat leteckého průzkumu v archeologii je jedním z výstupů, kterými se uzavírá nejen výzkumný projekt Archeologie z nebe, ale svým způsobem i jedna z etap letecké archeologie a digitalizace archeologických dat v ČR. Obě tyto oblasti se u nás začaly rozvíjet na počátku 90. let minulého století, a to zprvu samostatně, po...

This paper reports on the progress in the field of total viewshed computation, which was made by the joint efforts of several Slovak and Czech research institutions. The result of the project is eight total viewsheds calculated for the whole territory of Bohemia (57,000 km2) with a relatively high resolution (grid from 5 × 5 to 320 × 320 m, visibil...

The articles in this special issue demonstrate significant differences in digital archiving capacity in different countries. In part these reflect differences in the history of archaeology in each country, its relationship to the state, whether it is centralised or decentralised, state-led or commercially driven. They also reflect some of the diffe...

As in other countries, Czech archaeology has embarked on a journey of digitisation. This creates the need to cope with the rapid growth of digital data, which must be stored securely over the long term and be accessible in a comprehensible and useful way. This causes several problems. Although there is a centralised and well-resourced digital agend...

Where does information and data obtained through archaeological fieldwork currently reside? And how do archaeologists get information about announcing development-led or other field interventions? Many of you will have heard of the system Archaeological Map of the Czech Republic (AMCR), which includes other interesting tools such as the Digital Arc...

Archaeological archives have too often been considered as afterthoughts – the collections of objects and documents which are left after the intellectual process of excavation, investigation, analysis and interpretation is finished and the book or article written and published. Nothing could be further from the truth. An archive is the lasting legac...

The Archaeological Information System of the Czech Republic is a national research infrastructure uniting archaeological digital sources and tools in Czechia (http://www.aiscr.cz/en/). Since 2016, the AIS CR has been listed on the Roadmap of Large Research Infrastructures of the Czech Republic for Research, Experimental Development and Innovations....

A comprehensive set of Guidelines to FAIRify data management and make data reusable is focusing on the topic of common policies. This compact guide offers twenty guidelines to align the efforts of data producers, data archivists and data users in humanities and social sciences to make research data as reusable as possible based upon the FAIR Princi...

The study of the medieval elites is one of the traditional subjects of Czech historical archaeology. However, several distinct theme, chronological and regional discrepancies can be traced within this field; besides, the research communities that devote themselves to these issues can be certainly characterized as disparate. This contribution seeks...

The archaeological research of elite seats should not be limited only to field activities; with available analytical tools, it is also possible to build digital corpora and to conduct their systematic evaluation. The compilation of an extensive database of 5,000 potential seats whose use dates to the period between the 13th and 17th centuries has c...

Drawing on archaeological research going back many years, a vast collection of data on the development of human society has been assembled. In the Czech Republic, information on archaeological fieldwork and sites has been traditionally archived in the form of registers and card files at the archives run by the Institutes of Archaeology of the Czech...

Atlas of prehistoric and early medieval hillforts in Bohemia.

Atlas of prehistoric and early medieval hillforts in Bohemia.

Utility and guide for application of Local Relief Model (according to Hess 2010) in ESRI ArcGIS 10 software using Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions. Those two extensions have to be licensed to make the utility work properly.

Utility and guide for application of Local Relief Model (according to Hess 2010) in ESRI ArcGIS 10 software using Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions. Those two extensions have to be licensed to make the utility work properly.

The AIS CR infrastructure consists of a central database and several linked application interfaces. It enables the day-to-day management of archaeological data and fieldwork activities, supports research and development, and promotes the nation’s archaeological heritage. Equipped with the latest technologies and open-source software, the AIS CR pro...

Elite seats, or manors, which were temporarily and spatially continuous phenomena characterised by certain formal attributes, represented a wide network of purposes and functions that helped shape medieval and post-medieval realities. This paper introduces an approach based on a formalised description of various sites followed by an analysis of the...

The AIS CR infrastructure consists of a central database and several linked application interfaces. It enables the day-today management of archaeological data and fieldwork activities, supports research and development, and promotes the nation's archaeological heritage. Equipped with the latest technologies and open-source software, the AIS CR prov...

The study of feudal society cannot be reduced to narrow national or central European views; it is also important to focus on the theoretical concepts that have been long discussed across western Europe, where the roots of classic feudalism are sought. This contribution attempts to define prospective directions in research as groundwork for the futu...

Medieval society consisted of a wide spectrum of social groups characterised by specific artefacts. It can be presumed that the handling of particular objects and the occupation of particular types of buildings helped define the status of both individuals and communities and symbolised their social status. The vertical, horizontal and formal defini...

With the onset of the Internet, pressure has increased to digitize the research process and its openness, on co-operation at all levels, and on a broader articulation of research results with a wider context (both inter-disciplinary and international). Not even archeology is able resist this new practice. It should therefore take advantage of digit...

The level of scientific research and care for cultural heritage in archeology are fundamentally dependent on the information that is effectively available to the discipline. The volume of information is still growing at a dizzying pace and is no longer manageable without technologies from the “digital humanities”. Information systems in archeology...

The availability of detailed digital altitude models based on data of airborne laser scanning has recently opened up new opportunities for description of landscape. The application of geomorphometric methods enables the use of automated algorithms for exact definition of the so-far only subjectively examined properties of field relief. This paper i...

In order to determine the expected course of the route, which was hypothetically used for the transport of building material to the Levý Hradec fortification (cadastral territory of Žalov), the accessibility analysis, based on the friction surface derived from elevation model, water network and Tobler's function, was used. Three options of the conn...

The study includes a review of theoretical and methodological basis of current castellology and shows on the specific examples how it is essential to abandon the traditional approach and build a new theoretical model involving the role of elite residences in past societies. The origins are sought in the context of contemporary European castellology...

Original archaeological data used in the author's disertation thesis (see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12393.34407).

GeoTIFF layer showing the location of modeled natural corridors passing through the landscape of the Czech Republic. Based on the model of natural path network (see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29554.45769). For a more detailed description of the layer, see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12393.34407

GeoTIFF layers of medieval and early modern settlement, based on data from the CZ_Retro database (https://sovamm.wordpress.com/projects/aktualni-projekty-sovamm/cz_retro/), containing: (1) "obce_vaha.tif" layer - raster representation of settlements weighted on the basis of their estimated size; (2) "obce_vaha_6000.tif" layer - a Kernel Density lay...

GeoTIFF layers (8 x 8 m) containing a modeled network of watercourses in the landscape of the Czech Republic: (1) "streams_def_cr.tif" layer - network of natural watercourses with Strahler order determination; (2) "vodni_toky.tif" layer - model of potentially navigable watercourses. For a detailed description of layers, see http://doi.org/10.13140...

GeoTIFF layer (8 x 8 m) containing a model of potential floodplains of watercourses in the landscape of the Czech Republic. Based on watercourse network model (see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.19409.48489). For a detailed description of layers, see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12393.34407

GeoTIFF layer (8 x 8 m) containing a model of natural routes through the landscape of the Czech Republic. For a detailed description of layers, see http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12393.34407

The Archaeological Map of the Czech Republic (AMCR) project will soon be finished and one chapter of building digital infrastructures in the Czech Republic will be closed. It is a natural occasion to evaluate national state-of-the-art in dealing with Digital Culture Heritage, particularly archaeological data. It is a also good time to summarise our...

GeoTIFF layer (8 x 8 m) based on areial laser scanning data, containing a relief classification model of the Czech Republic processed according to the procedure described in a separately published article (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333633314_Wykorzystanie_ALS_do_zautomatyzowanej_analizy_krajobrazom_krajobrazom_krajobrazu_Use_anim...

Several seasons of research centred on the features within a presumed manor farm in the deserted Medieval and Early Modern village of Rovný (Drahoňův Újezd cadastral zone). This article sums up the preliminary outcomes of the research predominantly focused on a two-compartment house and a large cellar. The research was based on archaeological excav...

A brief glance at the Křivoklát region shows that each manorial residence, more specifically its typological group, exhibits a different conception of both public and private space, variant representation of residential and utility buildings as well as a divergent approach to location and construction. A new set of means need to be found in order t...

This contribution presents results yielded so far by research a ctivities of the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, and a bachelor’s degree thesis started in 2014 at the Department of History of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem in the form of a case study devoted to the decline and a...

This contribution sums up the results of research into medieval manors in the Rakovník region based on earlier research and recent non-destructive survey into several locations. The article presents analyses of the form and spatial properties of the manors, their connection with a settlement network, economic hinterland and property structure.

Obecným záměrem projektu AMČR je zvýšit efektivitu toku informací v české archeologii, konkrétně v oblasti evidence terénních archeologických výzkumů a jejich výsledků. Vytčený cíl považujeme za nezbytný předpoklad efektivní památkové péče a jeden z předpokladů úspěšného teoretického výzkumu v archeologii, jakož i prezentace archeologického dědictv...

The Archaeological Map of the Czech Republic information system has been conceived as the backbone infrastructure of Czech archaeology. It combines a branch administrative application designed for archaeological fieldwork management with the comprehensive administration of the fieldwork results, including retrospective archaeological data collected...

Archaeological research infrastructures must be developed with a vision for the future needs of the professional community. The authors are convinced that it is crucial to systemize access to archaeological knowledge at the central level and to involve users directly in the process of data creation. They put an emphasis on of a suitable legal frame...

Průvodce po 105 archeologických lokalitách na území Čech vybraných jako typické ukázky základních forem archeologických památek z období paleolitu až 20. století. Cílem publikace je předvést povrchově viditelné archeologické stopy v krajině tak, aby je návštěvník mohl sám v terénu najít a poznat a aby mohl pochopit logiku jejich výpovědi. Kniha pro...

Conference Proccedings of the Student Session of the 19th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologist in Pilsen and 5th Student Conference „The Landscape in the Past, the Past in the Landscape“.

Fortified manors are in the scope of interest from the 19th century and at present, we have solid and complex knowledge base, which can be evaluated to obtain interesting results. Most of the published papers dealing with fortified manors have undergone basic chronological and typological analysis without further interest in their spatial attribute...

Utility and guide for application of Local Relief Model (according to Hess 2010) in ESRI ArcGIS 10 software using Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions. Those two extensions have to be licensed to make the utility work properly. To download the toolbox, see link below or in the manual.

This contribution sums up the results of research into medieval fortified manors in the Kladno region rooted in earlier investigation and recent non-destructive survey carried out in several locations. It presents analyses of form and spatial characteristics of the manors, their connection with the settlement network, economic hinterland and proper...

Průvodce po 105 archeologických lokalitách na území Čech vybraných jako typické ukázky základních forem archeologických památek z období paleolitu až 20. století. Cílem publikace je předvést povrchově viditelné archeologické stopy v krajině tak, aby je návštěvník mohl sám v terénu najít a poznat a aby mohl pochopit logiku jejich výpovědi. Kniha pro...

This contribution sums up the results of research into medieval manor houses in the Beroun region, rooted in previous investigations as well as in recent non-destructive research into several locations. The article contains analyses of form and spatial properties of the manors and their relations to the settlement network and property structure.

Výzkum probíhal červenci 2013 v areálu zaniklé středověké a raně novověké vesnice Rovný (ppč. 660/1 a 661). Zkoumaná plocha je definována souřadnicemi S-JTSK 796700–796669 : 1062413–1062481. Výzkum byl realizován jako součást studentských letních terénních praxí Katedry archeologie FF ZČU v Plzni. Zaniklá obec leží v lesním celku Přírodního parku R...

Small manors owned by the nobility made up an inseparable part of the Czech landscape from the Middle Ages until the early modern age. Narrowly specialised chronological and typological studies do not provide a comprehensive picture of the past that, however, can be obtained through different manners of research. This contribution presents a novel...

This contribution sums up the results of research into medieval fortified manor houses in the Rokycansko region, based on both previous research and new non-invasive research at several locations. The article presents analyses of the form and spatial properties of the manor houses, their connection with the local settlement network and their proper...

Study of fastnesses in certain region can give us more complete view of that area. We are able to see the evolution of settlements, property holding and of course typology of such objects. In region of Rokycany there is the project of Pavel Vařeka and his team, which studies this area in many aspects. Thesis is a part of that project and with instr...