The cemetery of Niedernai discovered in 1995 and nearly undisturbed, is the only nearly fully and modern excavated necropolis of the second half of the 5th century not only within Alsace but also in its wider surroundings. Based on the analysis of 32 graves (with 33 dead) of the relatively small grave yard, the archaeological sources about the transformation period after the end of the West Roman Empire – the second half of the 5th and the early 6th centuries – will be fundamentally proofed and if necessary reinterpreted historically. The focus lies on the question, whether the archaeologically visible, fundamental cultural changes are caused by the immigration of population groups from the east – or whether they could be seen as a cultural re-orientation of the former Roman population. In contrast to older studies which tried to answer this question on the basis of selected archaeological finds e. g. the bow brooches, the analysis will take into consideration the whole spectrum of archaeological finds and features as well as it uses a variety of modern scientific methods. The scientific analysis offers the opportunity to check traditional schemes of interpretation through confronting them to new data. 14C-AMS data allow integrating even graves with only some or even without grave goods, which could not be dated by archaeological means, into chronological considerations. The analysis of aDNA offers information on biological relations and additionally, it provides us with indications whether groups of graves on a cemetery represent families, and whether archaeologically assumed social relationships really existed. On the other hand the comparison of aDNA from Niedernai with other places and with modern DNA will present information on the geographic origin of the dead. They will be complemented by multi-isotope analyses. Strontium and Oxygen isotope analyses provide with contrasting indications concerning mobility and local stability of the deceased compared to the aDNA data. Nitrogen and Carbon isotope analyses additionally provide information about nutrition, possible changes in their subsistence when multiple subsamples are taken from individuals. Through the close connection of modern, theoretically well-grounded archaeological perspectives and the consequent and methodologically reflected use of routine scientific analysis, the project sets an example for future research. We expect an important impetus for German and French early medieval studies at one hand, and on the other the combination of two different national research perspectives through intense bi-national cooperation. Simultaneously, the project widens and extends the already existing French-German network in antique studies to the field of late antiquity and the early middle ages, including scientific studies.

Sharing and reuse of archaeological or historical data: a RDF-based description according to semantic web repositories and standards The HisArc-RDF project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium: archaeology, history, geography, terminology, bibliography and informatics. The pooling of experiences, based on the sharing and articulation of methods and software and semantic tools developed in each discipline, will make it possible to prototype (implementation and iterative tests) a "FAIR" operating chain on structurally and semantically heterogeneous archaeological and historical data sets: - to write a data management plan (DMP) for each dataset, based on the recommendations of the European Union and the french National Open Science Plan; - to develop two softwares : the first one operating a webservice between the OntoME tools (matching ontologies tool) designed by a community of historians and Opentheso (aligning thesauri tool) designed with a community of archaeologists; the second one creating a generic supervised automatic alignment interface between Opentheso and any semantic web repository; - to document each test set by a fine-grained processing chain, based on the use of microthesauri, descriptor concepts aligned with semantic web repositories, and then on the matching of the ontology expressed by the thesauri with the reference standards and ontologies of the documentary and scientific communities; thanks to the software developed, this phase will lead to a RDF-structured description of the test datasets; thus allowing, after online publication, the reporting and direct reuse ("calculability") of the datas; - to lead a wide network of historical and archaeological stakeholders (repository supports, multidisciplinary research groups, programmed and preventive archaeologies, European and non-European sites, academic and private stakeholders) through a training programme and experimental workshops, in order to disseminate the good practices supported and expressed by the operating chain and the tools developed during the project. The foundation of the HisArc-RDF project is threefold: a convergence of views born from the confrontation of multidisciplinary practices and experiences around the life cycle of data, from its acquisition to its publication, sharing and mediation; an acculturation of archaeological and historical communities to the practical and scientific challenge of aligning their vocabularies on semantic web core repositories; and finally the need for a processing chain capable of appropriation by these communities - i. e.i.e. as close as possible to business practices and work in the field and laboratories. The outcome of the project will be the realization and open publication of a methodology and associated tools in order to implement in our disciplines an ecosystem of "FAIR" data production, publication and sharing. It will be based on a proof of concept: the targeted user experience is the sharing and effective reuse of data extracted from recording systems (raw data), regardless of the structure specific to a particular database; it is the responsibility of each operating interface/visualization to pick them up and configure them to allow their reuse. The rapid implementation of these linked open data will be at the service of the widest possible academic audience: students, museums and research teams.