The Object Biography in NFDI4Objects

The German National Research Data Infrastructure for the Material Remains of Human and Environmental History (NFDI4Objects) is a science-driven initiative dedicated to the task of converting heterogeneous and interdisciplinary data on the material heritage of human and environmental history into sustainable, interoperable, and accessible forms. In NFDI4Objects, the concepts of the data life cycle and object biography form the central basis on which the consortium is structurally oriented. While the data life cycle (data creation, data processing, data analysis, data publication, data archiving) is a common principle in research data management, the object biography lays the foundation for a new understanding of the creation and representation of collection data. It links historical, archaeological, scientific, and museum perspectives and provides a structure in which the object is understood as a dynamic hub of events, actors, places, and meanings. The object biography is therefore not a purely narrative concept, but a paradigm for data modeling that transfers the semantics of material culture into digital knowledge systems.

This presentation gives a short overview on the concept of the object biography in NFDI4Objects as a tool to digitally describe the history of an object and to also secure information provenance.