From isolated data silos to an integrated and multi‑proxy regional synthesis

Multi-proxy studies aimed at exploring the interaction between human and natural communities are becoming increasingly ambitious in scale. This is due to the recent emergence of spatially extensive open-access datasets and the refinement of advanced computational methods, including statistical approaches for co‑analysing archaeological and palaeoecological datasets. In particular, the large availability of open-access data responds to a global effort to promote a large-scale adoption of the Open Science Philosophy, where international agencies and governmental institutions passionately encourage a set of behaviours and codes of practice aimed at increasing data sharing and data reuse. However, in this context, we are left with the question of whether these attempts are matched by effective data sharing and data reuse practices. In this paper, I examine the sharing and reuse, in Cyprus and across the Eastern Mediterranean, of the three main types of datasets traditionally used for understanding the interaction among human and natural communities in ancient times: archaeodemographic, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic proxies. I also investigate the preliminary results of correlating palaeoclimatic proxies with the pattern emerging from the Summed Probability Distribution (SPD) of radiocarbon dates.