Current State of Archiving Archaeological Reports in Bulgaria: still more physical than digital

This article provides an overview of the current state of archaeological archiving in Bulgaria. It briefly outlines the legislation that regulates archaeological fieldwork activities. Although the national legislation regulates the non-destructive and destructive activities equally, differences occur owing to the existence of the 'Archaeological Map of Bulgaria', a national 'sites and monuments' type of archaeological information system. Currently, online storage of brief data and information is possible for different archaeological sites. Its next version will be based on GIS and geographic features that allow storage of raw field survey data. According to the regulations, paper/digital reports of all fieldwork activities are collected yearly and copies of all of them are stored at the 'Scientific Archive' section at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Although their digitisation is still in the early stages, the good news is that the centralised archaeological workflow regulates their storage in one place, which makes them more easily accessible. The annual publication of the 'Archaeological Discoveries and Excavations' series, with summaries for all fieldwork activities in the year, is also very useful for keeping track of the archaeological work and results.

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• Keywords: archaeology, Bulgaria, digitisation, scientific archive, Archaeological Map of Bulgaria information system
• Accepted: 9 November 2021. Published: 16 December 2021
• Funding: This article was funded by SEADDA as part of COST Action 18128, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union
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