In 2007, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Archaeology Data Services at the University of York, Arizona State University, the University of Arkansas, the Pennsylvania State University, SRI Foundation, and Washington State University was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant to develop a long-term plan for the organization and operation of integrated digital archaeological data repository. This activity led to the creation of an organization, archaeoinformatics.org. Utilizing their planning grant, the members of archaeoinformatics.org developed detailed plan.
The plan called for development of a user-friendly and attractive but technologically and financially feasible archaeological repository to provide for much wider accessibility to archaeological data and its long-term preservation. The plan led to the development of a more detailed proposal to the Mellon Foundation for funds to create Digital Antiquity.
Click here for a copy of the 2008 report on the results of the planning grant.