Tell el-Dab'a (TED), known as ancient Avaris, was the capital city of the Hyksos from the 12th to the 18th dynasty (early second millennium BC) and is located in the northeastern Nile delta around 140 km northeast of Cairo (map). Excavations of mainly residential buildings, tombs and temples show a wealthy society with contacts to many parts of the eastern Mediterranean, including a unique connection to Minoan culture. Thousands of fragments of Minoan-style wall paintings were discovered within an Egyptian palace complex, depicting e.g. scenes with bulls and bull-leapers, and have become a trademark of the site.

Since 1966, excavations at TED have been carried out under Manfred Bietak for the Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI) resulting in records from 45 years of fieldwork campaigns (e.g. Bietak 1996, 2001, 2013/2014). The archaeological discipline has seen major changes during this period of time, most notably developments in information technology have caused a shift from analogue to digitally-born data. As a result, the TED archive at OREA contains a huge and heterogeneous resource of digital and non-digital photographs, plans, drawings, written documentation and the archive of Minoan wall painting fragments. An archaeological excavation is destructive and irreproducible. What remains from archaeological fieldwork campaigns are data of the recorded and analyzed entities, such as layers, walls, finds and, most importantly, their geospatial and temporal relations. The preservation of this information is crucial for the analysis and interpretation of a site and hence is part of the protection of our cultural heritage.

An archaeological excavation is destructive and irreproducible. What remains from archaeological fieldwork campaigns are data of the recorded and analyzed entities, such as layers, walls, finds and, most importantly, their geospatial and temporal relations. The preservation of this information is crucial for the analysis and interpretation of a site and hence is part of the protection of our cultural heritage.

Today, parts of the datasets and information on TED are destined for destruction. For example, the negatives of black and white photos from earlier fieldwork campaigns are deteriorating irreversibly over time. Data loss may occur due to fragmented legacy research data (e.g. digital site maps), incompatibility of formats as well as loss of knowledge about the spatial and temporal relationships of archaeological entities. The fragments of the famous Minoan frescos are awaiting detailed documentation in Egyptian archives where their long-term preservation is not guaranteed.