The URKO (Uralic triangulation) consortium at the University of Turku is being funded by the Academy of Finland through the DIGIHUM programme from 2020 to 2022. URKO aims to conduct interdisciplinary studies involving human (pre)history in the Uralic language area and increase the understanding of the cultural and genetic diversity of this area.
We are building highly visible and user-oriented online interfaces to several currently emerging open-access databases, which include i) typological (structural) data of Uralic languages, ii) spatial data on language distribution, archaeological artefacts, genetic variation and the environmental history of the Uralic speaking area, and iii) archaeological Stone, Bronze and Iron Age artefacts in Finland, with links to the cultural environment register portal.
Furthermore, comprehensive teaching modules will be developed around these databases and interfaces, introducing a data-driven paradigm to a new generation of scholars.
The project is feasible due to our already established network of interdisciplinary researchers: PIs in the consortium are Professor Päivi Onkamo (Department of Biology, head of the consortium), Professor Sirkka Saarinen (Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages), Adjunct Professor Harri Tolvanen (Department of Geography and Geology); its coordinator is Outi Vesakoski, PhD.
The databases and methodological innovations will advance the field of digital humanities as a whole, while breakthroughs in the subject field, the interdisciplinary study of human history, will stem from the development of overreaching computational statistical approaches for integrating linguistic, cultural and genetic data, that is, implementing historical “triangulation”. URKO focuses on the Uralic speaking area, a field that is understudied compared to, for example, Indo-European speaking areas. High-quality databases and interfaces, and cutting-edge analyses based on them will help integrate Northeastern Europe, especially the Baltic Sea region, into global perspectives on human history. URKO is a part of one of the six thematic collaborations in research at the University of Turku, Cultural memory and societal change.
See also https://sites.utu.fi/urko/en/