ArchiveEarth

A web application for managing archaeological excavation projects, artifact loans, research reports, and field teams.

Project Overview

ArchiveEarth centralizes archaeological workflows for archaeologists, excavation teams, museum managers, and administrators. It provides role-based access control, artifact and inventory management, team coordination, and reporting across the full lifecycle of a discovery — from field report to museum exhibition.

Architecture

This project follows an MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.

Backend Structure

• Models (backend/models/) — Database schemas and data entities
• Routes (backend/routes/) — Controllers handling API endpoints and business logic
• Middleware (backend/middleware/) — Authentication and request processing
• Config (backend/config/) — Database and environment configuration
• Scripts (backend/scripts/) — Seed data and utilities
• Services (backend/services/) — Shared business logic and integrations

Frontend Structure

• Pages (frontend/src/pages/) — Page-level components organized by user role
• Components (frontend/src/components/) — Reusable UI components
• Context (frontend/src/context/) — Global state management (Auth)
• API (frontend/src/api.js) — Centralized API communication layer

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express
• Frontend: React, Vite
• Database: MongoDB
• Authentication: JWT (middleware-based)

Folder Structure

├── backend/
│   ├── config/           # Database configuration
│   ├── middleware/       # Auth and request processing
│   ├── models/           # Data models and schemas
│   ├── routes/           # API endpoints (Controllers)
│   ├── scripts/          # Seed data and utilities
│   ├── services/         # Shared business logic
│   └── server.js         # Express server entry point
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/        # Page components by role
│   │   ├── components/   # Shared UI components
│   │   ├── context/      # Global state (Auth)
│   │   ├── api.js        # API communication
│   │   └── main.jsx      # React entry point
│   └── index.html        # HTML template

User Roles

• Admin — System management, request approvals, user verification
• Archaeologist — Excavation projects, team management, artifact documentation
• Excavation Team — Field assignments, tool requests, project reporting
• Museum Manager — Artifact loans, exhibitions, inventory management
• General Public — Discovery reporting, knowledge hub access, Q&A

Key Features

• Role-based access control (RBAC) across all user types
• Excavation project and field team management
• Artifact loan and museum inventory management
• Research and discovery report generation
• AI-assisted artifact identification and search
• Knowledge resource hub with advanced search

Setup & Installation

1. Backend Setup

   cd backend
   npm install
   # Configure .env with database credentials
   npm start

2. Frontend Setup

   cd frontend
   npm install
   npm run dev

Running it (with seed data)

cd backend  && npm install && npm run seed && npm run dev
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

backend/.env is included in this archive. The seed script clears the database before repopulating it.

Login Credentials

Every seeded account uses the password password123.

Role	NID
Government / Admin	AD001, AD002
Archaeologist	A001, A002, A003
Excavation Team	E001, E002, E003
Museum Manager	MM001, MM002, MM003
General Public	PUB001, PUB002