I am interested to learn more about how other participants are recording and sharing their data (if you are). Are you using an in-house schema or an off-the-shelf commercial or open-source database? I would like get a general sense on what is out there.
The second aspect of my interest in data sharing is focused more directly on the classical archaeologists coming to THATCamp. The American Numismatics Society and ISAW just released Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE), which aims to create a record for every coin type in the Roman Imperial Coinage catalog. So far, we have all of the coin types from Augustus to Hadrian (ca. 27 BC – AD 138). Our data is open and accessible. One of the aims of OCRE is to link to coins contained in various public and private collections. OCRE can ingest weights, measurements, and findspots for quantitative and geographic analyses, but none of the American Numismatic Society coins have known findspots. I’d love to talk about linking OCRE to “real” archaeological finds. In order for OCRE to link to other coins, metadata has to be available in a machine-readable format, like RDF. Anything I can learn about other archaeological data recording systems can help me adapt OCRE to interact with them.
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Mandy Ranslow
July 27, 2012 at 1:11 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I think this sounds like a very interesting project. I am interested in making archaeological data available online to the public, and I have been involved in discussions on how that could be done with state archaeological site files. I do stuggle with making all the information public. Are find spot locations of particular coins part of the OCRE? How precise is the location information? Is there any concern about looting of these sites if this information is public? While I enthusiastically embrace the ability to share archaeological information with the public digitally, I wonder where we need to draw the line for preservation’s sake.
Ethan Gruber
July 27, 2012 at 7:49 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
This is an issue that we are tackling with coin hoards (3 or more coins found together in the same context) and also what the Portable Antiquities Scheme deals with daily. Archaeologists record precise geographical coordinates, but only make available to the public a more generalized “inhabited place” to prevent potential looting. With OCRE, we are interested in geographic distribution of coins on a more global scale. We’re not concerned that two specimens of a particular coin type are found in adjacent rooms in a shop in Pompeii, but we’d like to know that there are two coins found in Pompeii. For our purposes, the nearest ancient (or modern) place is good enough–Pompeii, Alexandria, Homs, etc. This record from the Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards merely lists Kerch in Crimea as its findspot.
Mandy Ranslow
July 30, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
So even though the lat/longs look pretty precise on that record, and I can plug them into Google Maps and get an exact location, it’s not necessarily the precise find spot of the coins?
Tim Goddard
July 30, 2012 at 8:31 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I am working both in Italy and the united states using Gis and/or WebGIS as a Portal to various databases. This way we don’t have to make one universal database(this has always been the problem in the past) we record everything in its spatial context as the unique identifier and then can link to a variety of different database types. This seems to give our projects the most flexibility to work with a wide variety data schema. As WebGIS expands there are many open and off the shelf options that work. With the advent of the cloud there are low cost solutions that don’t require a substantial infrastructure to build to host the WebGIS. As more archaeological websites abound the user interfaces will continue to reach a wider audience and allow them to access like never before. I think we are at a time were we need to experiment and work with the various stakeholders to develop user interfaces to meet their needs. A WebGIS I built in the states has found unexpected stakeholders such as realtors, architects, and school teachers beyond the historians, archaeologists, local homeowners, and students that I initially designed the site for.
Ethan Gruber
August 3, 2012 at 6:51 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hi Mandy,
The IGCH records findspots to the nearest modern town. The coordinates on the map aren’t the precise findspot, but coordinates of the town provided by wikipedia or geonames, which is usually the address of the town hall.
mmr03
August 5, 2012 at 11:03 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hi Ethan,
Brilliant! I like the idea. It will certainly allow the public and independent researchers to use general location data for spatial analysis without jeopardizing archaeological sites.
Brad Hafford
August 6, 2012 at 7:46 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
This is exactly the sort of thing I am hoping to discuss with everyone at THATCamp. Sharing data is what my project is all about and I’m particularly interested in how to share spatial information in an open-source way.
See you all at THATCamp CAA-NA
Brad