Archaeology

Beckensall’s archive of Northumberland rock art has provided the inspiration for the development of a unique interactive, database-driven website, which provides virtual access to this cultural resource. It is believed to be the most detailed website of its kind globally.

The project aimed to develope and evaluate portable and transparent methods and tools based on SGML/XML for managing complex document collections. As a test case we examined patterns of co-operation and disagreement between people as expressed in legal documents of the 18th century from southern Corsica concerning rights over property. Our approach aimed to relate coding, modelling, interpretation and catalogue entries with the source material, resulting in a layered representation that includes references to as much of the research context as possible.

"The resource known as the Linacre College Oxford Expedition: Scene-details Database was envisaged by its author in the early 1980s - but the opportunity to devise the initial framework and content of a database, and to undertake the academic and technical work necessary for its publication online, did not present itself until much later, in 2003.

"The 'Stone in Archaeology - Towards a Digital Resource' project is based on the large archaeological comparative rock collection housed in the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton. The main aim of the project has been to create an easily accessible, unique, multidisciplinary, searchable relational database which comprises the principal stones known to be used in antiquity throughout England.