A New Concept GIS for Archaeological Studies 
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Figure 2: The relational database scheme 
2.2 Metadata in archaeological GIS 
A method has been proposed for the archiving of primary data in this archaeological database using a metadata structure that follows 
the guidelines proposed by the European Committee for the standardisation of geographic information (CEN/CT 287). Metadata 
consists in the documentation of data, while access to metadata allows one to know who has supplied the data, what the metric 
quality is and other useful information for the correct use of the data. Accessibility to the primary data means having complete 
access to such data and therefore the possibility of using it in the correct way. Metadata in fact give a global vision of the data 
features and allows one to select data that are suitable for the applications and have the possibility of making full use of the metric 
and descriptive data. 
This GIS has been implemented with a metadata structure that has been divided into nine sections: dataset identification, dataset 
overview, dataset quality elements, data definition, spatial reference system, extent, classification, administrative metadata and 
metadata reference. Each request for data visualisation is satisfied through different consultation masks that allow one to know the 
metadata link to the data request. All the information on the digital maps that are used in this project contain two kinds of metadata, 
the first gives general information on the reference systems while the second gives information on whether the map is raster or 
vector, on the scanner used for the acquisition, on the resolution of the images and so on (Fig 3). 
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Figure 3: Examples of Metadata consultation masks