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Title
Close-range imaging, long-range vision


THE DIGITAL DATABASE IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Paul F. Jacobs
Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University, MS 39762 USA
pfil @ra.msstate.edu
KEY WORDS: Archaeology, Archiving, Databases, History, Measurement, Photogrammetry, Publication
ABSTRACT:
In archaeology the creation of a usable database is of paramount importance to the discipline in light developments in
information technology, for several reasons. First, because excavated materials remain the properties of the host
country in which they were found, the artifacts tend to become inaccessible except by visiting the storage facilities of
the archaeological authorities,. Second, since final printed reports frequently eliminate the majority of items for
publication, it is essential that excavation projects prepare accessible databases with complete reporting of artifacts and
data. Such databases--now possible to publish using digital technology-- provide the means for scholars to perform
detailed analysis via the digital presentations of all found artifacts, including color, manufacture technique, ware
analysis, and measurements, thus permitting comparison to other collections and even reinterpretation by other scholars
of the full data set. In this poster session the 817 ceramic figurines found in excavation at Tell Halif, Israel, will
demonstrate techniques of digital photography, VR presentations, and photogrammetry that permit detailed analysis of



artifacts through digital manipulation.
MANUSCRIPT
A chief task of archaeology is the interpretation (not
simply recovery) of human artifact remains, most of
which by their nature are mute symbols of systems of
values as well as of worlds of mundane concerns. The
exercise of that task—because there are seldom verbal
guides or visual depictions to point us to meaning or
function—relies heavily on inference derived from
close observation of the artifact collection in its milieu
and from observation of bodies of contemporary
artifacts from other excavations, in order to gain
detailed comparisons from as many similar contexts
and collections as possible. Simply put, to understand
what has been uncovered from the soil requires
comparison to what others have recovered, an
essential ingredient in the processes of interpretation.
Indeed, rather precise, detailed data (measurements,
composition, color, style, manufacture, provenience,
ware, etc.) derived from artifact remains are critical to
successful interpretation. Older presentations of
artifact collections which report little more than
quantities of artifacts simply do not meet that purpose.
Archaeologists have realized this condition of the
discipline probably since the beginnings of systematic
recovery of the past from the soil: needed are detailed
data to manipulate, whole bodies of comparative
materials to review, in order to assign significance to
their own collections. Direct, physical access to these
assemblages of artifacts is optimum, though ordinarily
inconvenient at best. In the case of the Lahav
Research Project ceramic figurines, direct access has been
limited to in-country (Israel) use, a situation that involves
significant travel expense. (The Lahav Research Project
has resorted, then, to the creation of complete databases to
aid researchers while away from the primary collection
itself.) Access to comparative collections is also often
refused by excavators, even though “final publication” has
been completed. These limitations make comparative
collections—sometimes even the primary collection of the
Lahav Research Project—essentially inaccessible. A
universally available digital database of artifact collections,
like the Lahav Research Project figurine database, promises
better to meet the needs of interpretation.
Fortunately, the availability of digital recording and
reporting devices has stirred archaeology to explore the
potentials of recording (a) in detail (b) all of the artifacts in
a set—in contrast to publishing the few representative
samples afforded by traditional media (journals and books).
An example of the potential of “total publication” is the
work by the Lahav Research Project (Phase III) in the
treatment of ceramic and stone figurines recovered in
excavation at Tell Halif; author Jacobs has prepared for
publication all 817 in combinations of multiple
photographs, line-drawings, and VR movies. Digital
publication features not only the finest and rare artifacts,
but all examples from the whole to the non-identifiable
fragment. The Tell Halif figurines—viewed as a database
for comparison with other collections—does not skew the
data in favor of the aesthetically pleasing or the unique,
since all samples are present to the user. (In contrast,
traditional publication requires extreme limitations on the
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