The electronic publication of archaeological field reports using XML

The electronic publication of archaeological field
reports using XML

Christiane
Meckseper

Humanities Research Institute,
University of Sheffield
ch.meckseper@sheffield.ac.uk

Claire
Warwick
Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield
c.warwick@sheffield.ac.uk

2002

University of Tübingen

Tübingen

ALLC/ACH 2002

editor

Harald
Fuchs

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

Overview:
This paper will look at the use and potential of electronic publication and
the usability of the markup language XML for the publication of field
reports by commercial archaeological units. The field reports fall into the
field of grey literature as they are produced as client reports by
archaeological units as part of the planning process and do not receive
official publication or widespread dissemination. It has been recognised,
however, that the reports contain valuable information that would be useful
for research purposes as well as for other commercial units and the public
and that suitable means should be found in order to disseminate that
information.
The basis for the project is a case study undertaken by the author, who was
part of the Department of Information Studies at the University of
Sheffield, in conjunction with a small commercial unit, Archaeological
Research and Consultancy at the University of Sheffield (ARCUS). Current
publication practices within academic and commercial archaeology were
reviewed and the ARCUS field reports were used in order to test the
usability of XML for the markup and electronic publication of those
reports.

Background:
The dissemination of archaeological information and data is still mainly
undertaken in the format of the traditional paper-based excavation report.
However, archaeological data is now increasingly being collected and stored
in a digital format and the advent of the Internet has also raised the
issues of electronic publication and dissemination of data and site reports
via this medium. Electronic publication is taking place, but it is still few
and far between and mainly restricted to academic research projects.
In Britain, archaeological practice outside the university research
environment is restricted to interventions undertaken as part of the
planning process and is funded entirely by the “polluter pays” principle.
This has emphasised a dilemma archaeological practice was increasingly faced
with. On the one hand, it has become just a small part of the planning
process and is governed by the same commercial principles as any other
development contractor. On the other, the results it produces are still seen
as “academic” and a basis for research. There is an innate duty or ethic
within archaeology to disseminate results and to produce syntheses of
material. However, the funds provided usually do not allow more than the
implementation of an immediate mitigation strategy for development and the
production of a minimal “developer’s report”.
A recent survey of user needs concerning publication and dissemination of
data within archaeology (“PUNS survey”, Jones et al 2001) undertaken by the
Council of British Archaeology (CBA) identified that even though fieldwork
reports are one of the most frequently consulted types of archaeological
literature, grey reports have a limited audience beyond the commercial
domain due to the difficulty in access and lack of awareness of that
literature. It also stressed that many archaeologists are dissatisfied with
this situation as they feel that information of relevance to their work is
being produced of which they are unaware.

Proposed paper:
This paper addresses some of the problems of dissemination raised by the PUNS
survey and also other issues inherent in the publication an dissemination of
archaeological data like the provision of adequate metadata and the
searchability of archaeological information on-line. It describes the use of
XML and a modified version of the TEI lite DTD of the Oxford Text Encoding
Initiative for the mark up of a sample of ARCUS excavation reports. It also
looks at the possibility of incorporating controlled archaeological
vocabulary into the DTD. It raises questions about current practices of
electronic publication within archaeology and the availability and
searchability of data provided by the discipline for research purposes.

Results:
It was found that the electronic publication of grey reports would be very
useful for as it would allow a quicker response time and a rapid
dissemination of information within the fast moving and changing environment
of commercial archaeology. XML would be a useful and economic tool for the
publication of field reports as it would allow users to selectively download
separate sections of field reports which are of particular importance to
them. Archaeology-specific elements would also allow a better context
specific searchability of reports on the web. However, it is acknowledged
that XML is still a technology in its infancy and also that it is beyond the
financial capabilities of many small commercial units to implement a system
of electronic publication. An important point that needs to be raised is
that national archaeological institutions will have to accept electronic
versions of field reports in order for them to be formally recognised and be
able to be built into the financial framework of a commercial project
design.

Relevance to ALLC-ACH themes:
The paper is of particular relevance to the themes of the ALLC-ACH conference
as it addresses the issues of the development of new methodologies in one
discipline that will have a considerable impact on others. The electronic
publication of commercial field reports will provide indispensable
information not only for other commercial units but also for academic
research, thus helping to bring together two increasingly diverging fields.
Archaeological data is also used by other disciplines within the Humanities
and Sciences, like anthropology, sociology, earth sciences and others.
Archaeological site reports also consist not only of text but of a wide
variety of images and the electronic medium could provide increasing
resources such as 3D reconstruction or even audio and video data. The
quicker response time of the electronic medium and the increasing
availability of primary archaeological data should also allow users to
examine the assumptions upon which previous interpretations are presented
and to facilitate the development of their own models, thus fundamentally
changing the nature of discourse within archaeology and the humanities in
general.

Reference

S.
Jones

A.
MacSween

S.
Jeffrey

R.
Morris

M.
Heyworth

From the Ground Up. The Publication of Archaeological
Projects: a user needs survey

2001

[Online]. Available at: [Accessed:
31.8.2001].