One Good Site Deserves Another: Electronic Publishing in Field Archaeology

John Gray and Karen Walford

Azuli IT, Unit 337, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AA.
Tel: +44 (0) 121 688 8897, Fax: +44 (0) 8700 522 849
http://www.azuli.co.uk, info@azuli.co.uk

Summary

Electronic publication offers field archaeologists the opportunity to publish the results of their fieldwork in a rapid and cost-effective manner. There is the potential for even greater benefits if such publications can be made usefully searchable.

In this paper, we look at the current state of electronic publication in archaeology and consider the shortcomings of existing search tools on the web. We then propose an XML-based approach to creating 'structured site descriptions'. These would form an integral part of web-published site reports or summaries, and contain information similar to that found in the abstract or summary of a conventional printed report. The difference (and consequently the benefit) lies in the way this information is structured, enabling users to conduct moderately complex searches more effectively than is currently possible.

Go to Table of Contents


 NEXT   CONTENTS   HOME 

© Internet Archaeology