52 Archaeological Geology (Posters)

Tuesday, 6 November 2001
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM


A REAL-TIME GEO-ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATABASE & SEARCH ENGINE FOR THE CAVE OF LETTERS, ISRAEL

Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM


Authors


Abstract

Archaeological data sets were collected in the Cave of Letters, Israel, during the John F. Merrill Expedition (July, 2000). The research site was a cave in which Jewish rebels hid from the Romans during the Bar Kokbha revolt (132-135 CE; Yadin, 1972). The data were collected in real-time which increased data accuracy and entry effeciency of the archeological finds. Mixed with coordinate locations and input into a relational database enables Archaeological data to be accessed by any database application. The research tools used to collect and build the database were Field Notes, a real-time Geographical Information Systems (GIS) program, and a Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 Pentop computer. The project rebuilt a relational database and examined its effectiveness of increasing the ease at which Archaeological finds are stored within cave environments. The work conducted led to a design in a new “modular” database which can be applied to any site, any where in the world. A large scale java application was designed to provide creation / modification / and search functions to the database. This allows for easy database maintence. A fully interactive and internationally accessable web page (www.uwec.edu/col) is online to provide a user with the ability to search any location within the cave and view any artifact(s) / artifact information found. The research provides: 1) A fully portable relational database, 2) Web access to the data , and 3) Background data for further professional and student research.involving Archaeological Real-Time database applications.