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Help & guidance Guides to Good Practice

Subsets of documentation

Armin Schmidt and Eileen Ernenwein, 2nd edition, Archaeology Data Service / Digital Antiquity, Guides to Good Practice

As mentioned in Documenting and archiving, the Archive consists of three main components: (i) geophysics data, (ii) project material and (iii) project documentation. The latter includes geophysics metadata, geophysics georeferencing, project metadata and file description. The metadata can be thought of as that information that can easily be stored in a database and Comprehensive documentation introduces a comprehensive list of metadata fields that are most relevant for the documentation of archaeological geophysical projects. However, some Archiving Bodies store only a subset of these fields in their database or may use slightly different field names, thereby often only offering a subset of the Comprehensive Documentation. In addition, they may insist on the use of particular term lists. When compiling the relevant metadata, for example in an in-house database, it is advisable to start with a fairly comprehensive set of documentation and then ‘thin it out’ according to what the selected Archiving Body can hold. If the characteristics of these varying practices were captured in XML schemas and RDF vocabularies, automatic translators could be designed to facilitate simple data exchange.

To illustrate subsets of the Comprehensive Documentation it is useful to look at the ADS archive and the ADS ArchSearch database, the OASIS database, and the English Heritage geophysical survey database (EH GSdb). Out of these only the ADS can be considered an Archiving Body as it provides full archiving services for data and metadata, with data migration, preservation and accessibility (Level 4 – Accessible Archiving, in The archive and the archiving body). However, its main search interface, ArchSearch, uses only a subset of the metadata (derived from Dublin Core metadata) when facilitating the discovery of the Archive over the Internet. In contrast, OASIS and the EH GSdb use a very full subset of the Comprehensive Documentation but do not store the rest of the Archive, like data files, georeferencing information etc. Table 5 provides the mapping of metadata fields between the Comprehensive Documentation of Subsets of documentation and OASIS, the EH GSdb and the fields used in ArchSearch. Other Archiving Bodies and database holders will also have developed relevant data structures for their databases and mapping these subsets to the Comprehensive Documentation should not pose too much of a problem.

Table 5: Mapping of documentation: Comprehensive, OASIS, EH GSdb, ArchSearch.

Project Information
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Survey name Project Details: Project Name Project Title Project Title
Survey index Project Details: Identifier; Type Survey index Identifiers
Survey purpose Project Details: Type of Project; Description Purpose of Survey Description
Report summary Project Details: Description Synopsis of report content Description
Bibliographic references Project Bibliography section Bibliographic References Relations
Survey keywords Project Details: Monument Type; Significant Finds Archaeological Feature Classifications Subject
Spatial coverage Project Location: Study Area; Site Coordinates Grid Reference Coverage
Administrative area Project Location: District/Unitary Authority; Parish County/Unitary Authority Coverage
State Project Location: County Coverage
Country (England; Scotland; Wales depending on form used.) Country Coverage
Solid geology Project Details – Geophysics: Solid Geology Solid Geology
Drift geology Project Details – Geophysics: Drift Geology Drift Geology
Duration Project Details: Project Dates Occurred between Dates
Weather Weather
Soil condition
Land use Project Details: Current Land Use Land use
Monument type Project Details: Monument Type Monuments covered Subject
Monument period Project Details: Period Monument period Coverage
Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) number Project Details: Identifier (Type = ‘SM No.’) Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) number Identifiers
Surveyor Project Creators: Name of Organisation; Project Director/Manager; Project Supervisor Surveyor/Personnel Creators
Client Project Creators: Project Brief Originator; Type of Sponsor/Funding Body Client Creators
Depositor Project Creators: Name of Organisation Depositor Creators
Primary archive Project Archives: Physical; Digital; Paper – all fields Primary archive Relations
Related archives Project Archives: Physical; Digital; Paper – all fields Related archives Relations
Copyright Copyright Copyright
Term list Dependent on Monument / Artefact fields and location of site (i.e. relevant English, Scottish, Welsh lists)
Geophysics Metadata
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Survey type Techniques Geophysical Techniques Used Resource Type
Instrumentation Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Instrumentation / Instrument Type Instrument Type/Instrument make
Reasons for choice of survey technique
Area surveyed Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Size of Survey Area Area Surveyed
Method of coverage Method of coverage
Traverse separation Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Traverse Separation Traverse Separation
Line separation
Reading interval Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Reading Interval Reading Interval
Sampling position
Data grid size
Accuracies
Additional remarks Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Notes Comments on Survey
Earth Resistance Surveys
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Electrode configuration Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Resistivity: Electrode Configuration Electrode configuration
Electrode spacing Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Resistivity: Electrode Separation; Electrode Separation Qualifier Electrode separation
Multiple configurations
Magnetometer Surveys
Magnetic north
Instrument drift
Low Frequency Electromagnetic Surveys
Coil configuration Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Electromagnetic: Coil Separation; Frequency; Phase
Recorded component Notes
Ground Penetrating Radar Surveys
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Antenna information Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Ground Penetrating Radar: Centre Frequency of Antennae
Timing information Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Ground Penetrating Radar: Time Window;
Average subsurface velocity Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Ground Penetrating Radar: Average Subsurface Velocity
Maritime Sonar Surveys
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Average water velocity Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Marine – multibeam echosounder: Average Water Velocity
Sonar frequency Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Marine – multibeam echosounder: Frequency
Beam width at nadir Project Details – Geophysical techniques: Marine – multibeam echosounder: Beam Width Nadir
Survey Methodology
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS Form Field EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Data grid layout
Data grid size
Resolution
Survey direction
Line sequence
Drift value
Bias value
Report
Comprehensive Documentation OASIS (form field titles – not DB fields) EHGSdb Dublin Core (ArchSearch)
Report title Project Bibliography: Title Report Title
Report reference number Project Bibliography: Other bibliographic details Report Number
Report author Project Bibliography: Author / Editor Author/Report Date
Report holder Project Bibliography: Place of Issue or Publication Report held by

In addition, the term list used for the field Survey type differs between different organisations, as indicated in Table 6. The mapping between them is straight forward.

Table 6: Term lists for the field Survey type

Comprehensive Documentation OASIS EH GSdb
Magnetometer Survey (land based) Magnetometry Magnetometer
Magnetometer Survey (marine) Marine – Magnetometry
Magnetic Susceptibility (volume- or mass specific susceptibility); including random samples, gridded, lab based measurement of samples and field based in-situ measurements” Magnetic Susceptibility Magnetic Susceptibility
Earth Resistance Survey Resistivity – Area Resistivity
Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI); including pseudosections and tomography Resistivity – Profile Resistivity Profile
Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) Resistivity Depth Sounding
Electrostatic Survey
Low Frequency Electromagnetic Electromagnetic Electro-magnetic Survey
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Ground Penetrating Radar Ground Penetrating Radar
Seismic Seismic Seismic Refraction
Microgravity Microgravity Microgravity
Magnetotelluric
Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic (VLF)
Radioactivity
Side Scan Sonar (SSS) Marine – Side Scan Sonar
Singlebeam Echosounder Marine – Singlebeam Echosounder
Multibeam Echosounder Marine – Multibeam Echosounder
Sub-bottom Profiler Marine – Sub-bottom Profiler