How to describe an archaeological object
-
Upload
hgeake -
Category
Technology
-
view
1.154 -
download
1
Transcript of How to describe an archaeological object
![Page 1: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Principles of object description
1. An audio description for a blind person
2. Replacing the object with a record
3. The PAS’s ‘shop window’
![Page 2: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Relationship between text and images
If we’ve got an image, why do we need all this text?
• Searching image labels is a very blunt tool giving imprecise results
• The wrong image may be attached or the image may become detached
• It makes the identifier look very closely and analytically at the object
![Page 3: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Relationship between text and images
If we’ve got an image, why do we need all this text?
• Searching image labels is a very blunt tool giving imprecise results
• The wrong image may be attached or the image may become detached
• It makes the identifier look very closely and analytically at the object
![Page 5: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Audiences and searchers
There are many users of our data – HER officers, planners, finds specialists, students, finders, the general public
Will all of the people interested in this object be able to find it again?
![Page 6: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
These will make records unfindable
• Spelling and typing mistakes, e.g. broach, boarder, chaffing dish, seal matirx, etc.
• The wrong object term being used, e.g. ‘strap fitting’ for a stirrup-strap mount
• The wrong classification being used, e.g. ‘cruciform’ for a cross-shaped brooch or ‘equal-armed’ for an ansate brooch
• Several terms used for the same concept, e.g. pierced, perforated, holed
![Page 7: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
These will make records unintelligible!
• Information scattered about the record in a random order
• Ambiguity in words or phrasing
• Abbreviations and writing in note form
• Too much jargon
![Page 8: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
KENT4547
FAHG-123AB4
![Page 9: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
LON-B3C3C1
![Page 10: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
SUSS-0DF748
![Page 11: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
These will make records unintelligible!
• Information scattered about the record in a random order
• Ambiguity in words or phrasing
• Abbreviations and writing in note form
• Too much jargon
![Page 12: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
These are all ‘round’ but all must be described differently
![Page 13: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Buns More buns
![Page 14: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Bun-shaped… … or bun shaped objects on the PAS database
![Page 15: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
ESS-581F82
![Page 16: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
back
reverse
YORYM-1716A4
![Page 17: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
The first section is circular in section, but the second section has a rectangular section and the last section is triangular in section.
Too many sections
![Page 18: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
LON-B3C3C1
![Page 19: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
LANCUM-593AA1
SWYOR-C16415
‘thin’
‘narrow’
![Page 20: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
“two rows of small triangular indentations run along both longitudinal edges”
- there are two rows, but not along both edges!
![Page 21: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
These will make records unintelligible!
• Information scattered about the record in a random order
• Ambiguity in words or phrasing
• Abbreviations and writing in note form
• Too much jargon
![Page 22: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Don’t copy something like this (NMS736):
EPM Ae sword chape, double-concave attachment edge between central projection front and back, trefoils on sides pierced for attachment, traces of engraved linear decoration, knop at terminal, 42 x 30mm. Cf. de Reuck, no. 231.
![Page 23: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Short descriptions for objects that exist in museum collections
from Middle Harling, Norfolk (East Anglian Archaeology 74)
![Page 24: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
• Measurements can need supporting information (e.g. ‘Surviving length 42.4 mm, original length c. 60 mm; or 8.5 mm wide in the centre, tapering to 6.8 mm wide at either end)
• Dates can need argument to back them up (e.g. ‘this object type is most common in the 14th century, but the use of niello inlaid in a criss-cross pattern suggests a late 15th- if not early 16th-century date for this particular example’ or ‘Margeson (1993, no. 258) illustrates a similar object from a 17th-century context in Norwich’)
• Completeness – it helps to know whether the break is fresh (showing possible recent agricultural damage) or worn (possibly broken in antiquity or showing long-term agricultural damage).
• Material – for a copper-alloy and iron item, which parts are copper alloy and which parts iron?
![Page 25: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
‘Oval shaped’ = oval‘Oval shaped in form’ = oval‘Triangular shaped’ = triangular, etc etc etc
A medieval copper-alloy buckle. The buckle has a frame and plate. The buckle’s frame is oval. The oval frame has a straight bar. The straight bar is square in cross-section. On the straight bar is a copper-alloy pin. The pin has an open loop.
etc etc etc ad nauseam!
Avoid unnecessary words
![Page 26: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
SF-B236E4
![Page 27: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
LANCUM-3DF1F3
![Page 28: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Anglo-Scandinavian stirrup terminal, NMS-364F65
Post-medieval book clasp, SF6153
![Page 29: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Modern objects
1. The finder is desperate to get something on the database and you want to be kind
2. A good example of a difficult object, although not in itself intrinsically interesting
3. It has research potential
GLO-6A97F0
BERK-600AC6
The usual cut-off date is c. 1700 AD, but there are exceptions:
SF-083C15
![Page 30: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
LVPL-0B5F41
correct
not correct!
LVPL-340D82
![Page 31: How to describe an archaeological object](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062418/556989b3d8b42a673a8b484c/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)