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.
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Cite this as: Gray, J. and Walford, K. 1999 One Good Site Deserves Another: Electronic Publishing in Field Archaeology, Internet Archaeology 7. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.7.2

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.

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Features

This article will appeal to: those interested in electronic publication in archaeology, archaeology and XML.
Keywords: electronic publication; results; fieldwork; XML; site reports; searches; CD ROM; Internet