Data Bank Applications in Archaeology [antikvár]

Preface The advent of electronic computers has had far reaching implications for human society, and the trend is accelerating and rapidly spreading into ever increasing new roles. Archaeology, like many disciplines, is experiencing the impact of this new technology. Historically, archaeology followed closely In the footsteps of the physical and natural sciences In exploiting the power of the computer In mathematical and statistical applications. Within the last decade, a new role of computer use, broader in scope, has begun to evolve—the automating of data bank management. This new focus Is due In part to the Increased availability of large-scale computers and Inexpensive data storage facilities. However, the major Impetus has been the theoretical and methodological concerns that have evolved within archaeology Itself. Archaeologists are faced with an expanding base of Information and are interested In a complexity of questions that necessitate Inquiry and selective extraction of logically related Items from a large and diverse body of Information. The role of data management may appear as an extension from earlier ad hoc applications. In one sense this Is so, but the attendant problems, both technical and methodological, have made this a slow, and often painful process. We are still faced with some of the earlier problems: What data should be computerized? What are the functions and uses of data banks? Should descriptions be standardized and compatible? Perhaps two of the most critical problems of the late 1970s, and ones that will have long term Implications, concern the procedural and administrative questions of data access and data safeguards. In many respects, archaeology Is in Its adolescence In terms of computerized data management and information systems. Hopefully, we have progressed from the "nuts and bolts" Infancy into more effective approaches. The road has been long and filled with trials and errors. We are still experimenting but one thing Is clear—we are on the right track and the computer offers a solution to the tedious manual approaches to data bank applications. With the growing awareness by archaeologists of the vast potential that computerized Information systems hold, coupled with the ever Increasing technical advances In the computer Industry Itself, this book Is a timely effort to draw together the current "state of the art" of data bank applications in archaeology. It must be viewed as a starting point for future trends and applications. The terms "data bank" and "data base" often are used Interchangeably In the literature. Historically, the term data bank became associated with archaeological applications, while data base Is more general In other disciplines. In this book, "data bank" refers to collections of multiple record types, containing relationships between records and data items. The authors herein are concerned with more than the simple storing of vast quantities of data. It Is the management of the data so that these can be used for a wide variety of applications that is the important consideration. Ad hoc designs are wasteful and tend to discourage cross correlations that are critical to many areas of research. Ideally, data should be Independent of the programs using them so that they can be added to or restructured without changing the programs. Additionally, It should be possible to Interrogate and search the data bank without the lengthy operation of writing programs In conventional program languages. There are many different ways In which a data bank can be structured, and each has particular advantages and disadvantages. Archaeologists require many distinct kinds of data that require unique structures. The optimum data bank organization and management techniques are not always obvious. It Is this uncertainty that makes the problem controver-