The Hitchhikers Thesaurus to the Galaxy.......of course!
Ben Wallace
(Historic Environment Record Assistant, Worcester City Museums, Archaeology
Service):)
-----Original Message-----
From: Carlisle, Philip [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 February 2003 11:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] Evidence term
Which thesaurus?
-----Original Message-----
From: Pringle, Mike [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 February 2003 11:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] Evidence term
It is true that, for retrieval purposes, it would be useful to have one or
two further levels in the thesaurus!
-----Original Message-----
From: martin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 February 2003 11:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] Evidence term
Hello Ron, Edmund,
Just an opinion from an outsider:
If such a thing has the nature of both, then it seems to me:
It is neither required nor useful to classify the trackbed with one term.
Terms in a database are for retrieval, not for a scientific dispute. If one
is not clear, which term to use, no one else can later guess, what the
decision was. Consequently, half of the queries will fail. For me, this
means that we MUST use both terms, it is not a matter of choice.
The other thing this discussion tells me, is, that the Thesaurus is missing
an appropriate generalization. All those things fall in the CIDOC CRM under
Man-Made Feature, for instance.
Best,
Martin
Lee, Edmund wrote:
> Hello Ron,
>
>
>
> The scope note for Earthwork in the NMR Evidence Thesaurus (available
> via the INSCRIPTION pages at www.fish-forum.info
> <http://www.fish-forum.info> ) reads...
>
>
>
> 'Evidence consists of upstanding earth mounds, ditches, artificial
> watercourses or low stone built features.'
>
>
>
> For Structure the scope note reads...
>
> 'Evidence consists of an above-ground artificial structure, originally
> designed without roof or walls.'
>
>
>
> My first instinct is that earthwork seems the better term (sorry
> Thomas!). I think this gives a better feel for e.g. the sort of
> causeway or embankment that often accompanies the track bed. However
> its a judgement call - I'd say the most important thing is to be
> consistent. I associate Structure more with walls, standing stones,
> memorials, street furniture etc.
>
>
>
> Of course this assumes that the evidence here is 'physical' evidence.
> It isn't possible to simply say 'the evidence for X type of monument
> is always 'Y'' as it depends on what the circumstances are. For
> example, in the absence of a field visit, or if the site has been
> entirely destroyed, a railway may only be known from documentary
> sources (e.g. a map).
>
>
>
> Edmund Lee
> Forum Co-ordinator
> Forum on Information Standards in Heritage
>
> --------------------------------------------
> To join FISH send the following text to [log in to unmask]
> join fish
> --
> ... its that easy!
> --------------------------------------------
>
>
>
--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Martin Doerr | Vox:+30(2810)391625 |
Principle Researcher | Fax:+30(2810)391609 |
Project Leader SIS | Email: [log in to unmask] |
|
Information Systems Laboratory |
Institute of Computer Science |
Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) |
|
Vassilika Vouton,P.O.Box1385,GR71110 Heraklion,Crete,Greece |
|
Web-site: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl |
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