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Hey Bob, You may feel it is obvious to have joined up thinking, but it is still not common. Bravo for pushing it all through. Of course, as someone who spends most of his days looking at ways to link up multiscaular forms of investigation, I am obviously very happy to see new initiatives to do this. Considering the impact of the 'digital revolution' (crap term I know, but the only one I can think of) on site recording, one that could produce links between intra- and inter site records, I wonder how HER Officers feel about the changing nature of the records? Tom ~~~~~~~~ Dr. Thomas L. Evans MA, MPhil, MIFA Research Fellow, Oxford Archaeology ------------------------------ The views and opinions contained within this email are not necessarily those of Oxford Archaeology. ------------------------------ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Jones" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: 18 January 2008 03:29:11 o'clock (GMT-0800) America/Los_Angeles Subject: Re: HER for researchers Not sure if this will answer your question, Will, but here in Bristol we get quite a few requests from researchers which we frankly feel ill-prepared to deal with, usually surrounding artefact types and distributions. To my mind HERs cope well with sites and monuments and the distributions of these but struggle in dealing with the detail, especially of artefacts - after all a major excavation can produce literally thousands of artefacts and there is no way that an HER can cope with such a volume of data. Nor should it. With my colleagues from the museum, who, coincidentally are embarking on a new database set up, we will be looking at creating links between the museum data, which records artefacts, and the HER, which has details of the sites. This is being encouraged by the current work on setting up a new Museum of Bristol, due 2010, which will hopefully allow access to both museum and HER data. All this is probably fairly obvious - just joined-up thinking really - but I suspect that I and my museum colleagues have been guilty of a silo mentality in the past. Will let you know how things go. Bob Bob Jones BA, FSA, MIFA City Archaeologist Planning Transport and Sustainable Development Brunel House St Georges Road Bristol BS1 5UY tel 0117 922 3044 fax 0117 922 3101 >>> [log in to unmask] 17/01/08 11:48 >>> Dear Will Welcome to the HER forum - I hope you find it interesting. As you will have heard, SMRs/HERs have evolved over numerous years, incorporating data from a huge variety of sources to varying degrees of accuracy and detail. How sites are handled as single and multiple records is a product of this long process, and shaped by the limitations of former and current software. As Alex and Peter say, to record each and every find as a single HER record would make an unwieldy volume of data, so HER officers have to make judgement calls about grouping and splitting information into usable chunks. For some background on the issues you might find this chapter of the HER manual useful http://www.ifp-plus.info/Part_C.htm#C.4 I can understand your need to split the data for research purposes. A period and functional based grouping would be good start (e.g splitting each record into Neolithic, BA, IA and so on, splitting isolated find spots from definable monument complexes/site types), where you can plot distributions of different periods and types. This is the approach I adopt generally in compiling the Cambs HER data, but others will follow different approaches. I would also suggest it would useful to maintain the cross references to the HER data to ensure your data can be referred back to the original source. Good luck with your project Sarah **************************** Sarah Poppy Senior Archaeologist Cambridgeshire Archaeology ELH 1108 Shire Hall Cambridge CB3 0AP tel: 01223 717312 fax: 01223 717308 [log in to unmask] www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/archaeology Access the Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record online via the Heritage Gateway www.heritagegateway.org.uk -----Original Message----- From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Bowden William Sent: 16 January 2008 14:17 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: HER for researchers Dear All, I have recently joined the forum (as of yesterday), and come from a background away from HERs. Apologies for bothering you all with something that might have previously been discussed. My interest arises from the project I am developing around the Roman town at Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk. As well as work at the town itself, the project involves a substantial field survey covering around 25 parishes. As part of this we are incorporating all the relevant HER data within a GIS platform. The main issue that we are trying to deal with is the fact that the Norfolk HER has developed in a fairly ad hoc way from its days as the the SMR. It is also structured (obviously) around locations defined with HER numbers. As a result, a single HER number can encompass multiple finds of multiple periods, which does not lend to it being easily interrogated for research purposes. If I want to see (for example) "all sites with 3rd century coins" the current HER does not allow me to do it. Equally a lot of key data is still on paper. We are getting round this by "atomising" the entire HER for the Caistor survey area, meaning that each find or whatever is given its own discrete and spatially defined entry. We are also refining the dating information wherever possible, as the broad period bands used within the HER (e.g. AD 43-409 for Roman) are too broad for our purposes, so we are ascribing tighter numeric values where possible. The data can then be reassembled within the GIS in any combination we like. It is a fairly daunting task but not an insurmountable one, and we think it will have great benefits for the project. I hope also that it will point the way towards a method whereby HER data can be made more easily accessible for researchers, who often dismiss HER data as being too random and variable to be useful. I am interested to find out if anyone else is engaged in this sort of exercise. David Gurney from Norfolk Landscape Archaeology suggested the HER forum would be the best place to ask. Many thanks Will Bowden Dr Will Bowden Department of Archaeology University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD Tel. 0115 951 4830 This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you receive this email by mistake please notify the sender and delete it immediately. Opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Cambridgeshire County Council. 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