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Dear all,
We are delighted to announce the launch of the 'National
Zooarchaeological Reference Resource' (NZRR), a specimen-level
search portal for vertebrate skeletal collections in the UK. If
you've ever found yourself desperately emailing colleagues to find
that elusive specimen of chamois, burbot, etc., then this may be
the solution.
Funded by a grant from Historic England, the NZRR so far includes
data from 10 university zooarchaeology labs, 5 museums, one
charitable trust, one private collection, and Historic England's
own zooarchaeology lab. We are expecting to add several additional
collections in the near future, and welcome further submissions.
The resource is hosted by the Archaeology Data Service and is now
live at the following link:
https://doi.org/10.5284/1043267
Please take a look, try out some queries, and let us know what
you think. Comments on the search interface are particularly
welcome: we're still working on this and already have a list of
improvements in the pipeline.
Comments are also very welcome from those outside the UK: we're
hoping this might develop into an international resource
eventually. If anyone knows of similar initiatives in other
countries we'd be very glad to hear about them!
Thanks,
David Orton
Eva Fairnell