Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Post-excavation processing

• Mari homepage
• Mari News

In 2009, MARI started a joint project with the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) of the Cyprus Institute regarding the digitalising of excavation data from the Late Bronze Age near Hala Sultan Tekke.

The Swedish excavation campaigns under the direction of Paul Åström are documented in a full-text, mainly hand written archive, including feature forms, find forms, pottery forms, notes, drawings and maps, as well as analogue photos. Despite the publication of preliminary reports in 12 volumes, much of the post-excavation analysis of e.g. stratigraphy, architecture, pottery and other artefacts is yet to be performed.
Our primary concern is to process the Hala Sultan Tekke excavation archive in an optimal way. Using traditional methods in combination with a relational database cannot fulfill the requirements dealing with the complexity of the excavations dataset. However, a computer system using state-of-the-art technologies, such as semantic tools, standards and thesauri, offers a method to:
1) preserve the integrity of the original information,
2) include spatial relations,
3) guarantee interoperability, relying on the CIDOC-CRM for encoding and
4) incorporate geographic elements and relations.

Annotation Interface

GIS Interface
Up