Linked Digital Version of Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town
We are very pleased to release a digital version of Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town
(2014). We have modified this copy of the manuscript to include links
to the archaeological data produced from 2003-2011 during almost a
decade of intensive pedestrian survey and study by the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP). We have published our data with the Open Context platform where it underwent basic review by the managing editor. By integrating PKAP field and study data with Pyla-Koutsopetria I, the reader can now “drill down” into the data through hyperlinked text in a pdf version of the book.
These links allow the reader to view the various digital
archaeological “objects” that form the basis for the arguments advanced
in this book. These digital archaeological objects range from individual
survey units with attendant descriptive data to individual artifacts or
batches of artifacts. We have also linked to the various categories of
artifacts in our typology. These followed the chronotype system which
both informed our sampling strategy in the survey and how we described
our finds. We assigned a type to each artifact based on the chronotype
naming conventions. These conventions combined a fabric or form with a
period and could range from the exceedingly broad - like Medium Coarse
Ware dating to the Ancient Historic period (750 BC- AD 749) – to much
more narrowly defined and specific categories like African Red Slip Form
99. We have also linked to the various chronological periods assigned
on the basis of the chronotype system which guided much of our analysis
of artifact distribution in this book.
It is important to
stress that this is a provisional document. In some ways, the book
reflects the retrofitting of a traditional, analogue text with a layer
(literally as well as figuratively) of links to our published digital
material. As a result, we did not consider whether the data present in Open Context
could be easily arranged by the user to replicate the analyses
underpinning this analogue volume. For example, in the book, we
organized our data spatially into zones which reflected both practical
and archaeological divisions in our survey area. We have not arranged
our data in Open Context in such a way that it is easy to query a
zone for particular types of artifacts. In future projects, digital
data and description will be more closely coordinated allowing the
reader to explore the textual arguments more fully while still
preserving the granularity of the original archaeological data.
This provisional digital edition would not have been possible without the cooperation of Eric and Sarah Kansa at Open Context
who invited us to submit our data for publication at their site. Kevin
M. McGeough and Hanan Charaf, the editors at the ASOR Archaeological
Report Series, supported our distribution of this digital version of our
work as did Charles Jones, the chair of the ASOR Committee on
Publications, and Andy Vaughn, ASOR's Executive Director. We hope that
this provisional publication represents a step forward in the
publication of volumes with linked data.
William R.
Caraher, University of North Dakota, R. Scott Moore, Indiana University
of Pennsylvania, and David K Pettegrew, Messiah College
Bill Caraher blogged on this release this morning:
Announcing the Digital Edition of Pyla-Koutsopetria 1: A Free Download
And see Open Context's
Heritage Bytes blog:
New Digital Edition of Pyla-Koutsopetria 1 Links to Data Published in Open Context