Articles by Alexander Drummer

In 1998 the Museums Service of the Lazio Region began a project to set up a database for the archaeological finds ('RA' files) preserved in the museums of this area. The intention was to provide a simple means for locating and quantifying the finds preserved in each museum for the use of museum directors, regional offices and any external users. A management software programme - IDRA, developed by the firm Andromeda - was chosen with this in mind. Data structuring and normalisation methods to reach the necessary level of standardisation were defined during a series of meetings between archaeologists. These meetings produced a proposal for regulations in addition to those drawn up by ICCD in 1992, also including a section devoted to faunal remains from archaeological sites. The software was configured, with suitable adaptation and integration, on the basis of the specific requirements that emerged during the work. It was also designed to combine scientific correctness, data normalisation and compliance with national cataloguing rules, as well as being a functional and easy-to-use application. IDRA is designed as a client/server system with an SQL engine. As regards the database organisation, the system combines the philosophy of relational databases with object-oriented structures, in which the information is organised hierarchically. This enables data to be associated logically and permits the description of complex structures, such as those relative to the archaeological objects in question. Since it was felt that the use of a 'stand-alone' software would render much of the efforts towards the normalisation and definition of terminology lists useless, a databank sharing system will be introduced, with centralised 'management' in regional offices and diverse access levels for users. Today the database consists of about 10,000 files for 27 museums, soon to be completed with the relevant digital images. An assessment of this initial stage is currently a priority, also by means of comparison with other databases for a more accurate and selective compilation of terminology lists, while another priority is the experimentation of network connections for database sharing with each individual museum.