FARLI Ancient Pottery Database
The Foundation for Archaeological Research in the Land of Israel (FARLI) “announce[d] the launch of its newest Project: The FARLI Ancient Pottery Database. In the spirit of FARLI’s goals to promote the archaeological research of the land of Israel and the southern Levant, and to develop new technological tools in the service of archaeology, … […] Read MoreArchaeobotanical Database in Tübingen
Scholars at the University of Tübingen in Germany are “investigat[ing] the development of prehistoric wild plant floras of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean. The geographic area … represented in the data, includes Greece, Turkey, Western Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Northern Egypt. The chronological frame comprises the Chalcolithic period, Bronze and […] Read MoreBritish Museum collections database
The British Museum collections database is getting larger: “The collections of the Department of the Middle East are now available online on the British Museum website: … The catalogue includes more than 230,000 objects and inscriptions from the Middle East, ancient and modern. There you will also find relevant objects from ancient Egypt and other parts of the […] Read MoreVirtual World Project
One of the better virtual-archaeological-sites websites I have come across is the Virtual World Project. It started with virtual-reality movies of excavations in Turkey and Greece but now focuses on Israel, Palestine and Jordan. The interface is smooth and navigation is easy and quick, at least with my broadband connection. Here’s an example: Lehun in […] Read MoreOpendig
Chuck Jones alerted me to a new initiative: opendig. I like their slogan: “Free your notes!” The intro states: “At opendig.org we are endeavoring to offer a place for any archaeological excavation to host their dig notes online. Imagine a place where you can search not only your own site for information, but also sites in […] Read MoreDAI Archaeological Bibliography online users’ poll
“For many years the German Archaeological Institute [Deutsches Archäologisches Institut or DAI] has been compiling the Archaeological Bibliography which has established itself as an essential research tool in the area of ancient cultures of the Mediterranean Sea. Since 2002 it has been freely available on the internet and offers a thesaurus based systematical search in […] Read MoreNo, not Madonna the singer
An article in the Art Newspaper caught my attention with a “case study” in user experience. A lack of familiarity with the cultural context necessitated a much more vigorous and extensive investigation of museum visitors’ response to a planned exhibit than was assumed needed. Was this an exhibit, say, on the textiles of ancient Mali? […] Read More