A REAL-TIME GEO-ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATABASE & SEARCH ENGINE FOR THE CAVE OF LETTERS, ISRAEL

Archaeological data sets were collected in the Cave of Letters, Israel, during the John F. Merrill Expedition (July, 2000). The research site was a cave in which Jewish rebels hid from the Romans during the Bar Kokbha revolt (132-135 CE; Yadin, 1972). The data were collected in real-time which increased data accuracy and entry effeciency of the archeological finds. Mixed with coordinate locations and input into a relational database enables Archaeological data to be accessed by any database application. The research tools used to collect and build the database were Field Notes, a real-time Geographical Information Systems (GIS) program, and a Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 Pentop computer. The project rebuilt a relational database and examined its effectiveness of increasing the ease at which Archaeological finds are stored within cave environments. The work conducted led to a design in a new “modular” database which can be applied to any site, any where in the world. A large scale java application was designed to provide creation / modification / and search functions to the database. This allows for easy database maintence. A fully interactive and internationally accessable web page (www.uwec.edu/col) is online to provide a user with the ability to search any location within the cave and view any artifact(s) / artifact information found. The research provides: 1) A fully portable relational database, 2) Web access to the data , and 3) Background data for further professional and student research.involving Archaeological Real-Time database applications.