Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

Figure 1: student volunteers played a very significant role in digitising plans from
excavations
A tiered file structure is used for all data within the project (Figure 2). This tiered file structure for
archaeological data follows the path: NBNM GIS > Archaeological_data > Regional_landscape_name
> and is then divided into subfolders containing data relating to spatial information and digitised
shapefiles. Each digitised shapefile is contained within a folder relating to the specific scanned image
and the spatial location of that image, for example the particular excavation trench of a particular
archaeological site. The exception to this being the images and shapefiles of fieldwalls which are
contained within the folder path: Archaeological_data > Regional_survey >. As an example the
digitised shapefile for a mid-excavation plan (scanned as image 022) of cutting B at Rathlackan
would be NBNM GIS > Archaeological_data > Rathlackan_Ballinglen_landscape > shapefiles >
cutting_b > mid_ex > scan_022. This file structure is replicated within the organsiation of the GIS
layers.
Datasets
Key datasets have been constructed on the basis of the paper archive. These datasets are composed
mostly of shapefiles outlining features evident on both survey and excavation plans. Where features
(fieldwalls, excavation trenches, structural stones, spreads etc.) have been digitised each category of
feature has normally been given its own shapefile per digitised scan. Where necessary created
shapefiles have been given a variety of additional attributes (for instance where stones on an
excavation plan relate to different construction features) to allow more nuanced querying and
display of data. In addition a number of databases of small scale have been constructed to aid in
displaying key sites and features at a variety of spatial scales and to aid in spatially defining key
georectification anchors.
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