AR01042_WODAN_Final_Report_10.pdf - The Heritage Council

3.5 Development of queries
The design of the database meant that it is to be used as a repository of charcoal and wood
information, potentially for thousands of sites. How then could this data be turned into knowledge
and the value of the database realized to answer research questions posed by the user community?
This is where the development of suitable queries became crucial within the database design. Five
simple queries were developed in total. Two produced tables and additions that are commonly
used by each specialist in their reports, thereby cutting down on work and having everybody
produce the same table of results and thus further standardization.
In the same vein a query that would produce pre-formatted line graphs of annual ring widths was
also developed. These can be used to possibly build on site chronologies and to examine growth
conditions/possible management practices from archaeological material.
Two further queries incorporate the results of research from European colleagues, a graph
examining the age profiles of each wood species (Marguerie/Hunot query) and one that estimates
the original size of a charcoal fragment based on its curvature (Ludemann/Nelle query).
An advanced query tool was then constructed (Figure 3). This is more flexible and complicated
than the simple queries. Five crucial fields were selected for querying. This would strike the
balance between flexibility of queries and also rigidity of field descriptions to make the queries
meaningful. You can select none or all of the queries present in the advanced query builder.
One of the first fields selected was project code. This was chosen because queries may need to be
applied to one project, for example a large infrastructural scheme or group of sites. It also enables
schemes which were analyzed by more than one specialist to be effectively re-joined.
Data can be further queried by County, sample context, sample period and Taxon.
This provides the ability to discuss countless important research questions about the use and
availability of wood resources in Ireland from the prehistoric period to present day.
For example,
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