The Cobb Institute DigMaster Database
DigMaster is a database of electronically generated images and
data on Persian/Classical (and some Iron II) Age figurines. Presently
there are three data sets, one of figurines from Tell Halif, and one from
Maresha. The third consists of objects housed in the Pierides Museum in Larnaca, Cyprus.
How to Begin
The opening page of DigMaster displays several
tiles, any one of which you may select. To view
figurines from Tell Halif, select the tile marked
TELL HALIF. That leads to 550 figurines, plus associated
stratigraphic background material. By selecting the MARESHA
tile you find 39 Persian Age figurines from Maresha.
Other tiles offer other routes: the Map tile leads to a
regional map and then to materials from the sites. The
Search and Statistics tiles offer other
ways into the on-line material.
Click here to return to the opening page.
About DigMaster
| DigMaster is an experiment in early publication of excavated
materials, none of which have been formally "published" (i.e., in a
traditional medium). It is also an experiment in cooperative
publication: materials from two sites excavated by two different teams
have been united in this database. The Halif figurines, found in the
1992 and 1993 excavations in Field IV at Tell Halif, and the Maresha
figurines from excavations between 1986 and 1995, have been made
available here in electronic format to scholars the world over. |
Our goals in this "early publication" were to accomplish at
least three things:
(1) to make all material immediately
available for study no matter how long to reach "final" (traditional)
publication;
(2) to encourage other excavators to follow our
lead in releasing excavated materials at an early stage;
(3) to
begin to assemble a usable, reliable database for comparative study of
Persian Age figurines. |
|
One of the benefits of publishing in electronic format is the
capacity to show all of the data, as well as to give several views of
an object. For the Halif artifacts, every figurine and fragment, plus
all of the section drawings, plans, field notes, etc. are now on
DigMaster. We believe this is an important benefit of
DigMaster and a necessary ingredient for future publications in
archaeology. |
About the Authors
Principal authors of DigMaster are
Paul F. Jacobs
Christopher Holland
Joe D. Seger
|