Data Tables

There are seven data tables potentially used as input to hm. A project requires a table for units of stratification and for observed stratigraphic relations, but the other five tables are optional.

Units of Stratification, or Contexts

This input file describes units of stratification, or contexts, identified by the archaeologist.

label: context identifier (primary key)
unit-type: one of interface or deposit
position: one of surface, basal, or other
period: period identifier (foreign key)
phase: phase identifier (foreign key)
url: node link (svg output only)

The file roskams-h-contexts.csv is an example. As this example shows, columns may be empty, as the period, phase, and url columns are in this example. Note however that each line of the file has five commas so the hm software can determine that there are indeed six columns in the table.

label,unit-type,position,period,phase,url
1,deposit,surface,,,
2,deposit,surface,,,
3,deposit,other,,,
4,deposit,other,,,
5,deposit,basal,,,

Observed Stratigraphic Relations

This table includes observations of stratigraphic superposition. Its first two columns refer to values from the label column of the contexts table.

younger: stratigraphically superior context label (foreign key)
older: stratigraphically inferior context label (foreign key)
url: arc link (svg output only)

The file roskams-h-observations.csv is an example. Note that the third column is empty save for the column head, url.

younger,older,url
1,3,
1,4,
1,5,
2,3,
2,5,
3,5,
4,5,

Inferences of once-whole contexts

This table contains inferences of parity between pairs of discontiguous contexts.

first: context label (foreign key)
second: context label (foreign key)

The file inference-eg.csv in the fig-12-chronology example is shown below.

first,second
7,8
15,16
11,14

Periods

This table describes periods, which are groups of interfacial contexts believed to have been in use at the same time.

id: a unique integer to identify the period (primary key)
label: name of the period used in the legend
attribute: zero-based integer scale for a Brewer color
description: optional field not used by hm

An example is the file bldg-1-5-periods.csv.

id,label,attribute,description
1,Building 1,5,
2,Outside,6,
3,Building 5,7,

Phases

This table describes phases, which are groups of depositional contexts believed to have been deposited pene-contemporaneously, typically because they share diagnostic artifactual content.

id: a unique integer to identify the phase (primary key)
label: name of the phase used in the legend
color: zero-based integer scale for a Brewer color
description: optional field not used by hm

The file phases-eg.csv is shown below. As this file indicates, the hm software does not pay attention to the column headers, which you are free to label in any pleasing way.

id,label,attribute,url
1,Phase I,5,http://www.tsdye.com
2,Phase II,6,http://www.tsdye.com

Events

This table associates events and contexts and specifies the nature of the association using terms introduced to archaeology by Jeffrey S. Dean in an essay entitled “Independent dating in archaeological analysis” published in Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory in 1978.

theta: unique label (primary key)
context: context identifier (foreign key)
lab: dating laboratory identifier
association: one of disjunct, direct, disparate

An example is the file bldg-1-5-dates.csv. As this example shows, the hm software does not care if you add extra columns to the table. The software works with columns by position, so do not be tempted to switch columns around.

theta,context,lab,association,original context
1,3810+,OxA-11046,disjunct,3810
8,1297+,OxA-11045,disjunct,3036
10,3030+,OxA-11044,disjunct,3030
5,2165+,PL-972424A,disjunct,2198
4,2165+,PL-980558A,disjunct,2181
2,2165+,OxA-11043,disjunct,2166
3,2165+,OxA-11042,disjunct,2165
28,1951+,OxA-16800,associated,1960
27,1940+,OxA-16799,associated,1959

Event Order

This optional table contains information on the temporal order of events from the same context.

older: theta label of older event (foreign key)
younger: theta label of younger event (foreign key)

The example file date-order.csv is shown below.

older,younger
3,4