The VERA Project

1
The VERA Project

• Virtual Research Environment for Archaeology.
• A JISC funded collaboration.
• Building on VRE 1 project.
• Developing computer-based tools for
  archaeologists.
• VERA took part in the 2007 Silchester excavation.
• It rained a lot!

2
The aims of VERA

• Enhance the means of documenting and archiving
  archaeological excavation data.
• Create a suitable Web portal that provides
  enhanced tools for the user community.
• Develop tools that work with existing practices
  of research archaeologists unfamiliar with VRE.
• Test these tools out in the field with the
  archaeologists.

3
VERA is a Collaborative Effort

• CS School of Systems Engineering, University of
  Reading.
• Archaeology Department of Archaeology,
  University of Reading and The York Archaeological
  Trust.
• User Testing School of Library, Archive and
  Information Studies, University College London.

4
VERA at the 2007 Silchester Dig

• The testbed is the Silchester Town Life project.
• Now in its eleventh season.
• The excavation site is a portion of what was once
  a large, bustling Roman town.
• The aim of this dig is to trace the site's
  development from its origins before the Roman
  Conquest to its abandonment in the fifth century
  AD.

5
Gathering Data with Digital Pens

• Logitech IO2 digital pens.
• Look and write like normal pens on what looks
  like normal paper.
• A camera inside the pen records what has been
  written.

6
Digital pens for Context Cards

• Context cards describe what the archeologists
  have discovered.
• At the 2007 Silchester dig VERA used digital pens
  for all finds in the south east corner of the
  trench.
• The pens and paper survived the weather, the mud
  and the archaeology students.

7
Docking the Pens

• The pages are imported and interpreted by
  software.
• Text is converted using hand writing recognition
  software and diagrams are saved as images.

8
Importing the Data
After checking for spelling and archaeological
errors, the text is copied to the clipboard and
pasted into the VRE (1) portal.
9
The Digital Pens were a Success

• Simple training.
• Robust (weather, mud and student proof).
• Speeds up post-excavation work (context cards
  must be transcribed).
• Encourages legible handwriting.
• Paper master copy created in the trench in case
  of computer related disasters (unlike a PDA for
  example).

10
Context Cards with Nokia N800s

• The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a hand held
  Internet Browser.
• PDAs have been used in the past to record context
  cards directly into the VRE portal, VERA tried
  again this year.
• Computer equipment does not like sunlight, rain,
  dust or mud.
• The system relies on a stable WiFi link
  (Silchester gets Internet access from a barn down
  the road).

11
N800s for Complimentary Data

• Digital pictures of finds can be taken and
  uploaded from the trench, VERA tried this when
  the weather permitted.
• Skype can be used to bring a remote expert into
  the trench for advice.

12
Silchester 2007 Dig Summary

• Rain stopped play for nearly 50 of the dig
• The digital pens were a storming success
• VERA documented the digging process using diaries
  to gain insight into the archeological processes
• VERA gained first hand experience living and
  working with the archeologists in the field

13
Plans for the 2008 Silchester Dig

• Follow up on the success of the digital pens.
• Wireless camera monitoring of the dig, where do
  the archaeologists work?
• A bigger generator for all the technology.

14
VERA Portal

• The current VRE 1 portal is a bespoke PHP
  application, VERA is porting this to JSR-168
  portlets.
• We are using Gridsphere for the portlet
  container.
• The prototype VRE 2 portal will use a
  portal-bridge to consume the VRE 1 portal.
• VERA will develop generic portlets for use in
  other VREs.

15
VERA Website

• A standard-based Web site with an integrated Wiki
  and public Blog.
• Follow the progress of the project by subscribing
  to our RSS feed.
• For more information and contact details see the
  website.
• http//vera.rdg.ac.uk/