The Norwegian Rock Art Database

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The Norwegian Rock Art Database
Developed within the Interreg IIA, a joint
Norwegian Swedish project called Rock Art in
the Borderlands 1998 2000. Initiated by the
Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Riksantikvaren.
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Background

• The rock art is in generally poor condition due
  to weathering and human impact. 95 is damaged
  in some way.
• A current priority in the project is to create
  standardized methods of recording and maintaining
  300 targeted rock art sites before 2005.

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The Rock Art Documentation Standard.
Relating to archaeology, geology, botany,
meteorology and technical conservation.
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The Rock Art Database

• Based on the documentation standard the Rock art
  database was created to manage the protected
  sites !
• The database combines text, photographs, drawings
  and digital maps to provide a useful multimedia
  source

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Storage and retrieval of data
A current priority is to create standardized
methods of recording and maintaining 300 targeted
sites.
Complete history of each site.
Around 1200 sites representing more than 2500
individual examples have been documented to date,
the majority of which are rock carvings. This is
the main window and menu . 1,2,3,.. 9 refer to
the documentation standard for the database.
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Chapter 2, description
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Chapter 1, basic data, property register, x,y,
map reference
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Chapter 6, record condition text linked with photo
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Foto linked to site
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Overview of selected site, photo linked to a
tracing.
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GIS functionality
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Users and distribution

• Aimed at regional government administrastions and
  the regional museums.
• They are responsible for updating the Rock Art
  Database.
• Intended for use in regional and local planning
• It is designed as a tool for research

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Thin clients Citrix Metaframe
The database and the application are located on a
central server at the Norwegian Institute of
Cultural Heritage Research(NIKU),
The application runs 100 percent on the server
and only mouse clicks and screen updates are
transmitted over the network between server and
client. This allows the use of inexpensive
computers, which act as thin clients. The only
software needed on the users side, is a very
small Citrix file , which is downloaded from our
website.
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The website for support
User support is critical for all distributed
data-systems. It is important that new users in
particular can get rapid solutions to any
problems. NIKU offers all new users training and
user support by remote control e-mail and
telephone. There is also a website with
information about user support.