Archaeologist needs help

[dhixson]

I have been tasked with entering excavation data from our archaeological project into an Access database.

The unique ID for each entry will be spacial (Excavation Unit Number)

Then I have a list of over 50 ceramic types commonly found at our site. I need to input:

(a) raw count (how many sherds) OF EACH CERAMIC TYPE were found in this excavation unit.
(b) the total weight of (a) above
(c) form of ceramic vessel OF EACH CERAMIC TYPE

So, an example would be:

Excavation Unit 567
Polvero Black - none
Kakap Striated - none
Maxcanu Incized -
Water Jar: 2 rim sherds (36 grams total weight),
16 body sherds (142 grams total weight)
Bowl: 1 rim sherd (24 grams)
5 body sherds (221 grams)
Hunabchen Black - none

etc. etc.

Think of it as a knowledge hierarchy, beginning with over 50 ceramic types (Polvero Black, Kakap Striated, etc.), then about 8 vessel forms (water jar, bowl, plate, unknown, etc.), then about 7 sherd forms (Rim, Body, Neck, Handle, etc.), then sherd count and weight (of only the smallest subdivision, such as Polvero Black - Bowl - Rim).

I know I have to be careful to set this up correctly in the first place, so I would love to hear ideas on how others might set this up in MS Access before I do too much damage on my own.

Many many thanks,

-Dave

 

[Lynn Trapp]

Dave,
Let's try to go back to square one and design this one the best way. First,
get out a piece of paper and write down all of the distinct entities that
exist for the type of application you are developing.

1. Excavation Sites
2. Artifacts (using this term instead of ceramic just to provide more
flexibility)
3. Types of Artifact

There might be more, but you would know more about that. It seems to me that
you could have Multiple Excavation Sites and each Excavation Site would have
one or many Artifacts. Each Artifact would have only one type, but they
might have multipl other characteristics or attributes. Thus, we could start
with the following table structure.

tblExcavationSites
ExcavationSiteID (PrimaryKey)
ExcavationSiteName
-- Other fields that describe an excavation site

tblArtifacts
ArtifactID (Primary Key)
ExcavationSiteID (ForeignKey)
ArtifactType (Lookup from tblArtifactTypes)
ArtifactDescription
--other fields that describe an artifact

tblArtifactTypes
ArtifactType (Primary Key)
--Other fields that describe an artifact type.

Hopefully, this can get you started in the right direction


--
Lynn Trapp
MS Access MVP
www.ltcomputerdesigns.com
Access Security: www.ltcomputerdesigns.com/Security.htm

I have been tasked with entering excavation data from our archaeological

project into an Access database.

The unique ID for each entry will be spacial (Excavation Unit Number)

Then I have a list of over 50 ceramic types commonly found at our site. I need to input:

(a) raw count (how many sherds) OF EACH CERAMIC TYPE were found in this excavation unit.
(b) the total weight of (a) above
(c) form of ceramic vessel OF EACH CERAMIC TYPE

So, an example would be:

Excavation Unit 567
Polvero Black - none
Kakap Striated - none
Maxcanu Incized -
Water Jar: 2 rim sherds (36 grams total weight),
16 body sherds (142 grams total weight)
Bowl: 1 rim sherd (24 grams)
5 body sherds (221 grams)
Hunabchen Black - none

etc. etc.

Think of it as a knowledge hierarchy, beginning with over 50 ceramic types

(Polvero Black, Kakap Striated, etc.), then about 8 vessel forms (water jar,
bowl, plate, unknown, etc.), then about 7 sherd forms (Rim, Body, Neck,
Handle, etc.), then sherd count and weight (of only the smallest
subdivision, such as Polvero Black - Bowl - Rim).

I know I have to be careful to set this up correctly in the first place,

so I would love to hear ideas on how others might set this up in MS Access
before I do too much damage on my own.