Analysis and synthesis for archaeological database development in Nakhon Si Thammarat

Abstract

Nakhon Si Thammarat, a province in Southern Thailand, was the heartland of ancient cultures and kingdoms, developed over several centuries, which had left behind tremendously valuable archaeological finds, including artifacts, structures, and sites. Unfortunately, these precious archaeological treasures are disturbed and destroyed daily by looting and modern land development. To keep a record of this irreplaceable archaeological data, we decided to develop an archaeological database. This database is managed within an RDBMS aimed at describing the relationship between artifacts, structures, and historical, stratigraphic and environmental complexity of archaeological sites, and is directly connected to a digital archive containing the raw data. In order to analyze and synthesize the archaeological database, we surveyed currently popular standard metadata for archaeological data VRA and other existing solutions. In this paper, we propose an extension metadata structure of VRA and a logical database for specific archaeological data in the area.