The database and geographical information system (GIS)

The two main components of the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) are the database and the GIS system

The database

There are currently about 24,000 records in the database, which was specially developed by in-house consultants using Oracle 9 and Borland Delphi.

All data held on the SMR database must belong to an 'Archaeological Area' which is defined as an area of land that can be, for example, a village, a field or any defined polygon. Each Archaeological Area 'owns' many data records relating to location, history, geology, land use and contacts. Most importantly, Areas will have related 'Archaeological Sites' and, where necessary, 'Archaeological Artefacts/Component' records.

Archaeological Sites can be visible field monuments such as a hill forts, barrows or a deserted medieval village; a buried site known only from excavation evidence; a standing building or structure; a buried site known only from aerial photographic evidence; a site known from documentary sources; or a complex including many of these types.

Archaeological Sites can own many Archaeological Artefacts/Components. Archaeological Artefacts are, for example, arrowheads, coins, and pottery. Archaeological Components are, for example, components of an Archaeological Site, for example, a thatched roof on a building.

GIS mapping

Associated with the database are a number of colour-coded GIS layers which are digitised onto the corporate geographical information system ArcMap. SMR records are digitised as polygons, lines or points.

Most polygons are digitised on a general SMR layer, but certain things are recorded separately, for example, the boundaries of Scheduled Ancient Monuments, conservation areas, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, twentieth century military sites, Roman roads, railways and tramways.

Maps can be created from this system showing this SMR information and other mapping data such as the Ordnance Survey 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition maps. Subject to some limitations these maps can be used to compliment enquiries to the SMR.

Updating the database

The SMR database is being updated all the time with the results of archaeological interventions such as desk-based assessments, fieldwalking surveys, earthwork surveys, geophysical surveys, building recording, photographic surveys, watching briefs, evaluations and excavations.

We also add anything else which is reported to us, for example stray findspots. We trawl journals and monographs for missing information and we have an ongoing programme of work to improve the quality of older records.

Standards

Records in the Gloucestershire SMR are created with reference to the INSCRIPTION data standards maintained by the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (see FISH Forum [Opens in New Window]  for further information).