On Hannibal's Trail - BBC Documentary

The first glimpse of the forthcoming BBC documentary - On Hannibal's Trail - presented by my brothers and I. In this clip we race each other up Mont Ventoux:

New fields on Special Finds form

We have added a few new fields on the special finds form. Please see the screenshot below for details:



Data import is in the works too - we are hoping to get it live in the next few weeks.

New Export Data Function

In case you were worried that your data was stuck in Nabonidus forever we have added a new Export Data function. So you can now export any or all of your Nabonidus excavation data to CSV or XML. You'll notice a new "Export Data" link in the left hand navigation above Reports:



You can choose any Area of your site(s) and any or all the data for that Area. If you choose just one Area and one data type you will receive the relevant CSV or XML file. Otherwise you will asked to download a zip archive containing all the data you requested.

The general consensus from our user group was that they didn't want this functionality available to everyone with access to your excavation data so only "Excavation Administrators" have access to the new Export Data function.

As always if you have any questions or encounter any problems please get in touch (Contact Us).

View Context as PDF

We've just added a "View as PDF" option to the Context list:



So you can now save a copy of a Context as a PDF document to your machine and print it too.

Additional URL - http://nab.onid.us

For some reason we registered this domain name - it will save you 6 key strokes next time you want to visit Nabonidus:
http://nab.onid.us

Our original address still works too...
http://www.nabonidus.org

Change of Hosting Service

Along with the recent additions to Nabonidus we have also changed our hosting service.

We hope that this will mean the site runs faster and is more reliable but please tell us if you have speed or connectivity issues (Contact Us). The thing is the servers that host the site are in Australia (previously they were in Colorado) so it runs lightening fast for me here in Sydney but I know Sam in London didn't notice any difference!

As part of the process we had to take all the data from the orginal database and copy it across to the new database. We've compared the two databases and they are exactly the same but if you feel like perhaps some data was lost somewhere along the line then please let us know (Contact Us).

Additions to Nabonidus Complete

We have finished making the additions to Nabonidus mentioned in this blog post.

The major changes are basically a whole bunch of new fields on the Context Sheet, Artefact sheet, Pottery sheet etc. But we have also rebuilt the "Manage Typologies" section which is now called "Pottery Classes". You can now Add/Edit and Delete Pottery Classes and search by date range for one too.

We've done a few little Ajax update things too to make the data entry experience a little nicer.



We have tested the additions but please tell us if you encounter any problems.

Context Sheet Additions Complete

We've just finished deploying some new additions to the Context Sheet. Like all the other fields on the Context Sheet they are configurable:



If you select one of the new fields they will then appear when you Edit a Context:



They will also appear in the Print View:



We have tested these additions but if you come across any problems or have any questions please get it touch (Contact Us).

Scheduled Downtime

As part of the changes to www.nabonidus.org that will be happening over the next few weeks we will need to bring the site down briefly (10 - 15 minutes only) at certain times. The plan is to deploy additions at Midday GMT over the coming 4 Sundays:
- 12:00PM Sunday 27th July 2008
- 12:00PM Sunday 3rd August 2008
- 12:00PM Sunday 10th August 2008
- 12:00PM Sunday 17th August 2008

If you attempt to use the site you will receive the above test pattern but there is no need to worry we are not touching any data just adding functionality.

If this downtime is going to cause you problems don't hesitate to get in touch and we can easily reschedule (Contact Us).

Thanks, Ben.

Planned additions to Nabonidus

After a long hiatus we are back and about to start some new development work on www.nabonidus.org. We've been encouraged by some helpful suggestions by Chris Mundigler and his colleagues who run excavations all over the place but have setup some of their excavations from Israel and the Ukraine in Nabonidus. They have been really nice and suggested ways in which Nabonidus could be more useful for Middle Eastern excavations and thats what this new work will focus on.

You may or may not know this but Nabonidus was originally built for a Pompeiian excavation so does have quite a classical "tilt". So we hope these additions will make Nabonidus more usable for Archaeologists working on Middle Eastern sites.

So here is the list of additions we are going to make - essentially a whole lot of new fields. They will be free text unless otherwise stated:

Context (locus) Sheet:
- Comment on Accumulation
- Particle Size
- Compaction
- Contents
- Explanation of Contents
- Critical Bucket(s)
- Other Samples Taken (checkbox)
- Explanation of contamination
- Excavation Date Opened/Level/Reason
- Excavation Date Closed/Level/Reason
- Interpretation By/Date/Contact Info
- Drawing Numbers
- Appears in which baulk drawings
- Other Reports
- Height or Depth
- Top and Bottom Elevation
- Appears in which baulks

Pottery Sheet
- Sherd Identification Number
- Bucker Identification
- Type
- Function
- Parallels
- Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info
- Also give the ability to search for pottery classes by date range

Artifact Sheet
- Registration number
- Field number
- Bucket ID
- Description
- Object drawn (checkbox)
- Object photographed (checkbox)
- Object sampled (checkbox)
- Observations Size/Weight/Colour/Other
- Provisional identification
- Start date range
- End date range
- Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info

Special Finds Sheet
- Registration number
- Bucket ID
- Description
- Photograph ID
- Drawing ID/Drawn By
- Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info

Relationships Sheet
- Description of Context
- Tentative Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info

Sample Type Sheet
- Registration number
- Bucket ID
- Spatial Location
- Purpose for sample
- Sent to
- Date sent
- Date Received
- Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info

Ecofact Sheet
- Registration number
- Field number
- Bucket ID
- Description
- Observations Size/Weight/Colour/Other
- Provisional identification
- Description
- Interpretation/By/Date/Contact Info


And as always please feel free to get in touch to suggest more (Contact Us).

Ben Wood
Nabonidus Administrator.