Overview

Giorgio Buccellati – March 2025

Structure of the website

This website presents the fundamentals of the UGR system, with regard to (1) its theoretical underpinnings and (2) the specific format in which the websites of the system are couched. It also gives a complete listing of all websites included in the UGR cluster.

Preliminaries

     Four separate sections provide support for the use of the website.
     Utilities. -- A standard search function, and a topical index help in finding specific items of interest. The Shortcuts lead to specific items of recurrent interest within the overall UGR system.
     Editorial. -- Besides links to the wider system within which the UGR is situated, the Front Matter section gives the fulll bibliorgaphical information for this website understood as a "digital book" and information about its successive versions, or editions.
     Introduction. -- Besides the Preface and this Overview,
     References. --

Part One. Theory

     The full theoretical implications will be given in the Digital Discourse website: this goes beyond the scope of the UGR as such, but forms its basic conceptual foundation.
     Here we will emphasize two aspects that are proper of the UGR as such.
     The first is the notion of a browser edition: the data are accessible not only for the kind of "browsing" we associate with data mining, i. e., searching for what is already known; in adidtion to the data search function, the UGR digital browsing entails a confrontation with the argument that encases the data and is developed on multiple levels.
     These multiple argument levels are written i;n function of an interplanar function, i.e., one that correlates structurally discursive levels and specific data and data sets. We will see how archaeological record, understood in the sense we develop here, may be seen as natively suited fors such a structuring. Under the title of "operational frame" we will take up some of the practical aspects that have to be taken nto account as one proceeds to the implementation of the theory.

Part Two. System design

The UGR system rests on a cluster of websites that share the same format. This section of the UGR website aims to serve as an introduction to the use of these websites, a guide for the perplexed, so to speak. While the format is meant to be intuitive, its novelty is such that an introduction to "website reading" becomes a requirement. It is in fact also meant to serve as an introdcution to "website writing" for those who are involved in that task.
The more technical aspects underlying the system will be found in three special websites also included in the system:

The Grammar deals with the conceptual categorization system that makes it possible for all the discrete input entries to emerge as meaningful elements of the UGR seen as a whole.
The Operation Manual gives the details of how to handle files and programs.
The Mozan sitewide website shows how the individual excavation units behind the websites fit togetehr spatially in hte site of modern Tell Mozan.

Part 3. The cluster

The right hand sidebar gives the full list offall websites that are either completed or in the works for final publication.