The Urkesh Global Record (Version 1, Beta release)

System’s design. Authorship

Authoring the unit books

Giorgio Buccellati – November 2005, October 2023, May 2025

Overview

There are four categories of authorship, relating to the different levels of involvement in the way the publication process is carried out; their work appears in correspondingly different locations:

level category location
1. system background special websites
2. documentation base unit website: constituents
3. analysis contributing unit website: constituents, overviews
4. synthesis main and associate unit website: introduction

The sequence follows a roughly chronological order:

(1) having designed a given system and written specific programs for the production of the final result,

(2) the data are then collected and

(3) analyzed, and finally

(4) a synthesis is produced.

In what follows, we will review each of these level and corresponding categories of authors.

1. System level: Background authors

At the system level we see the underlying scaffolding of the whole project:

the overall design is conceived (the UGR, the Grammar, the typologies)
and implemented operationally (the programs)

Fundamental as they are, these authors remain in the background since they do not deal with the data as such.

1. Overall frame: system design

The organization of the Browser Edition is not a minor endeavor. The complexity of the interconnections, the many levels at which the data are invoked (from the single constituents of each unit to the highest nodes of the website and beyond to other websites), the sheer quantity of the information articulated with a view to maintain an intuitive interface – all of this called for considerable effort and its effectiveness was essential in ensuring the internal coherence of the system as it develoepd over the years. It is now described in detail above in this website.

2. The grammar

The automated portion of the Urkesh Global Record, which accomodates by far the largest body of data, works only because of the rigor with which the underlying Grammar has been articulated and applied to the data. The conceptual underpinning of the entire enterprise depends on this, and, in turn, the effort that went into applying the grammar to the data contributed to verifying and developing the inherent theoretical insights. The Digital Operation Manual provides the practical instructions for the implementation of the Grammar.

3. Typologies

Different bodies of data develop distinctive typological “grammars.” These are essential not only in organizing the items in the measure in which they are found, but also in guiding the overall assessment of the excavation as it progresses. Thus special rosters and lexica are needed for treating different kinds of movable items, whether objects or samples.

This is especially true in the case of ceramics: given the sheer quantity of the data, and the highly differentiated nature of its types, it serves as a constant barometer for chronological orientation nd for an understanding of the functional aspects of the elements of the built environment.

In many of these cases, the background and contributing authors are one and the same.

4. The programs

Development of the programs went hand in hand with the formulation of the grammar and with the correlative coding of the data. It is of course because of the several programs written ad hoc for the Urkesh Global Record that automation is posible. This interaction was a cause for expending considerably more time on the overall project, but it proved to be indispensable in achieving the multiple goals I had set for the project.

2. Documentation level: Base authors

At the level of the primary data, the basic documentary record is developed, consisting of:

every single observations about stratigraphy
all primary and secondary observation about typology

and resulting in

a documentary "segmented" narrative,
a full database,
and a set of tabulations.

These are the “base” authors since everything else depends on their observations. The objectivity of the record, too, rests entirely on these data.

Primary observations

Each and every staff member within any given excavation unit is responsible for recording any observation made in the course of the excavation. All observations become part of the definitive record.

Primary observations about stratigraphy can never be altered or deleted. They may calibrated considering the particular skills of the author, as indicated in their profile, but they must remain part of the record because they condition the whole process of defining the strategy of excavation.

Primary observations about stratigraphy are an essential element in providing objectivity to the record because the physical record itself is no longer accessible for inspection, since it is removed as excavations proceed. The primary initial observations, as recorded, are the only document that is left. When they may be found to be in error, an additional comment should be added, qualifying the nature of the initial observation.

The role of the author emerges, in this light, as uniquely significant. His or her observation becomes a document, the only one available for consultation and critical analysis.

Primary observations about typology, on the other hand, are a different matter. They are made at the moment of excavation or immediately afterwards, and since the item in question remains accessible as a document, these observations may be verified against the element itself. In principle, it is desirable that they may all be kept, but on occaion they may be altered or deleted.

Implementation of strategy

The main intellectual responsibility of the unit director(s) is the definition and the implementation of the strategy, which is discussed in meetings at various levels and ultimately decided on by the overall directors. Thus, besides their supervision of the unit staff members and their specific observations, unit directors have a direct impact on the articulation of the record in its basal state, and thus on the quality of its ultimate publication.

Review of primary observations

As the record builds up on a daily basis, it must be inspected and reviewed carefully. Observations may be missing that can still be retrieved in the field, corrections may be introduced (as additional elements in the record), further clarifications may be added. If this review takes place at some temporal remove from the initial observation, when the data are no longer accessible, then comments are added to identify a problem and propose solutions.

Database: narrative and catalog

All of this is channeled in a comprehensive database that takes two formats, either as a segmented narrative or as a catalog. The authorial role is thus rather diffused, as it pertains to each individual component; it is explicitly recognized for each component in the segmented narrative format.

Tabulations

Tabulations are automatically generated each time the documentary record is updated. They are accessed from the right hand side sidebar, lower part, because they reflect a synthetic view of the data. However, they are independent of the critical assessment of the data that is proper of the analytical part of the record. While they are based of course on the primary data as entered, the authorial dimension can only be retrieved through the links to the original data.

3. Analysis level: Contributing authors

At the analysis level, a study of the primary data is channeled in two directions:

reflections on primary observations, inserted in the primary data record, and
the development of specific sectors of study, where certain groups of data from the unit are studied as distinct typological classes.

This study is entrusted to contributing authors, i. e., individuals within and without the excavation staff. With regard to stratigraphy, these authors are drawn primarily from the excavation staff itself, whereas, in the others, individuals who did not participate in the excavaton proper take often a primary role, even during excavations.

Specialized comments to constituents

Following the excavation moment as such, when primary observations are produced, there is ample room for further reflection by both the excavators and other contributing authors, particularly those who are specialists in given area of analysis. This gets channeled in the first place into the treatment of the individual constituents – for example, a conservator may add observations about the state of a wall.

The vast majority of these comments concern the typology of movable items. Special rosters and lexica are

Overview discursive treatments

Stratigraphy

This is the privileged locus for the unit director to present his or her overall assessment of the stratigraphic process as planned and then carried out during the excavation.

Typology

Integrative

Conservation and presentation

4. Synthesis level: Main and associate authors

main and associate authors at the synthesis level, where the overall structure is created:

definition of strategy in excavation and publication
coordination of documentary and analytical sections

Major tasks

The main and ssociate authors are responsible for providing a coherent overview of the excavation unit as a whole. They

coordinate the entire body of data into a unified whole, assuring its overall coherence;
produce a critical overall assessment of the book in all its component parts; and
write some or most of the overall discursive sections in the analytical portion of the digital book.

The credits on the home page of individual unit books aim to identify the highest levels of involvement and responsibility. Conditions vary greatly from one book to the other, but in principle the major roles are as follows.The main author is the person who

has coordinated the entire body of data into a unified whole, assuring its overall coherence;
has produced a critical overall assessment of the book in all its component parts; and
has written some or most of the overall discursive sections that relate to the synthetic view on the left hand side portion of the digital book.

There are two distinct moments when the data collected in the documentary phase are to be coordinated into a meaningful coherent unit:

the excavation phase, when things are in flux and one seeks to maintain a coherent strategy in response to the flux; and
the critical review phase, when all the data are available in their finished state.

There are often more than one main author for any given unit book, though occasionally only one is found (as in the case of J3). They are mentioned in the masthead (home page and front matter), and their specific contibutions are outlined in the editorial support page and/or the ecavation staff page.

In more detail, the major tasks of the main and associate editors may be described as follows.

The role of the excavation director(s)

While in principle ech unit book should be published soon after hte end of the excavation, it may happen that the unit director is no longer available to undertake the final editorial work. If so, the unit director is retained as main author only when either the record had already developed to a point where it had acquired a significant coherence of its own, or where he or she remains available for consultation.

Ideally, the Unit Director should serve as the main individual in this editorial process. We hope, in the future, to have adequate models in previously published units, and sufficient time in the field after the excavation proper, to ensure that such higher level authorship be indeed tied to the person who has just finished supervising the excavations in the unit, i.e. the Unit Director. At this stage, this is often no longer possible for units that have been excavated years ago and that still need to be harmonized and published within the framework of the Urkesh Global Record.

Stratigraphy

see above under stratigraphy

Excavation strategy

The excavation director has an intimate involvement with every strategic decision and with the practical carrying out of the same, and it is this strategy that guarantees a coherence in the unfolding of the excavation process. If the data collected, with regard to stratigraphy in the first place, are not a welter of scattered and disconnected fragments, it is because of the unifying strategy that guides the process of excavation as it unfolds. This is why the excavation unit director remains de jure a main author of the final publication, even if he or she is not involved in the final critical review.

Critical review

What strategy is to process, a critical review is to the resulting record: one has to look at the record in its totality. In practice on;e must:

assess potential problems and inconsistencies,
identify and describe errors,
make sure that all essential topic in the analytical portion are covered and
contribute all missing topics.

A synthetic assessment

The final overview and assessemtn of the excavation as a whole is given in the Synthesis section of the unit book, accessed fro’m hte top of the left side bar. Here the main author(s ) present their overall view, even with a persolnal tone, especially in the Conclusion.

level	category	location
1. system	background	special websites
2. documentation	base	unit website: constituents
3. analysis	contributing	unit website: constituents, overviews
4. synthesis	main and associate	unit website: introduction