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Overview
There are three distinct levels of authorship, relating to the different aspects of the project and to the way in which the whole process is carried out. The levels are as follows:
- the system level, where the design is conceived and implemented operationally:
- system design (the UGR and the Grammar)
- elaboration of the data (the programs)
- the documentary level, where primary observations are authored:
- primary observations feed directly and automatically into the primary narrative
- they are reviewed for accuracy and consistency
- the synthesis level, where the secondary narrative is created:
- coordination of documentary sections
- reflections on primary observations
- synthetic assessment of data
- development of specific sectors of analysis
We will review each of these in detail.
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1. System level: Background authors
At the system level we see the underlying scaffolding of the whole project, in three major ways: the overall frame, the Grammar and the Programs.
As we begin the publication phase of the Urkesh Global Record, the novelty that it entails, for which no models exist, requires even greater attention. I see therefore my own personal role as being one of deeper involvement than it might be for other directors at some point in the future. I have been developing the intellectual framework for this type of browser edition in the measure in which my own theoretical understanding of its presuppositions evolved. This process was also in step with the actual implementation, in practice, of the system. The major part of my role in the publication process is therefore to propose the basic model, and to implement it. This means assembling the pieces in a coherent editorial whole, explaining the functioning of the system, writing the bulk of the discursive syntheses – in other words, designing the prototype of this new type of digital publication.
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System design: the UGR
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), the sheer quantity of the information presented with a view to maintain an intuitive interface – all of this called for considerable effort. The overall frame has remained consistent over the years in its essential traits, and is now described in detail in the UGR website
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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.
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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.
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2. Documentary level: Base authors
The primary record is accessed from the right hand side. It is built up automatically on a daily basis, and it yields a properly digital narrative, in a segmented style. It is used and reviewed by the unit staff on a regular basis.
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Primary observations
The personal identification with the minutest of observations derives from a fundamental principle underlying our whole intellectual effort. Thus the attribution of authorship to every atom of the data set is not a nicety (recognizing everybody’s work), nor is it a pedantic redundancy (inflating the record with useless details). It serves rather the conviction that the best measure of objectivity is in allowing a calibration of the observers’ skills. In this manner, the dated attribution of authorship that accompanies each of the tens of thousand of individual records serves a philosophical purpose, one might say. It is a modest but specific contribution to a concrete epistemology of the archaeological record. Each atom of the system is, truly, written in the first person. And yet it is, at the same time, public from the very first moment it enters the record.
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Implementation of strategy
The main intellectual responsibility of the unit directors is the implementation of the strategy, which is discussed in meetings at various levels and ultimately defined and regularly reviewed 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.
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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.
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Tabulations
Tabulations are updated 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 assessemtn of the data that is proper of the synthetic pat of the record.
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3. Synthesis level: Main and contributing authors
Publication brings together all the material in a way that results in a coherent overview of the excavation unit as a whole. The secondary narrative is created as discursive text, with no automated features. It is accessed from the top two portions of the left-hand side vertical bar.
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Coordination of documentary sections
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.
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1. 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.
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2. Critical review
What strategy does to process, a critical review does to the resulting record: one has to look at the record in its totality, assess potential problems and inconsistencies,
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A synthetic assessment
At a second stage, we find the author(s) of a unit book as a whole. This is the person, or the persons, who make the observations cohere into a meaningful whole, by insuring that the data are all properly entered and processed, and by producing the synthetic and discursive section that is triggered by the keywords in the vertical bar on the left hand side of the display page. In principle, 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 or Number One. 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.
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Sector synthesis
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Assistance
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Special topics
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