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1. Bylines: minimal level
The minimal locus where credit appears is at the level of the single cntribution whic, depending on the nature of the narrative, can take two formats, that of the page and that of the individual entry.
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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a. Pages (discursive narrative)
In the discursive narrative the minimal entity is the page. Here one finds the full name of either a single author (e.g., the J5 overview) or of several authors (e, g., the errors file in A16), each followed by the date when the text was written. Where needed, one may give authorship for a single paragraph or short entry (see an example in the Critique of Archaeological Reason website).
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b. Entries (segmented narrative)
In the segmented narrative, every single observation entered by any member of the staff is given a byline that mentions both the author and the date, see for example
the seal impression A15.259 with thirty entries and five different authors (the two exclamation marks indicate that the information has been entered by a program).
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Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
Sequential order
At the level of the book, there are five distinct pages where credits are assembled, seeking to allow proper visibility to each author. This can be summarized as follows:
| category
| page
|
| a. main
| masthead
|
| b. contributing
| editorial
|
| c. base
| documentary
|
| d. all
| table of contents and authors index
|
| e. background
| systems page
|
The sequence is in a reverse sequential order when compared to the chronological sequence in the authoring phase, which, as we had noted, is as follows: :
- first, the system level (design and programming) must be established before data are entered;
- next comes the documentary gathering of the data, followed by
- an analytical review of the data;
- comprehensive and organic presentation of the data.
Crediting pages at the level of the book are instead as follows:
- ultimate responsibility for the publication rests with the main and associate authors: they oversee the final critical review of all the data and provide the overarching synthesis;
- in this, they are assisted by contributing authors who provide substantial portions of the narrative and/or are responsible for specific sectors of the corpus;
- their work relies on that of the base authors who provided the myriad observations that are incorporated in the record, on which everything else depends;
- all of this rests in turn on the the design and programming by the background authors, on whose work the overall functioning of the system rests.
We will review each of these “pages,” referring to examples in various unit books.
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a. Masthead: main and associate authors
The masthead provides the essential authorial information, i. e., it credits the main and associate authors who bear the ultimate responsibility for the publication.
The term “masthead” refers, in a printed book, to the cover and the title pages. The cover page is often a shorter version of the title page, and it is regularly followed by the copyright pages. These distinctions reflect substantive issues, and as such they must be retained in a website that aims to have a precise bibliographical status.
In the unit digital books, we formalize this in the form of (a) the home page and (b) the front matter page.
A variety of mastheads is thus possible, of which we can cite here a few examples:
- Single main author: J3, J5
- Two critical reviewers and excavators: A6
- Excavator as critical reviewer, second critical reviewer and other collaborators: A16
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b. Editorial page: contributing authors
A separate page gives the names of all those who have contributed, on different levels, to the final publication of the volume.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
c. Documentary page: base authors
Yet another page gives the names of all the members of the excavation staff.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
d. Contents pages: all authors
The Table of Co;ntents page lists all pages in hte book, with a mention of the author.
The Authors’ index lists all the authors in alphabetical order, with links to their respective pages.
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e. Systems page: background authors
The background authors are essential for the functioning of the whole system, but the credit is reserved for separate locations where they describe in detail their contribution. A full list is given in the page onb System credits.
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3. Author’s Profiles: Maximal unit level
For each individual listed anywhere in the websites there is a link to a full profile, which gives the full detail of the individual mentioned.
In a discursive page, the name is spelled in full, see for example the J1 Overview page which mentions at the top the author as Lorenzo Crescioli.
In a segmented page, each entry carries the author’s initials are given, as with for jW for James Walker in J5f74.
The profile of the person in question gives background information about the author and it lists the specific contributions to the Mozan/Urkesh project, including a complete list of all files and entries authored. See for example the profile for Laura Ramos: scrolling down to Data authored one gets a complete list of all 82 files and 12,633 entries authored
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