Wikidata:WikiProject AveburyPapers

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Background to the project

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The Avebury Papers is a collaborative UKRI-funded research project between University of York; University of Bristol; the National Trust; English Heritage; and Historic England - more info on https://www.aveburypapers.org.

The Avebury Papers will digitise, explore, and share materials held at the Alexander Keiller Museum Q26647600, Avebury, Wiltshire, UK, which is managed by the National Trust.

As part of this project, the team are doing several tasks which are generating data, some of which will be shared via Wikidata, in an effort to link parts of the Avebury collection with other collections.

The finished databases created by this project will be hosted with DOIs at the Archaeology Data Service Q4785478, and shared with the National Trust for purposes of updating their own catalogues.

Background to Avebury and the Alexander Keiller Museum

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Avebury Q1234698 is a village in the south of England, which intersects with a neolithic monument consisting of Avebury henge and stone circle Q661855, West Kennet Avenue Q1335849, and other monuments around the landscape which form the larger Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site Q587584.

Avebury stone circle, with its 1.2km diameter, is the largest stone circle in the world. Stonehenge can fit approximately 14 times into Avebury. West Kennet Avenue consists of parallel rows of standing stones which curve for 2.5km into the landscape between Avebury and another site, The Sanctuary Q1570657.

Avebury and West Kennet Avenue were excavated in 1934-1939 by a team directed by Alexander Keiller. Materials generated by the excavation: including letters, diaries, photographs, drawings, as well as excavated artefacts, are now held at the Alexander Keiller Museum. Materials related to an earlier dig at Avebury, directed by Harold St George Gray between 1908-1922 are also within scope of the project.

Data

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  • Objects: we are enriching metadata about archival objects cared for by the National Trust and held at the Alexander Keiller Museum. We have photographed objects and will be sharing the 'best of' on Wikicommons (although all images will be released completely CC-BY-0 on the Archaeology Data Service, so in theory many more images could be shared in the future. We are simply looking to share highlights as a 'proof of concept').
  • Workers: we are enriching data held about individuals represented in the collection: people who wrote letters, diaries, or other documents, or who took photographs or made drawings in the collection. Some of these individuals already exist on Wiki - we will add to and expand information where we can, and create new Wikidata items for other workers.
  • The Avebury Stones: Every stone at Avebury has a number, some have nicknames. We will be adding each stone to Wikidata as an item, with its number, alt-number (from an earlier numbering system) and folk taxonomies.

Rationale

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We are looking to use Wikidata as a way of:

  • Linking the Alexander Keiller Museum collection with other objects held related to Avebury around the world.
  • Linking internally used UIDs for people in the collection with external collections.
  • Linking information about eg. a stone at Avebury, with records of who excavated it, what was found there, and any related photographs, letters, or text extracts that will be uploaded to Wikicommons.
  • Generating maps from Wikidata-entered material. For instance, mapping photographs of the Avebury standing stones to GPS locations; mapping the addresses of workers involved in excavations.

Alexander Keiller Museum collection - data modelling

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This list is a work in progress of properties and items (existing or to be created) relevant to data, objects, or people from the Alexander Keiller Museum.

Properties

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Items: IDs

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Items: Locations

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  • Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites Q587584
  • Avebury henge and stone circle Q661855
  • West Kennet Avenue
  • Windmill Hill
  • Lanhill Barrow Q17650128

Items: Concepts

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  • Hand (Alexander Keiller Museum Archive) Q126192779

Items: People

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Items: Objects and human remains

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  • Diary of West Kennet Avenue excavations, 1934 Q130611129
  • Barber surgeon of Avebury Q3648825

Items: Events

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  • Archaeological excavations directed by Harold St George Gray ? necessary? express through other statements?
  • Archaeological excavations financed by Alexander Keiller Q126192731 ? possibly for deletion? express through other statements?
  • Archaeological excavation season at West Kennet Avenue, 1934 Q126192664
  • Archaeological excavation season at West Kennet Avenue, 1935 Q126192670
  • Archaeological excavation season in the North West Sector, Avebury, 1937 Q126192680
  • Archaeological excavation season in the South West Sector, Avebury, 1938 Q126192700
  • Archaeological excavation season in the South East Sector, Avebury, 1939 Q126192713
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