Ensuring the Long-term Viability of the Teotihuacan Mapping Project Database

特奥蒂瓦坎遗址位于墨西哥山谷，代表了史前中美洲发展的巅峰之一，这个伟大的史前城市占地约20平方公里。令人印象深刻的石头神庙金字塔标志着一个帝国的中心，这个帝国延伸到墨西哥中部的大部分地区，几十年来一直是考古调查的焦点。从20世纪60年代开始，由Renee Millon领导的特奥蒂瓦坎测绘项目（Teotihuacan Mapping Project）将这座古城划分为550个区域，并根据400多项重要信息对每个区域进行了描述，其中包括调查期间的观察结果，以及对大约100万件不同碎片和其他文物的持续研究结果。这样的信息允许人们追踪站点的开发和使用。它允许社会和政治组织的重建。这些数据的电子版本早已创建，并被项目成员用于研究。然而，这些文件仍有很大的未开发潜力，重要的是在最合适的系统中更新和保存它们，并确保它们的长期完整性和可访问性。也有必要创建软件，以便远程用户可以通过互联网查询它们。这些增强将促进项目成员对数据的使用，并使其他人第一次可以使用这些数据。这项奖金将为这项工作提供资金。由乔治·考吉尔领导的研究小组还将出版一本书，说明数据中的重要模式。亚利桑那州立大学考古研究所将对这些材料进行管理，以确保它们的长期完整性和可访问性。这些文件的版本将由使用当前标准软件的用户通过互联网测试其质量和可访问性。这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。它不仅可以为广大用户提供大量有价值的考古数据，而且还可以为许多考古项目提供一个原型系统。

The site of Teotihuacan, located in the Valley of Mexico, represents one of the pinnacles of prehistoric Mesoamerican development and this great prehistoric city covered approximately 20 square kilometers. The impressive stone temple pyramids mark the center of an empire which extended over much of central Mexico and which has been a focus of archaeological investigation for decades. Beginning in the 1960s the Teotihuacan Mapping Project, headed by Renee Millon divided the ancient city into 550 tracts and described each in terms of more than 400 items of significant information, including observations made during the survey and results of ongoing studies of collections of approximately a million distinctive sherds and other artifacts. Such information permits one to trace site development and use over time. It allows reconstruction of both social and political organization. Electronic versions of these data have long since been created and are being used for research by project members. There remains however a great untapped potential in these files and it is important to update and preserve them in the most appropriate systems and ensure their long term integrity and accessibility. It is also necessary to create software so that remote users can query them through the internet. These enhancements will facilitate use of the data by project members and make them available for the first time to others. This award will provide funds for such work. The team, headed by George Cowgill will also produce a book illustrating salient patterns in the data. The Archaeological Research Institute of Arizona State University will curate these materials to assure their long-term integrity and accessibility. Versions of the files will be tested for quality and accessiblity through the internet by users with currently standard software. This project is important for several reasons. It will not only make a body of valuable archaeological data readily available to a wide range of users but also provide a prototype system for many archaeological projects.