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，是中美洲史前发展的顶峰之一，这座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将古城划分为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正在进行的对大约100万个独特碎片和其他文物的研究结果。这些信息使人们能够跟踪网站的发展和使用随着时间的推移。它允许重建社会和政治组织。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，这些档案仍有很大的潜力尚未开发，必须在最适当的系统中更新和保存这些档案，并确保其长期完整性和可访问性。还需要创建软件，以便远程用户可以通过互联网进行查询。这些改进将便利项目成员使用这些数据，并首次向其他人提供这些数据。该奖项将为此类工作提供资金。由乔治考吉尔领导的这个小组还将出版一本书，阐述数据中的突出模式。亚利桑那州州立大学考古研究所将对这些材料进行管理，以确保其长期完整性和可访问性。将由使用当前标准软件的用户通过互联网测试文件版本的质量和可访问性。这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。它不仅将为广大用户提供大量有价值的考古数据，而且还将为许多考古项目提供原型系统。

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.