Groningen 14 C Data Base

ABSTRACT. Twenty years after the first International Radiocarbon Database Workshop, and 13 yr after the setup of a preliminary structure for a worldwide database on 14 C dates of soils, sound reasons and excuses for not establishing a real and globally accessible database have diminished. Climate change itself is widely accepted as reality now, and the strong demand of the modeling community for reliable data of the carbon pool-especially in soils-has been maintained. With the steadily increasing capacity of 14 C dating facilities, these data can be and are produced. Nevertheless, they still cannot be accessed easily and equally enough. Now, decreased costs of hardware and recent developments of the internet enable the IRSDB to be implemented, in a joint effort. As a seed, a test server has been set up, with open-source software, housing the database in alpha-stage, a web interface, and a community portal. Thus, the development of the design as well as the data input of the database is done in close collaboration of the users of the database, the laboratories, soil scientists, archaeologists, modelers, other scientists, and interested laypersons. In order to guarantee the longtime independence of the availability and usability of the database from vendors or changing standards, only widely used open-source software and open standards are used. Therefore, the development of plug-ins for data input from laboratory databases or output to different required formats as well as interfaces to GIS and other software is possible. A version control system takes care of the integrity of the data.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Attempt to Establish the International Radiocarbon Soils Database (IRSDB)

Becker‐Heidmann

Heidmann²

2010

“…The need for computer-based database systems for management and storage of radiocarbon dates and associated information was recognized in the 1980s, especially at Groningen in 1981 (Otlet and Walker 1983) and in 1987 (Kra 1990;Walker et al 1990), Seattle in 1982 (Gulliksen 1983;Moffett and Webb 1983), Trondheim in 1985 (Wilcock et al 1985;Engelsman, Taayke and Mook 1986;Kra 1986) and beyond (Kra 1988(Kra , 1989. Several laboratories also established regional databases (Obelid 1989;Omoto 1989;van der Plicht 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Computer-Based Database for Radiocarbon Dates of Central Andean Archaeology

Michczyński

Krzanowski²,

Pazdur

et al. 1995

We established a database of 14C dates from archaeological sites of the Central Andes region of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia on an IBM PC-compatible microcomputer running on an MS-DOS operating system using software package dBASE IV, version 1.1. Relevant data are stored in three DBF-type database files. The file ANDY.DBF contains information on dates and samples; REFERENC.DBF contains references to relevant publications and CALAND.DBF contains calibrated dates. The total number of records of the ANDY database slightly exceeds 2650.

“…Over the last five or more years, there has been continuing discussion regarding the use of database systems for storage of 'C results and a considerable amount of effort has been devoted to their design and structure (Gulliksen 1983;Moffett & Webb 1983a, b;Gupta & Polach 1985;Engelsman, Taayke & Mook 1986;Engelsman, Mook & Taayke 1987). The data bases serve three different purposes (Fig 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operation of the Harwell UK ¹⁴C Data Base and its Expansion Through Data Exchange with Other Laboratories

Walker¹,

Otlet²,

Housley³

et al. 1990

The use of computer data bases for storage and retrieval of 14C data is a logical application for the rapidly expanding numbers of '4C determinations. Harwell has established a data base for all samples originating from sites in the United Kingdom and Eire. The core of the data is the Council for British Archaeology's published Index of Radiocarbon Dates which we are expanding to include all Harwell UK dates released for publication by the submitters plus dates from other laboratories both within and outside the UK. As a demonstration of the feasibility of direct database-to-database communication, cooperation has been sought from Groningen and Oxford to transfer computer files containing 14C results for UK sites. Neither of these laboratories use the same system as Harwell for their in-house data base and this exercise highlights the importance of a transfer language for both the national and international schemes as it is no longer practical to carry out such procedures through keyboard typing.