The Arches Development team provide a glimpse into our Arches Demo Database and offer a guide on how to navigate and search the platform. The team is continuing to update and modify the current system with the objective to enhance overall user experience
The MAEASaM Arches demonstration database is based on the main instance of the project’s Arches platform which has been customised using seven resource models designed for the documentation of archaeological sites and monuments, and related information across eleven countries in Africa. The Demo database offers the opportunity to explore, navigate and access publicly available records about Africa’s archaeological heritage sites. These sites include listed UNESCO World Heritage properties, UNESCO Tentative List sites, and national gazetted heritage sites which have been identified by our collaborating national heritage institutions to be showcased for the purpose of this Demo. The Demo also illustrates the main capabilities of Arches and how it can be adapted for use by different stakeholders, each of whom may have different requirements and needs. The data (c. 900 site records) housed in this database is just a small sample of the thousands of digitised records compiled by the team since the start of the project in September 2020.
1. How to access the MAEASaM Demo database
Click on the button above to access the Demo database. Once the MAEASaM Demo main landing page has opened, click on the ‘Search MAEASaM’ button on the top right corner of the interface. You will not need to sign in to view, search and explore the Demo.
Take a few minutes to navigate around the Africa map to find your bearings! Below is a brief summary of the different tabs and search options you will find.
2. Features to explore
i. Searching the platform
To search for a specific heritage site in the database, navigate to the search bar and find the area that says ‘Find a resource…’. Start typing the name of the site and a list of options will begin to appear. You can select the option that starts with ‘Contains Term’
ii. Accessing site records
To open a record of a site:
A new tab will appear with the report.
iii. Exploring connections and relationships between sites
Once the report is open, start exploring information about the site. There are a number of interactive links that will provide additional information. Some of the reports also contain images. Click on the images to enlarge them. Links to other resources in the database are also clickable. For example, ‘Relationships to other sites’, ‘Chronology’, ‘Sources’, and ‘Recorder details’. Once these related links are clicked a new record will open containing further information.
iv. Site locations
A key feature of Arches is its ability to incorporate geospatial data into a written record. Arches can capture point, line and polygon spatial data that can illustrate many different site features. For example, in the record from Lamu Old Town, Kenya (MAEASaM ID: SITE-KEN-00001001), the polygon captures the core area of the site as well as the nominated buffer zone. Each point and/or polygon displayed on the Arches map is captured in Well Known Text (WKT) format. We have also included ‘Former’ coordinate information that captures information about original site coordinates and their spatial accuracy as well as information about how these coordinates have been transformed for display in Arches.
