Oxford Expedition to Egypt: Scene-details Database
Linacre College, Oxford, 2006. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000009. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Linacre College, Oxford unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Dr
Yvonne
Harpur
Linacre College, Oxford
St. Cross Road
Oxford
OX1 3JA
England
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 686
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000009
- How to cite using this DOI
Help: Using The Database
- Entry page of the database
- Level 1
- Level 2
- End of Phase One
- Accessing data from the main menu
- Accessing a list of themes, scenes and scene details from an individual's tomb
- Using the entries in the OEE Database as references in books
- Scene and scene-detail references in the database
- Development of the database
Entry page of the database
The route to the scenes and scene details in the database is via an entry page. This page provides the user with a list of 15 themes, or general headings, under which the various types of scenes are grouped. For example, Theme 1, entitled '1. Marsh-related activities', includes scene types such as spear-fishing, angling, fowling, fish-netting, and boating near papyrus thickets, while Theme 10, entitled '10. Workshop activities', includes scene types such as carpentry, jewellery making, leather work, metal work, stone masonry, and the building of wooden boats. At present, as many as 118 different scene types are included within the 15 listed themes. After selecting a particular theme the user is taken to Level 1, where the list of scene types associated with the selected theme is displayed.
Level 1
Once a theme is activated, the descriptive list of its scene types is displayed on screen in Level 1. Some of these lists are rather short (minimum: 2 scene types) whereas others are very long (maximum: 28 scene types). Each scene type is described as succinctly as possible (e.g. '7.1 Bird-procession scene', '7.2 Poultry-yard scene', and '7.3 Force-feeding poultry'), and relating to each description there are three option-buttons, all clearly labelled and capable of being activated individually, as follows: (a) Drawings: displays a representative drawing of the scene type; (b) Tombs: provides the user with all of the currently known examples of the selected scene type in tombs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom; and (c) Click to browse scene details in Level 2: takes the user to Level 2 of the database, where the descriptive list of scene details relating to the selected scene type is displayed. Each of these options is explained in greater detail below.
Level 1: (a) option to display a representative drawing of a selected scene type
The representative illustrations of scene types are reproduced as line-drawings, individually sized to fill an average-sized screen. Each drawing is simply a visual reference which is included in the database to ensure that the description of the selected scene type is fully understood. It is possible for the user to return to the descriptive list in Level 1 once the line-drawing has been viewed.
Level 1: (b) option to view all of the known examples of a selected scene type
This option will provide the user with a list of all currently known examples of a selected scene type (for example, a comprehensive list of the tombs containing the scene called '10.3 Jewellery making'). In order to keep the associated information within the limits of a typical-sized screen only the tomb name, tomb number(s), site, cemetery and main references are provided, in a 'default' column-display. However, in addition to these columns the user can call up columns of other information, such as the specific room in which each scene is located, the wall upon which each scene is painted or carved, and the PM or Topographical Bibliography 'parent' reference to data about each tomb and the scene in question (the abbreviation 'n.r.', not recorded, indicates tombs and scenes not mentioned in PM). Alternatively, the user might prefer to create smaller tables by deleting unwanted columns of information, and subsequently to call these columns to the screen if he requires them for other purposes. The chronological ordering of the list of tombs is also possible, as is the return to the default north-to-south order of the list, when required. Irrespective of the order, length and quantity of the resulting tables the data in this section of the database can be printed off, onto appropriate sizes of paper.
Level 1: (c) option to click to browse scene details in Level 2
If, for example, the user has activated this option alongside the numbered scene type called '10.3 Jewellery making' he will access the descriptive list of scene details associated with '10.3 Jewellery making', displayed in Level 2. The descriptive lists of scene details function in much the same way as the descriptive lists of scenes in Level 1, mentioned above. Further information about Level 2 is provided under its main heading below.
Level 2
The natural progression from a specific scene type listed in Level 1 is to its scene details, provided in a descriptive list in Level 2. If, for example, the user selects the scene type called '4.5 Milking a cow' in Level 1, and activates the option to take this scene type to Level 2, then the database will take the user to the Level 2 descriptive list of scene details relating to '4.5 Milking a cow'. Beside each description there is an option-button, clearly labelled with the word 'query'. Upon activating this button the user will receive a display of all of the currently known examples of the scene details relating to the selected scene type in tombs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.
End of Phase One
Our Phase One database ends in Level 2, where the user is given the facility to view the extensive lists of tombs containing scene details from most of the 118 scene types in the database. As in Level 1, each list of known examples has a default display of six columns of information, together with a select/delete menu which enables the user to customize the data for printing off, or for study on the screen.
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Accessing data from the main menu
Once the user enters the database he is provided with a main menu which, for convenience, is visible in every level of the database. In addition to its special function-buttons the menu contains printable general information, each item being signalled by a labelled icon. Lists of tomb owners, dates, sites and cemeteries (with abbreviations) are all included in the menu, as well as a site-map of Egypt and a bibliography of the archaeological sources used in the 'Main References' sections in the database.
Accessing a list of themes, scenes and scene details from an individual's tomb
By highlighting the name of an individual in the list of tomb owners (accessed through the main menu in the database) the user will receive a numbered, descriptive list of every theme, scene type and scene detail currently recorded in the database for that particular tomb. Since the code and description of each entry exactly duplicates the scene or scene-detail description in the levels of the database it is possible to go directly from one of these descriptive headings to the list of tombs which contain the same scene or scene detail - essentially an alternative route into the database.
Using the entries in the OEE Database as references in books
The numbering system in the database enables the user to refer to specific scenes and scene details in a clear and simple manner. This is best explained through a representative example, provided below:
10. Workshop activities (a theme, i.e. a group of related scene types)
10.10. Statue making, in stone or wood (a scene type within the theme above)
10.10.15. Statue of a child (a scene detail within the scene type above)
If the tomb of Ankhmahor is number [1] in the list of Old Kingdom tombs that contain the scene detail called '10.10.15 Statue of a child', then the unique number of this specific scene detail in this specific tomb would be:
OEE 10.10.15 [1].
Scene and scene-detail references in the database
Currently, most of the scene details in the database have the same references as the scene types to which they belong - in other words, the references in Level 2 are not refined. All too often it is impossible to provide precise references to scene details, either because they are not even mentioned in the archaeological sources, or because comments concerning colour traces, measurements, orientation, sculpting techniques, etc., are also relevant to the scene as a whole, and are included in the introduction to the scene itself. A degree of reference refinement will occur in the database over a period of time, but for the reasons just stated a fair number of scene-detail references must continue to duplicate their related scene references in Level 1.
Development of the database
It is clear that the database could be developed far beyond its present content but (as with all major projects) adequate funding is required to enhance and expand the existing resource. This is because the gathering, research, organization and input of data from Phase Two onwards are tasks that collectively require years of effort to complete to the standard expected for academic use.
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