Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2007, Page 36

Davide Zori
Figure 1. Clench bolts employed in two met-
hods for joining planks (redrawn by Jennie
Dillon from Ottaway 1992: 617)
(MAP).2 This work led me to revisit the
terminology currently in use for nails,
rivets and clench bolts, and the impor-
tance of typological consistency for
researchers attempting to understand the
original function and use of such arti-
facts.
The creation of archaeological
data is an on-going process that begins
with labeling find bags in the field, and
continues with cataloging at the project
level and subsequent storage at regional
or national museums. Particularly at these
levels, a collection-wide database facili-
tates access to data. Such a database is
a living tool, the creation of which is,
by nature, a cooperative task involving
many individuals and projects. Scholarly
use of a database can be an opportunity
for reflection and adjustment in order
to make the database more amenable to
future research. In this paper, I reflect
on possible classification adjustments to
archived archaeological data concerning
small functional iron artifacts.
Working with all catalog entries
in the National Museum pertaining to
functional ironwork, I examined the arti-
fact types of nails, rivets, and clench bolts
present in each catalog category. The
National Museum has created an exten-
sive electronic database that includes full
catalog entries for all the finds in the
archives. This user-friendly database is
electronically searchable across several
fields such as find material or identity,
and easily generates complete lists of
finds cataloged under those descriptions.
From each of the find entries, the actual
find was easily found in the storage facili-
ties of the museum. This database and the
efficient access to the finds greatly facili-
tate archival artifact research. The issue
for this paper was that each of the three
iron artifacts types (nails, rivets, clench
bolts) forming the basis of this study, were
found to be cataloged under variable cate-
gory names that were not mutually exclu-
sive. Because of this unintentional typo-
logical variability, an electronic search of
the database for a specific artifact type
did not yield a comprehensive list of the
appropriate artifacts in the collections.
This limited the usability of the data-sys-
tem in searching for specific iron artifact
types and meant that identification of the
artifact types often required reference to
2 MAP is an international archaeological project conducting interdisciplinary research in the Mosfell region in south-
west Iceland. MAP, directed by Jesse Byock and Phillip Walker, works in collaboration with Þjóðminjasafn Islands and
Mosfellsbær.
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