Data standards - rteverson/fallofrome GitHub Wiki

How to organize your files in this repository

• File types
  We're a csv or bust shop for the data. If you see .xls, .numbers, .txt, the center cannot hold.

• Naming

  • Please call your csv files:
    • NameTopicWorking
    • NameTopicClean
      It's up to you if you need a working and an import-ready clean file, or just one file.
  • Please call your working branch by a shortened version of your topic, e.g
    • battles
    • sculpture
    • inscriptions

• Repository organization

  • It's time to clean up the repository. Decide which branch you will work in if a suitable one already exists, if not, create one. Please delete any branches you have created so far, we no longer need them. I have removed all extraneous files from master, so new branches will be clean.
  • As you work, think of your topic-name branch as your final draft. Once your final draft is complete, you can pull-request the final draft of your data into master. This will be the 'published' version, exported into Carto where it will form part of our final project as a class
  • In order to make changes to your ongoing final draft, you may want to make one or more branches off your topic branch, for example 'Churchbuilding'---> 'Churchbuildingworking' ----> 'Churchbuildingworkingnewtry

How to organize your csv data columns

(Shawn Hill's talk slides on this)

We will use a common 'core' set of columns for all our data, which will be the same across all your projects. Alongside those, you will each use the topic-specific headings you have come up with.

A commented csv file is available here. What follows is a list of the core columns, and notes explaining their use.

• NameModern
  Either the commonly-known name/title in English, or, if not previously named, the name you assign

• NameAncient
  If not known, null; if known, name in antiquity

• LocationAncient1

• LocationAncient2

• LocationAncient3 Use these three to give ancient location if known from most specific to least, nul if not, or if not needed.

• LocationModern
  Use these three to give modern location if known from most specific to least, nul if not, or if not needed.

• LocationModern2

• LocationModern3

• Lat
  Decimal latitude (no degree symbols º)

• Long
  Decimal longitude (no degree symbols º)

• GeolocationSource How do we know the location? Use the following terms:

  • Extant (still standing)

  • Archaeological excavation (scientific excavation)

  • modern discovery (found, by a looter, lucky farmer, Renaissance collector, etc)

  • Documentary evidence (a primary source or sources describe the location)

  • Hypothesis (a published scholar has plausible thesis)

  • Conjecture (a reasonable guess by you, or by another)

• GeolocationCitation
  (where did you get the coordinated from; eg. google maps, wikipedia, etc.

• GeolocationCertainty
  (% certainty that the location on the map is the original location of the item)

• Date
  (date as given in your research source, eg 4th century, 1152, etc.)

• DateLow
  lowest likely date

• DateHigh
  highest likely date

• DateDecision
  A 4-digit year from a plausible point in this range. You can either calculate this as the mathematical mean, or cheat the number if that is more accurate.

• Notes1
  Any notes on the above, eg on the dating decision, or how the location can be argued for

• Notes2
  Any notes on the above, eg on the dating decision, or how the location can be argued for

• Notes3
  Any notes on the above, eg on the dating decision, or how the location can be argued for

• Citation1
  Scholarly source where you found the information here

• Citation2
  Scholarly source where you found the information here

• ...subject-specific columns go here...