Minutes of the meeting in: Ljubljana, Slovenia, September 14-15, 1993

Participants:

Dominique Guillot, Ministere de la Culture, France

Henrik Jarl Hansen, National Museum of Denmark, Denmark

Roger Leech, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England

Nigel Clubb, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England

Irina Oberlander-Tarnouveanu, Informatics Centre for Cultural Memory, Romania

Steve Stead, Consultant,Paveprime, England

Kathleen McDonnell, The Getty Conservation Institute, U.S.A.

Margaret McClean, The Getty Conservation Institute, U.S.A.

Zana Kamberi, Institute of Archaeology, Albania

Valetta Canouts, National Parks Service, U.S.A.

Andrzej Prinke, Muzeum Archaeologiozne W Poznaniu, Poland

Boguslan Okupny, Muzeum Archaeologiozne W Poznaniu, Poland

Gheorge Lazarovici, History Museum of Transylvania, Romania

Lucien Tarcea, History Museum of Transylvania, Romania

Virgil Stefan Nitulescu, Ministry of Culture, Romania

Gillian Quine, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England

The third meeting of the working group took place at the Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia, coincinding with the CIDOC meeting September 10-16 193. Gillian Quine was appointed temporary secretary and it was agreed that the minutes should be sent to Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu who would check their fairness and accuracy and to Dominque Guillot for translation into French.

Membership of the group had expanded since the last meeting. The secretary will produce a list of addresses for circulation to all participants.

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted without correction.

Matters arising from the previous minutes:

Roger Leech reported on his participation in the archaeological documentation work of the Council of Europe's group of archaeological specialists and discussed the two accepted proposals, documented in the last set of minutes.
Roger Leech had invited Dr. Roel Brandt, chair of the group, to attend the CIDOC meeting but had not received a reply. The next meeting will take place in Amersfoort 7-8th October and will involve the Netherlands (Dr. Brandt), Denmark (Henrik Hansen), England (Neil Beagrie) and possibly France (Dominique Guillot). It was agreed that a formal approach to the documentation group was required and that Roger Leech, as Chairman and Council of Europe representative, should send a letter requesting the nomination of Henrik Hansen as the CIDOC representative at Amersfoort. The minutes of this meeting will be sent to Dr. Brandt.
Formal liaison was also desired with groups such as ICOMOS and the Getty Trust. Roger Leech had tried unsuccessfully to meet with Francis Golding of ICOMOS UK, who is currently chairing a group producing guidelines for the recording of sites and monuments in countries with little or no experience. It was agreed that the importance of having documentation standards as well as guidelines should be flagged to ICOMOS. There is also a proposal to form an international group within ICOMOS to discuss the production of guidelines. This will be discussed in Sri Lanka and, if accepted, will be circulated to members of the group. Liaison with the Getty Trust had been satisfactorily achieved. Kathleen McDonald and Margaret McClean had joined the group and liaison had been established with Toni Petersen, The Getty Art History Information Program. Five countries had been sent letters of invitation by Roger Leech. Veletta Canouts had joined the group, Mme Maria Isidro had sent a list of regional contacts in Spain, and contact had been made with K. Ayres in South Africa, Dr. Andrej Miron in Germany and Dr. Christa Farka in Austria. It was agreed that it was undesirable to have representatives from every country as this would make the group too large to achieve its objectives. The group was unanimously in favour of an organic development through publicity (e.g. CIDOC and ICOM newsletter), through the Council of Europe and targeting of colleagues in countries which the group was keen to involve.

The next item on the agenda was the Directory of National Archaeological Records.

It had been agreed as one of the main tasks of the group that a list of all countries with national archaeological records, or regional records where national were not available, should be compiled. The directory will initially focus on Europe and North America and will later extend to cover other continents. It will include summary information about the records and be prefaced with a statement of the role and the aims of the group. A list of contacts and addresses had been produced to which questionnaires will be sent. The following timetable and actions were agreed:

the secretary will circulate the list, with the minutes, to all participants of the group for comment and additions.

comments on the list and questionnaire should be sent to Steve Stead by the end of November.

translations into French and Spanish to be arranged by Dominique Guillot and Veletta Canouts.

completed questionnaires should be returned mid-February. A 2- week period for completion will be engineered.

results will be sent with the papers for the next meeting.

Steve Stead will prepare a draft format for the directory for the next meeting.

Steve Stead was willing to chase people to complete the questionnaires but requested resources. Kathleen McDonnell stated that the Getty Foundation would be able to absorb some of the cost of follow up work. It was suggested that representation should be made by Roger Leech to CIDOC for funds to cover costs. A figure of circa $300 was quoted**.

It was agreed that a hard copy of the directory was a priority but that on-line access should be considered. It was reported that CHIN is amenable to the directory going on its network and it was agreed that some form of support should be considered by the group if this went ahead.

The next agenda item was the Core International Data Standard for Archaeological Site Records. Joseph Busch of The Getty Art History Information Program attended this discussion. Debate on the adaptability of the Council of Europe's architectural document to the needs of archaeology was reopened. Confusion had arisen in two areas: (1) concerning the title of the document, and (2) the data structure.... In the case of (1) the problem was one of translation: "monuments" in French representing the architectural rather than archaeological heritage. It was agreed that the Council of Europe should be made aware that there would be two separate documents. In the case of (2) it was recognized that the data structure and the list of field were two separate issues and should not be confused. Steve Stead had been unable, through pressure of work to proceed with the development of a proposed conceptual model for the documenting of archaeological sites and, likewise, Henrik Hansen had not produced some draft definitions of core data. Steve Stead did, however, present the data structure lying behind the core data in English databases and it was agreed that this was a good working structure.

Discussion followed on the form of the archaeological document. It was suggested that there should be: a section on the data structure; a list of the data fields, and worked examples.

Comments were invited on the lists of fields from new members. It was agreed that the fields were broadly similar to those required for archaeology. It was recognized that within the core data standard there will be an inner core of data which will be mandatory and hence the minimum data required for the recording of a monument. The following timetable for comments and action was agreed:

all members should send in their comments on the architectural draft and their own thoughts on data structures and data fields by the end of November.

Veletta Canouts and Henrik Hansen will coordinate this information and produce a document for the next meeting of the group.

Roger Leech will produce an introductory statement for the document, following consultation with other members of the group, detailing the aims and scope of the document and to provide a framework for discussion at the next meeting.

The next item on the agenda was the Multi-lingual Glossary for Selected Key Areas of Controlled Vocabulary. Toni Petersen joined the group and made the following recommendations:

the size and scope of the work should be defined at the outset.

a decision should be made as to which languages would be covered.

a base vocabulary which would give the terminology required should be found.

face to face consultation would be required to validate links between terms.

Toni Petersen agreed that AIP would provide guidance and emphasized that it was essential for people to learn the methodology from staff at first hand. The possibility of a workshop was mooted: Roger Leech will follow this up. Questions were asked about the scope of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus. The title would appear to be a misnomer, the thesaurus covering the built environment, and any terms can be incorporated as long as they retain their own credibility. The group agreed that a formal approach should be made to the Getty Trust. It was decided that this should be done in the context of the Council of Europe and that Dominique Guillot should take a lead role.

The last item on the agenda was the Date and Place of the Next Meeting.

It was proposed that the meeting should be held for four days in Constanta during the third or fourth week of May 1994. This proposal was approved and it was agreed that Roger Leech should liaise with Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu concerning arrangements. The question of finances was raised and it was made clear that Romania would welcome financial assistance from CIDOC. Roger Leech will follow this up with the CIDOC Board. The possibility of combining the meeting with a Council of Europe documentation meeting was discussed.

The meeting concluded with a discussion on the next CIDOC conference in Washington. There was general agreement that the arrangements of working group meetings alongside the plenary sessions was unsatisfactory. It was suggested that the group should meet the day before the conference started and that a short meeting might be held during the main conference for new members. The arrangements for Washington were left with Veletta Canouts and Roger Leech was asked to bring the problem to the attention of the CIDOC Board.

ICOM/CIDOC ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES WORKING GROUP LIST OF ACTIONS ACTIONS INDIVIDUAL(S) RESPONSIBLE

Minutes to be written and sent to Irina GQ and Dominique
Address list of participants to be compiled GQ
Directory address list to be circulated GQ
Formal approach to be made to Dr. Roel Brandt RL requesting nomination of Henrik as CIDOC representative at Amersfoort
Minutes of CIDOC meeting to be sent to Dr. Brandt RL
Meeting to be arranged with Francis Golding, RL ICOMOS UK
Proposal for international ICOMOS group producing RL guidelines for recording sites to be circulated to members of the group if accepted in Sri Lanka
Minutes and other documentation to be sent to GQ? K. Ayres, South Africa
Publicising of group - CIDOC and ICOM newsletters, RL/HH Council of Europe
Comments on directory list of addressed and All members questionnaire to Steve Stead by end of November
Follow up work on addresses for Germany, French HH, DG speaking countries and Italy
Revision of list and questionnaire SS
French and Spanish translations of questionnaire DG/VC to be prepared
Questionnaires to be sent out in January SS
Questionnaires to be returned mid-February. Chase SS/KM up work will be necessary
Resources to be made available for chasing. CIDOC RL to be approached
Analysis of questionnaires. Results will be sent out SS? with papers for next meeting
Draft format for directory to be prepared for next SS meeting. Need to contact CIDOC publication group
On-line access to the directory. Liaison with CHIN RL/JM
Council of Europe to be made aware that there will RL be two separate core data standard documents
Comments on architectural draft, data structures, All members data fields by end of November
Information to be co-ordinated and document HH, VC produced for next meeting
Introductory statement to be prepared for RL document
Liaison with Toni Petersen concerning multi-lingual RL/DG thesaurus, including organization of workshop. Formal approach to The Getty Trust to be made in the context of the Council of Europe
Arrangements for next meeting in Romania RL/IO-T
Financial assistance for Romanians from CIDOC RL
Council of Europe meeting in Romania? RL
Arrangements for meeting in Washington VC
CIDOC to be made aware of dissatisfaction with RL arrangements of working group meetings alongside plenary sessions