Minutes of the meeting in: Washington, USA, August 27-29, 1994

Participants:

Henrik Jarl Hansen, National Museum of Denmark,Denmark

Roger Leech, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments,England

Judith Marsh,Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada

Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu,Information Center for Culture and Heritage, Romania

Steve Stead, Consultant, Paveprime, England

Gillian Quine, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England

Veletta Canouts, National Parks Service, USA

Zana Kamberi, Institute of Archaeology, Albania

Omar Bwana, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya

Luiz Antoni Bolcato Custodio, Ministerio de Cultura, Brasil

Sonya Wolff, Archaeologist, USA Sam McCarthy, National Parks Service,USA

Neil Beagrie, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England

Trevor Reynolds, English Heritage, England

Jane Kamplain, Computer Sciences Corporation, USA

The first working session of the fifth meeting of the working group took place on Saturday, August 27 as part of the CIDOC/MCN Conference at the Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C., United States of America. The initial meetings of the working group were attended by Henrik Hansen, Judith Marsh, Roger Leech, Gillian Quine, Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, Steve Stead and Veletta Canouts. The group was joined during the next four days by the remaining participants. Meetings were also held at the Department of the Interior and at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum.

Roger Leech began the meeting by noting that regrets had been sent from Dominique Guillot (France), Andrzej Prinke (Poland), Anders Vilks (Latvia), Dr. Werner (Germany), Dr. Roel Brandt (Netherlands), Ingrid Coetzee (South Africa), Nigel Clubb (England) and Albert Ferguson (Canada).

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted with corrections to two participant addresses (Cristina Craciun and Liliana Marsanu).

Matters arising from the previous minutes:

1. CIDOC Newsletter - Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu will produce an article for the newsletter focusing on the Romania meeting and including reference to the Russian participation. Veletta Canouts will advertise the activities of the group within the US.
2. Henrik Hansen gave a short update on the meeting of the Bronze Age Multilingual Glossary group in Amersfoort, June 9-10. Henrik will be attending an architectural group meeting in Strasbourg in October, 1994.
3. CIDOC Data and Terminology Working Group - There was a short discussion regarding the format of the MICMO document. Roger Leech reported that he would be attending a meeting with this group on Aug. 27 and would ask the group to include references to the Council of Europe data standard as well as to our archaeological core data standard. (NOTE: The Data and Terminology Working Group agreed to include reference to our core data standard but did not agree to include the COE Architectural Data Standard).
4. A short discussion took place regarding non-attending members. At the last meeting it was agreed that permanent membership in the group would be defined by presence at two or more meetings. Roger Leech noted that several members have taken an active interest in the group and wish to receive all mailings, but are unable to attend the meetings. It was agreed to consider Dr. Werner, Dr. Brandt, Ingrid Coetzee and Elena Tashak non-attending permanent members of the group. Copies of all tabled documents will be sent to non-attending members with the minutes. Judy Marsh will ensure that the Canadian National Sites Working Group receive all mailings. It was noted that Elena Tashak had agreed in Romania to supply a list of Russian contact names. These have not yet been received.
5. It was noted that there will be a session devoted to national archaeological records at the World Archaeology Congress in New Delhi, December 1994. Peter Ucko, Southampton University is taking papers for this session.
6. Roger Leech reported that he had still not received an answer from Andrew Roberts regarding financial arrangements for the publication of CIDOC documents and that he would ask for financial support for the work of our group at the CIDOC board meeting.
7. Roger Leech reported that he had received a letter from Dr. Kathleen McDonnell indicating that, due to a change in her job, Dr. Margaret McClean would be representing the Getty Trust at the CIDOC meeting.
8. All items circulated on the Task List from the Romania meeting were reported to have been completed.

The next item discussed was the Directory of National Records.

Veletta Canouts asked for clarification regarding the desired American listing. It was decided that Veletta will forward a copy of the questionnaire to each of the states with a covering letter requesting a response by the end of October. Veletta will coordinate the American response and liaise with Steve Stead.

It was noted that a response had been received from Czechoslovakia indicating that they would like to send a representative to our group. Steve Stead reported that the questionnaire has been translated into French. Judy Marsh will try to have it translated into Spanish. Steve Stead will begin to follow up on those countries who have not yet responded and will take multilingual questionnaires to the World Archaeology Congress in December. All questionnaires must be returned before February 1, 1995.

It was agreed that three types of document should be produced from the questionnaire responses. The directory should be a minimal listing of organizations which hold national records (eg. name of organization, address, contact). There should also be a short report which synthesizes the results of the questionnaire, perhaps with graphs. In addition, a document should be produced which contains all of the responses.

The directory and the report will be printed, bound and available for distribution. Judy Marsh could not commit but agreed to find out if the document could be printed by the Department of Canadian Heritage. The full set of questionnaire responses will be made available electronically, via Internet or on disc. Paper copies could be generated upon request. Steve Stead will find out if a single zipped file could be made available by CHIN. It was suggested that countries represented within the working group could bear the cost of any paper copies required. For example, Roger Leech could be responsible for English copies, Dominique Guillot for French and Veletta Canouts or Judy Marsh for Spanish.

The timetable for development and publication of the directory document was then confirmed. The final return date for all questionnaires will be February 1, 1995. The first draft of the directory will be produced by March 1, 1995 and circulated for discussion in Leiden. The final version will be completed by the end of April. Roger Leech will ask Dominique Guillot to arrange a French translation and Judy Marsh will make printing and binding arrangements. The launch of the completed package will take place at the ICOM Triennial meeting in Stavanger, Norway, 30th June-7th July, 1995.

The next item discussed was the Archaeological Core Data Standard. Copies of the most recent version of the core data standard document were circulated. This version incorporates comments from the Amersfoort meeting, work on the data model by Steve Stead, Gill Quine and Henrik Hansen, and comments by Roger Leech. The group worked through the document during the afternoon session and noted any inconsistencies or errors. All problems or changes were recorded by Gill Quine, who, with Roger Leech, will ensure that they are reflected in the final document.

Irina Oberlander-Tarnoveanu suggested that there should be a definition of the term "archaeological site" in the introduction to the document, but the group preferred not to address this issue in the context of the core data standard. It was also noted that the document will require intensive editing before it is published. It was decided that Gill and Roger should enlist the aid of Martyn Barber and Neil Beagrie of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to do a final edit.

Roger will speak to Dominique Guillot about obtaining a French translation of the final document. Judy Marsh or Veletta Canouts will arrange the Spanish translation.

The timetable for production of the Core Data Standard was then confirmed. Roger Leech and Gill Quine will incorporate all revisions requested at Washington meeting. In addition, they will incorporate comments from Andrew Roberts and any other interested parties. Veletta Canouts will gather, and forward to Roger, any North American comments. Steve Stead will format the document according to CIDOC standards. Ideally, the final draft will be complete for the Council of Europe Bronze Age Glossary meeting in Paris in late November, 1994. (Henrik Hansen will discuss certain points raised during our meeting with the COE group at this meeting). The final date for comments before the paper is published is March 1, 1995. Judy Marsh and Roger Leech will finalize the document. Roger will arrange to have the document printed. The core data standard will be launched at the ICOM meeting in Stavanger. Both the CIDOC and the Council of Europe Core Data Standards will be available at the Council of Europe meeting in Oxford, 20-23 September 1995.

Following a short discussion on the Multilingual Glossary, the group reaffirmed that this project must be put on hold for future consideration. However, Henrik Hansen will request that the Council of Europe Bronze Age working group circulate their document to the members of this group as an example of the sort of work that would be involved.

Roger Leech reported back to the group following his discussions with the Data and Terminology Working Group. He reported that, while the group has agreed to include reference to the CIDOC Archaeological Core Data Standard, they would not include reference to the COE architectural core data standard. Judy Marsh will write to Josephine to confirm that the reference to our standard will be included.

Steve Stead reported that the final draft of the CIDOC publication rules is now available. Copies were available in Washington. If any other working group members would like a copy, it can be obtained from Gill Quine. It was noted that all publications should include publication details (eg. ISBN, CIPD numbers).

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

It was noted that the Council of Europe meeting in Athens is unlikely to take place before May, 1995. It was decided that the group would have to meet earlier than this to finalize the data standard and directory documents and that the most convenient location would be in conjunction with the Computer Applications in Archaeology conference in Leiden, the Netherlands, March 31-April 2, 1995. The working group will meet for two days prior to the conference (March 29-30) and during the conference as required. Steve Stead will make necessary arrangements for meeting rooms before December. Roger Leech will send letters of invitation to all members of the group, including non-attending members. This letter will accompany the minutes. A personal letter of invitation from the Netherlands will be required for the East European participants.

The next agenda item was the Programme for 1995. It was decided that members of the working group should bring suggestions to the Leiden meeting. The multilingual glossary work will be discussed there as well. We will also have to determine the revision cycle for the directory and the core data standard, including a decision regarding which organization might take this on.

It was moved and accepted that all documents which are brought to working group meetings for discussion should be available on disk at the meeting. This will allow editing of the documents while all participants are present.

Finally, Roger Leech reported on several board meeting discussions which were of interest to the group. ICOM 1995 will be held in Stavanger, Norway, July 1-7. Roger announced that a pre-meeting tour of archaeological sites will be available. Working group meetings will not be a formal part of the agenda.

The 1996 meeting will be held in Nairobi, Kenya. Roger Leech introduced Omar Bwana, Deputy Director of the National Museums of Kenya and announced that the board had discussed having a workshop and a session devoted to national archaeological records at that meeting. Our working group would be responsible for organizing these sessions.

Production costs for the directory and the core data standard were also discussed. Roger reported that the board has agreed to forward the sum of \'a3200 to Steve Stead to cover costs associated with the distribution of the questionnaire. Roger presented an approximate cost of \'a31000 to the board to print, bind and distribute the Core Data Standard and the Directory of National Archaeological Records. To date, no firm answer has been received from the board concerning the amount of money available for this project.

Roger Leech then thanked Veletta Canouts for all local arrangements and the meeting was adjourned.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES WORKING GROUP TASK LIST - AUGUST, 1994

GENERAL

1. Veletta Canouts will advertise the activities of the group within the US.
2. Roger Leech will contact Elena Tashak regarding list of Russian contact names.
3. Henrik Hansen will request that the Council of Europe Bronze Age working group circulate their document to the members of this group as an example of the sort of work that would be involved.
4. CIDOC board has agreed to forward the sum of \'a3200 to Steve Stead to cover costs associated with the distribution of the questionnaire

DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDS

1. Steve Stead will begin to follow up on those countries who have not yet responded and will take multilingual questionnaires to the World Archaeology Congress in December.
2. Judy Marsh will determine if document can be printed by the Department of Canadian Heritage and will also have the questionnaire translated into Spanish.
3. Veletta Canouts will forward a copy of the questionnaire to each of the American States requesting a reply by end October, 1994. She will then coordinate the responses and liaise with Steve Stead.
4. First draft of the directory will be produced by March 1, 1995 and circulated for discussion in Leiden.
5. Roger Leech will ask Dominique Guillot to arrange a French translation of the final document.

CORE DATA STANDARD

1. Roger Leech and Gill Quine will incorporate all revisions requested at the Washington meeting. In addition, they will incorporate comments from Andrew Roberts and any other interested parties.
2. Veletta Canouts will gather, and forward to Roger, any North American comments.
3. Steve Stead will format the document according to CIDOC standards.
4. First draft of the directory will be produced by March 1, 1995 and circulated for discussion in Leiden. The final version will be completed by the end of April.
5. Judy Marsh and Roger Leech will finalize the document.
6. Roger will speak to Dominique Guillot about obtaining a French translation. Judy Marsh or Veletta Canouts will arrange translation into Spanish..
7. Roger will arrange to have the document printed.
8. Judy Marsh will write to Josephine to confirm that the reference to our standard will be included in the Data and Terminology Working Group document.

NEXT WORKING GROUP MEETING

1. Steve Stead will make necessary arrangements for meeting rooms in Leiden.
2. Roger Leech will prepare letter of invitation to accompany minutes of Washington meeting.
3. All members of working group to bring suggestions for 1995 programme to Leiden meeting.
4. All documents tabled at Leiden meeting to be available in electronic format at the meeting.