Rebuilding the Great Britain Historical GIS,Part 1: Building an Indefinitely Scalable Statistical Database

Abstract

The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System (GIS) has been rebuilt around a single central table holding all statistics in one column, currently containing 14,541,491 data values. This architecture enables extremely flexible data handling, but requires that the context of each data value be captured entirely as metadata. Statistical reporting areas are defined via an ontology of administrative units, in which hierarchical relationships are compulsory while boundary polygons are optional. What a number measures is recorded via a relational implementation of the Data Documentation Initiative standard, locating each value within an n-dimensional matrix, or nCube, whose dimensions are variables such as age, gender, and occupation. The data library can be extended to additional countries or more statistical topics without adding any database tables.     

Tooth Evulsion in the Maghreb: Chronological and Geographical Patterns

The practice of tooth evulsion was widespread in the Maghreb from the Iberomaurusian through to the Neolithic. We present an updated summary of the geographical and chronological distribution of different patterns of tooth evulsion during this period based on a site-by-site review. Tooth evulsion was almost universal during the Iberomaurusian but typically restricted to the upper central incisors. During the Transitional Epipalaeolithic, the practice was extended to include removal of a minimum of four central incisors in both males and females. During the Capsian the custom became less prevalent and more variable, suggesting regional difference and a possible change or diversification of social meaning. A markedly higher prevalence of tooth evulsion among females during the Capsian period supports this interpretation. The prevalence of tooth evulsion was further reduced in the Neolithic.     

Reevaluating the Age of the Iberomaurusian in Morocco

Chronological evidence for the Iberomaurusian is currently very limited and there are problems with some of the published radiocarbon dates. In this paper we present new AMS dating results from well-stratified cave sequences at Ghar Cahal, Kehf el Hammar and Taforalt in northern and eastern Morocco. The longest of these sequences, from Taforalt, shows an intermittent occupation history spanning the period ca. 18,000–11,000 bp (radiocarbon determinations presented in this paper are expressed as ka bp or bp, whilst approximate calendar ages are expressed as Cal bp) with a marked intensification of cave use soon after ca. 13,000 bp. Using calibrated AMS ages in comparison to sea surface temperature evidence from the Alboran Sea core MD95-2043 and more generally to Greenland ice δ¹⁸O core records, we suggest that there may have been a relationship, albeit a complex one, between climatic events and cave activity on the part of Iberomaurusian populations.     

The Interview: From Formal to Postmodern

Standard oral history textbooks will contain a chapter on theinterview with the do's and don’ts of basic structuredand unstructured interviewing. This specialist book is intendedto give sufficient critical detail concerning the differenttypes of interview, including their uses, benefits, and shortcomings,to assist all newcomers to the subject. Oral historians arenot likely to need such comprehensive knowledge, but the textis not lengthy and is for the most part clearly written, soit does not become a burden. In fact its brevity