Current Archaeology

Contents Database

Notes

Current Archaeology is arranged in volumes, mostly of 12 issues (only 11 issues on the first volume, and 13 issues in Vol 10). At the end of each volume, a contents page has been printed in the magazine for the contents of that volume. For the later issues this has been prepared on computer: these databases are the basic data from which the printed indices have been prepared. However the computer databases offer a far more powerful means of searching, notably by the addition of information on periods and regions.

The contents are presented in four separate files. Contents contains the main articles.Books contains the books; DL contains the Diary and Letters, while SD contains the Science Diary.

Contents and Books both give details of the complete run of Current Archaeology, from number 1 to number 156 - the end of the 13th volume.

Up to number 95 we were in the pre-computer age, so there is a fairly basic listing of articles, subtitles and issues, together with periods and regions. However from CA 96 onwards a more elaborate format was adopted with the addition of three 'keywords' and a brief summary.

The keywords are intended to be fairly simple, e.g. 'henge' will produce all henges, and 'hillforts' all hillforts. But note that although these fields appear in the records from 1 to 95, they are only filled from 96 onwards.

Each record contains fields for periods and regions.

The periods are numbered 1 to 9 as follows

1 = Palaeolithic
2 = Mesolithic
3 = Neolithic
4 = Bronze Age
5 = Iron Age
6 = Roman
7 = Dark Age
8 = Saxon
9 = Medieval

The regions are based on the former CBA regions, and are numbered as follows:

1 Scotland
2 Wales
3 North of England
4 Yorkshire
5 Manchester, Cheshire, Lancs
6 Anglia: Norfolk and Suffolk
7 Cambridge, Essex, Herts
8 Birmingham, Hereford, Worcs, Shropshire, Staffs, Warks
9 Oxford, Beds, Bucks, Northants
10 London
11 Kent and Sussex
12 Hants, Berks, Dorset, Wilts
13 Glos, Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset
14 Derbyshire, Leics, Notts, Lincoln
15 Ireland
16 Europe
17 Rest of the world

The authors of the articles are also included, though in many cases they are sources, rather than authors.

Books

Books are listed from number 1 onwards. These have also been given a period listing, though this is even more difficult than with the articles and in many, probably the majority of cases it has been omitted.

However from 96 onwards we again became more ambitious, adding 3 keywords, which hopefully will make retrieval easier.

Diary and Letters

These are listed from 96 onwards. In most cases the 3 keywords have been added. The first keyword has been used to provide the categories for the listing in CA. For CA 96 to 107, the letters dealing with the Science Diary were added to the Science Diary.

Science Diary

This is a separate listing that also only runs from 96 onwards. Again, keywords have been added.

Keywords

The keywords, at least in the Diary and Letters, and in the Science Diary, have been chosen according to two different criteria. Keyword1 is used to arrange the articles in categories for printing in the magazine indexes - see the indexes in CA 107, 132, 144 and 156 for the categories used.

Secondly keyword3 has been used to retrieve the names of places, people and institutions when mentioned.

Thus the Oxford laboratory should be retrievable under both Institution (keyword 1) and under Oxford (keyword 3)

Format

This searchable database is partly held on this server, and partly on our new server (with cgi-bin), found under www.currentarchaeology.com.

Click here for the 'home' database.

Click here for a full transfer.

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Amended and re-written 30th October 1999