Getting Started

Getting Started

This page includes important information to help you get the most from your visits to this site. If you have a printer available, you may wish to print it out for future reference.

System Requirements

To view this site you will need a computer running Microsoft Windows 98 or later and Internet Explorer version 5.x or later. You can obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer from the Microsoft download center at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

All maps, plans and stratigraphic diagrams on this site are presented in the System Vector Graphic (SVG) format. To view them you will need to download and install the Adobe SVG viewer from www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html. See below for instructions on using SVG format illustrations.

Some pages in this site include links to documents presented as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. To view these documents, you will need to download and install the Adobe Acrobat PDF Viewer from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Site Navigation

The following conventions are used throughout this site:

The YAT "head" logo at the top of the blue band at the left edge of each main page (including this page) forms a link back to the home page of the site.
Up to three arrows at the bottom right of each main page are links to other related pages. The "up" arrow links to the next page up in the site structure. For example the Up arrow at the bottom of the page on Phase 6.1 leads to the Phase 6 page. The left and right arrows link to adjacent pages at the same level in the site structure. For example, from the Phase 4 page, the left and right arrows lead to the Phase 3 and Phase 5 pages respectively.
Links within the text are of the following types:
- Links to other pages follow the common web convention and are shown in a blue boldface font.
- Gateway links to items in the project archive database are highlighted in purple. See below for hints on how to use the project archive.
- Links to bibliographic references are highlighted in green. Hover the mouse pointer over one of these links to see the bibliographic record. The full project bibliography can be accessed from the Home page of this publication.
Clicking on the small images in many pages will display the full-sized image in a popup window.
Clicking on a feature in one of the phase plans or a Context in one of the stratigraphic matrix diagrams will display the associated record from the underlying project archive database in a popup window (see below).
Small red arrow heads in stratigraphic matrix diagrams indicate links to Contexts in other matrix diagrams. Click on the arrow to follow the link.

Using SVG Plans and Diagrams

You can zoom and pan all SVG format illustrations using the following controls:

Hold down the Ctrl key and click or click and drag within the diagram to zoom in.
Hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys together and click or click and drag within the diagram to zoom out.
Hold down the Alt key and click and drag within the diagram to pan left, right, up or down.
Right-click within the diagram to display the SVG popup menu. A particularly useful command on the popup menu is Original View which resets the drawing to its original size without any zooming or panning. The Help command repeats the information given here.

Exploring the Site Archive

Many links in this site take you into the heart of the YAT Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) archive for the Walmgate excavations. Each of these links is in effect a gateway - once in the IADB, you can explore freely the complete project archive. To help you make the most of this, this section explains briefly the structure of the IADB archive.

There are five principal hierarchical data types within the IADB: Finds, Contexts, Sets, Groups and Phases. Each Find is a member of a single Context, each Context is a member of a single Set, and so on.
The Finds data type includes Small Finds (SF), Bulk Finds (BF), Samples (SA), Architectural Fragments (AF), Skeletons (SK) and Structural Timbers (ST).
The Context data type includes Deposits, Cuts and Fills.
A sixth data type, called Objects, is non-hierarchical and can include any combination of Finds, Contexts, Sets, Groups, Phases and other Objects. For example, in the Walmgate archive, Object 712 represents metalworking in Phase 7 and includes all the Finds and the Contexts from which they came.
Each IADB data record is presented as a single popup web page with six tabbed sections: Description, Plan, Images, Membership, Matrix and Notes. Click on a tab name to display that section.
The Description tab shows the basic information about the data record including links to other related records and documents, usually in PDF format.
The Plan tab shows the plan of the item which is generated in real time from the underlying single context site plans. The plan is presented in SVG format (see above). Click on a Context in the plan to see details of the Context and its related database records.
The Images tab shows thumbnail views of all photos and other illustrations relating to the database item. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image in a popup window. The size (in bytes) of the full-size image is shown below each thumbnail. This is to allow you to estimate the length of time it will take for the full-size image to download given your internet connection speed.
The Membership tab shows an expandable list of the database records contained within the current record. Click on the plus (+) sign next to an item in the list to expand it.
The Matrix tab displays the stratigraphic matrix for the appropriate Phase.
The Notes tab is a recent innovation in the IADB which can be used to store hand-written notes or sketches. It is not used in the Walmgate project archive.
All the database records are fully cross-referenced - click on any link to display that data record.
Commands at the top of the data window allow you to move to the Previous or Next data record of the same type, Goto a particular record (select the Record Type from the drop-down list and type the required record number, or in the case of Finds, the two letter Find Type followed by the record number), Browse through an expandable list of all database records, or, via the History command, return to any recently viewed record.