Published September 11th, 2008
The map has had a major overhaul which includes a lot of new functionality. The reasons for the overhaul were: a lot of the files were bloated, which caused slow download speeds; the interface was a little sloppy; there was limited area for extensions in the old system.
So, what’s new?
- Completely new interface, written from scratch
- An accordian has been added on the left for ease of navigation
- Mouseover information panels
- Tile overlays instead of raw data processing
- Use of the Gaia framework for Ajax capability
- Printable details
- User-defined KML layers
- User comments area
- Photo layer from Panoramio
- Now defaults to the Terrain layer
- Data exports from the map
- Right click menu on the map
- Automated Amazon reading lists
What’s in the pipeline?
- Multiple external overlays using Tiles
- Street Views
- Google Earth API overlay
- User contributions via the map
Now that the map has a solid base I will be adding more tools and data over the coming weeks and months.
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/GoogleMap/
Published December 19th, 2007
in General.
I just finished off adding an archaeology video catalogue to Online Archaeology. The catalogue is categorised and tagged so it’s easy to search for videos. All videos are hand picked from either YouTube or Google Video.
Registered members can add their own videos which will be moderated.
Watch out for some GIS videos in the new year as well as plenty of practical archaeology videos.
I’ll also be releasing some tutorials on video to explain some of the functionality of Online Archaeology so it’s easier for members to update the content.
Published September 26th, 2007
I just discovered that PAS (Portable Antiquities Scheme) Celtic Coins Index have opened up a basic API to search their data and return spatial results - great stuff!
You can now see this data on the Online Archaeology map:
- Go to the Online Archaeology map
- Click Browse
- Expand the tree to say Roman > Coloniae, then click on ‘Coloniae’ in the tree view
- Click any marker to show the InfoWindow
- Click the black icon at the top of the InfoWindow
This will load all coins in the same county as the clicked item. You can then click on any of the new markers to see the details of the Celtic Coins in the county.
Published August 22nd, 2007
in General.
With information coming in thick and fast from all directions, I thought about providing a means to display it in a format that other people can easily access.
Anyone can now download the new Archaeology Toolbar:
- Latest Archaeology News
- Archaeology Links
- Archaeology Jobs
- Archaeology RSS Feeds
Join the Online Archaeology Community and receive the latest archaeology news directly to your browser!
Click here to download
Click here to post suggestions
At last the UK can use some of the great features of the Google AJAX Search API. This has been around for a long time in the US and other countries.
Here’s the official release from Google.
This feature has been added to the Online Archaeology Map.
- Zoom into a fairly low level by double-clicking the map
- Enter ‘archaeology’ in the search box in the bottom left of the map
- Try experimenting with other searches to see what you can find
Online Archaeology will continue to add more features as they become available.
Published June 12th, 2007
in General.
There are now a huge number of RSS feeds available for archaeology. This is great if you have time to find them and have a FeedReader to read them all. There’s a categorised list of archaeology-related RSS feeds here and if you are registered on Online Archaeology you can add as many as you like to the collection.
There’s also an aggregated feed here. This summarises a number of archaeology-related RSS feeds into one, which you can then subscribe to.
Finally, there’s the Online Archaeology Feed Reader which has a number of feeds available to read in one place. If you are logged into Online Archaeology you can also add as many feeds as you like and subscribe to each to receive an email when the feed has been updated.
The ability to subscribe to all this kind of news set me thinking. I’d actually prefer to be notified by email when something has been updated, rather than to actively keep searching for it. That’s why I wrote a small component that will do just that.
Any registered member of Online Archaeology can build their own collection of RSS feeds and be notified by email of any updates. This service is available here (you must be logged in to use it).
Published April 13th, 2007
View the Online Archaeology Map
Click on the 
icon to open up the layers toggle. As you can see, the Wikipedia layer is shown by default. Check and uncheck the Nabonidus checkbox to toggle the Nabonidus layer. The layer contains all archaeology sites held in the Nabonidus system.
More to come soon from Nabonidus and Online Archaeology…
Published March 30th, 2007
I’ve added a Wikipedia article layer to the map.
It loads a limited number of points within the current viewport and reloads when you zoom in or move the map. The layer is on by default but you can toggle it if you follow the instructions here:
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/wordpress/
You can see the Online Archaeology Map here:
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/GoogleMap/Default.aspx
This is the first of a series of layered external information on the Online Archaeology Map, more coming soon….
Published March 19th, 2007
Here’s a Google Map that loads data from a WikiPedia service. Each time the map is moved or the zoom level changes the data is refreshed.
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/GoogleMap/pages/wiki.htm
You can find the service I used here:
http://www.geonames.org/export/wikipedia-webservice.html
Published March 16th, 2007
After Oxford Archaeology opened up their data with a Web Mapping Service I’ve been experimenting with using Google Maps as a means of displaying the data. I’d already run a lot of experiments with Stu Eve of LP Archaeology and we’d got it to a pretty good point using some datasets of Historic Scotland. Unfortunately we were thwarted at the last minute and couldn’t publish because of licencing restrictions.
Jo Cook at Oxford Archaeology configured the WMS and we were able to get something working.
http://www.online-archaeology.co.uk/GoogleMap/Pages/oa.htm
Click on the icon to open up the layers toggle.
Check the checkbox to make the call to the WMS and load the layer.
Click on a feature on the layer.
The InfoWindow only appears if the point has a valid feature within a certain tolerance - in this case within 5 pixels of the clicked point.
Another tool I used on this was a drag selector to zoom to a selected area. Click on the 
icon to initiate the zoom selector, and drag your mouse from top left to bottom right.
When more archaeology datasets become available as WMS I will add them as layers to the map.
