ADS Update
Stuart Jeffrey
ADS User Services Manager
In this special tenth anniversary edition of ADS News we have a number of contributions from partners and staff which provide us with a timely insight into how the service has evolved over the decade and what directions it is likely to take in the future. We also have personal views on some favourite resources in the Collection Highlights section (Page 11). Of course, there has also been plenty of activity at the ADS since Issue 18 of the newsletter.
Early in the summer a significant new archaeological resource for teachers and students was launched. Created and hosted by the ADS for the Higher Education Academy subject centre for History, Classics and Archaeology this free resource is intended as a tool for locating and sharing archaeological images for use in teaching, studying and research (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/learning/image_bank/index.cfm)
The entire 32 issue run of the Mesolithic Miscellany produced by T. Douglas Price, University of Wisconsin between 1980 and 1996 and covering all aspects of the European Mesolithic is now available for download as PDFs (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?mesomisc_na_2006). The month of May saw Janet Montgomery's much requested PhD thesis made available online. Lead and Strontium Isotope Compositions of Human Dental Tissues as an indicator of Ancient Exposure and Population Dynamics. (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?montgomery05) This was rapidly followed by the release of a very exciting AHRC funded project utilising the latest in WebGIS. Medieval Townscapes: a digital atlas of the new towns of Edward I was released on the ADS website in July and is described in detail on Page 13.
Finally, August saw the release of the Breaking Through Rock Art: 3D laser scanning of megalithic rock art archive (see Issue 18). This project tested the technique of 3D laser scanning for the recording of prehistoric rock carvings. Sites studied were Castlerigg Stone Circle, Long Meg and Copt Howe in Cumbria and Horseshoe Rock in Northumberland. Data available within this archive includes raw laser scanning data, visualisations of the datasets (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?btrar_ahrb_2005).
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