Dear Fiona, sorry for delay am a bit flagging here under workload. I am looking to map some archaeology fieldwork data and also some coordinates from the Moray Quern Survey. So this type of mapping will need to be done on a larger scale map not just globally on a map of Scotland. Was all set to storm up to Aberdeen and catch up with some contacts in the department, but trains here pretty strike bound so still at home. QGIS looks easy but you need constant practice. Luckily there are YouTube videos available, but all this takes time on top of all the other videos we need to watch. Am still totally impressed at the amount of work you are getting through. I never really hit the less steep curve. I was very lucky with my classmates who helped out this little old crock heroically.
There used to be a feature of Canmore called Canmap which presented all of the historical records in a GIS. You could zoom on an area and see everything (buildings, find spots of artefacts etc). It was great.
I believe they lost the funding for the GIS package some (many?) years ago. Good GIS software is not cheap or certainly wasn’t back in the day and OS charges for the map data were also expensive. But nowadays there are some good open source GIS and maps.
Canmap was produced by RCAHMS themselves. Maybe HES could step up to the mark and redevelop it with open source minimising the costs that doomed Canmap
Hi Alastair, oh that's a real shame - and yes GIS is much more affordable now with open source options like QGIS, and lots of datasets (e.g. LiDAR) becoming available too. It would be brilliant to be able to explore patterns and relationships within Canmore itself. I've vaguely noticed that you can download each record as a CSV, but I haven't tried it out. The entire dataset would be an incredible resource.
This is such a great walk through of how much is accessible across the world for analysing data sets like this, and the information to be gleaned from them. Many years ago in my own m.phil days I worked with CANMORE and their team to help map class I symbol stones and Pictish-age/early medieval broch sites, and it was long enough ago (sheepishly enough) that there was nothing like this available outside specific research databases and GIS teams. So exciting to see this work and what's possible. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks Freya, it really is exciting what's possible now - even a few years ago GIS still felt like a really specialist tool that was inaccessible to non-geographers and those without deep pockets. It looks like there are some fantastic datasets becoming available too, opening up whole new horizons of possibility. Your project with Canmore sounds very cool - years ago my brother had a job with RCHME mapping historical shipwreck locations, and I was always quite envious of that.
Nice one Fiona! I totally agree with you that maps hold huge potential, and yes I get super excited by them too. They so often give the game away. The disappointing thing is that most people don't get excited, sad reality. Some time back I mapped (by hand before all these tools were available) the Pictish symbols, and it holds mountains of information. Hope you are OK if I put the links here? - I live in hope that someone else will see and get excited too, but ... https://www.academia.edu/40431431/PICTISH_SYMBOLS_LISTS_and_DISTRIBUTION_PART_ONE and Research paper thumbnail of PICTISH SYMBOLS: LISTS and DISTRIBUTION (part two)
Hi Helen, this is amazing, thank you - some superb data in there. It doesn't look like anyone has yet mapped the symbol distribution in GIS, or at least if they have, the distribution maps aren't public. I'd love to bring some of this data into my spreadsheet, and use it as the basis of a trial project in QGIS - would you mind?
Hi Fiona, what a fantastic resource, thanks for sharing! You and Helen are doing amazing work mapping Pictish stone class and symbol distributions. Watching with interest :-)
Thankyou for taking the time out to reprise your experience in your mapping course. It is good to have a reminder now and again of how to use Google My Maps . I have QGIS installed here and have done some workshop training, but no substitute for constant use and practice. Plenty of useful YouTube videos if you have the time to watch them. I am in great admiration of the time you have to devote to your particular interests in addition to coursework. I will make a start on GIS again. All the best.
Thanks Christine - yes I'm a bit worried I've already forgotten how to use QGIS, need to get some practice in soon! Are you using it for historical/archaeological stuff? The coursework is a bit less this semester as we're learning medieval charter Latin and I remember some Latin from school, so the learning curve is a bit less steep.
Dear Fiona, sorry for delay am a bit flagging here under workload. I am looking to map some archaeology fieldwork data and also some coordinates from the Moray Quern Survey. So this type of mapping will need to be done on a larger scale map not just globally on a map of Scotland. Was all set to storm up to Aberdeen and catch up with some contacts in the department, but trains here pretty strike bound so still at home. QGIS looks easy but you need constant practice. Luckily there are YouTube videos available, but all this takes time on top of all the other videos we need to watch. Am still totally impressed at the amount of work you are getting through. I never really hit the less steep curve. I was very lucky with my classmates who helped out this little old crock heroically.
There used to be a feature of Canmore called Canmap which presented all of the historical records in a GIS. You could zoom on an area and see everything (buildings, find spots of artefacts etc). It was great.
I believe they lost the funding for the GIS package some (many?) years ago. Good GIS software is not cheap or certainly wasn’t back in the day and OS charges for the map data were also expensive. But nowadays there are some good open source GIS and maps.
Canmap was produced by RCAHMS themselves. Maybe HES could step up to the mark and redevelop it with open source minimising the costs that doomed Canmap
Hi Alastair, oh that's a real shame - and yes GIS is much more affordable now with open source options like QGIS, and lots of datasets (e.g. LiDAR) becoming available too. It would be brilliant to be able to explore patterns and relationships within Canmore itself. I've vaguely noticed that you can download each record as a CSV, but I haven't tried it out. The entire dataset would be an incredible resource.
This is such a great walk through of how much is accessible across the world for analysing data sets like this, and the information to be gleaned from them. Many years ago in my own m.phil days I worked with CANMORE and their team to help map class I symbol stones and Pictish-age/early medieval broch sites, and it was long enough ago (sheepishly enough) that there was nothing like this available outside specific research databases and GIS teams. So exciting to see this work and what's possible. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks Freya, it really is exciting what's possible now - even a few years ago GIS still felt like a really specialist tool that was inaccessible to non-geographers and those without deep pockets. It looks like there are some fantastic datasets becoming available too, opening up whole new horizons of possibility. Your project with Canmore sounds very cool - years ago my brother had a job with RCHME mapping historical shipwreck locations, and I was always quite envious of that.
Nice one Fiona! I totally agree with you that maps hold huge potential, and yes I get super excited by them too. They so often give the game away. The disappointing thing is that most people don't get excited, sad reality. Some time back I mapped (by hand before all these tools were available) the Pictish symbols, and it holds mountains of information. Hope you are OK if I put the links here? - I live in hope that someone else will see and get excited too, but ... https://www.academia.edu/40431431/PICTISH_SYMBOLS_LISTS_and_DISTRIBUTION_PART_ONE and Research paper thumbnail of PICTISH SYMBOLS: LISTS and DISTRIBUTION (part two)
PICTISH SYMBOLS: LISTS and DISTRIBUTION (part two) https://www.academia.edu/40430348/PICTISH_SYMBOLS_LISTS_and_DISTRIBUTION_part_two_
Hi Helen, this is amazing, thank you - some superb data in there. It doesn't look like anyone has yet mapped the symbol distribution in GIS, or at least if they have, the distribution maps aren't public. I'd love to bring some of this data into my spreadsheet, and use it as the basis of a trial project in QGIS - would you mind?
fantastic, you'll have to tell me what you need. Perhaps PM me on FB?
Hi Fiona, what a fantastic resource, thanks for sharing! You and Helen are doing amazing work mapping Pictish stone class and symbol distributions. Watching with interest :-)
Thankyou for taking the time out to reprise your experience in your mapping course. It is good to have a reminder now and again of how to use Google My Maps . I have QGIS installed here and have done some workshop training, but no substitute for constant use and practice. Plenty of useful YouTube videos if you have the time to watch them. I am in great admiration of the time you have to devote to your particular interests in addition to coursework. I will make a start on GIS again. All the best.
Thanks Christine - yes I'm a bit worried I've already forgotten how to use QGIS, need to get some practice in soon! Are you using it for historical/archaeological stuff? The coursework is a bit less this semester as we're learning medieval charter Latin and I remember some Latin from school, so the learning curve is a bit less steep.