Archaeological data from the 1955 excavation in Haristoy-Oxocelhaya cave by Georges Laplace, José Miguel de Barandiáran, and Pierre Boucher

This table includes data from Georges Laplace's field booknotes about the excavation he carried out in 1955-1956 with José Miguel de Barandiáran and Pierre Boucher  at the Haristoy-Oxocelhaya cave (Isturits and Saint-Martin-d'Arberoue, France).

Variables

id: unique identifier attributed by the transcriber

square_y: label of the square on the Y axis

square_x: label of the square on the X axis

layer: layer as given in the notebook

layer.deduced: layer deduced when not given in the notebook (assuming that the lines bellow a line with a layer information are about the same layer)

n: object's identifying number attributed by Laplace (objects are numbered by grid square)

zmin: minimal depth

zmax: maximal depth (if applicable)

xmin: minimal X coordinate in the square

xmax: maximal X coordinate in the square (if applicable)

ymin: minimal Y coordinate in the square

ymax: maximal Y coordinate in the square (if applicable)

object_type: remain category

object_lithic-type: type of lithic implement

object_lithic-material: lithic raw material

object_anatomy: anatomical part, for faunal remains

object_fauna-order: taxonomic order, for faunal remains

object_fauna-genus: taxonomic genus, for faunal remains

object_decription: the description given in the excavation notebook

bloc_dimensions: dimensions for stone blocks

note_laplace:  note by Laplace as written in the notebook

note: note by the transcriber

About stone blocks dimension

Stone blocks are written as “B10.20.20” or as “B10”. This information was recorded in the “bloc_dimensions” columns and the “object_type” column was filled with a “bloc” or “bloc stalagmité” value.

About the first form, the three numerical values are interpreted as the dimensions of the block in centimeters and are noted with separating dots in the “bloc_dimensions” column. E.g. “B10.20.20” is recorded as “10.20.20”.

The second form is interpreted as referring to cubic blocs, only one value is useful. This value was copied in the “bloc_dimensions” column. E.g. “B10” is recorded  “ 10”. The two other lengths can be deduced when processing the dataset.

Line multiplication

Generally speaking, one line in the notebook corresponds to one object. This is sometimes not the case, when two objects are noted with a “+” sign (e.g. “B10 + fo”) or when a multiplier is applied to the description of an object (e.g. “7 B10”, for seven blocks of size 10). In this case, a line in the table was created for each object and, if the line contained an object number, this number was copied in each new line in the “n” column.