Poster for An Archaeological Database for Threatened North Island Rock Art in New Zealand

Rock art offers an important window into the worldview of past people. Yet in Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island it is poorly understood and at risk of loss. As a first step to address the situation, Dr Gerard O’Regan is leading the first systematic archaeological review of Māori rock art sites across the Island. After the review is complete, the data and information system needs to be made available to local iwi to manage as a community level archive. He evaluated existing information systems in New Zealand and found they did not fully address recording and archiving need of this project. Enlisting the support of The Centre for eResearch and Digital Services at the University, a team is formed with Noel Zeng and Katy Butterworth as the primary developers of the software solution.

Data schema and set of requirements were specified through workshops inspired by customer journey mapping exercises. Existing solutions were evaluated, and a custom information system was built using FileMaker.

The system is now being deployed. Mapping the research through its distinct stages, usability testing, and evaluating technology costs in terms of the final stability and scalability of the application were found to be important.