The Cemetery Surveyor Application: Non-paper data Collection Methods in Luxembourg Burial Grounds
STREB, Christoph Klaus; Médard de Chardon, Cyrille; KOLNBERGER, Thomas
2023 • In Veit, Richard; Mytum, Harold (Eds.) Innovation and implementation. Critical Reflections and New Approaches to Historc Mortuary Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination
data collection; non-paper; graveyard survey; survey tool
Abstract :
[en] Sepulchral culture-science requires detailed fieldwork, focusing on minutiae and spatial attributes, yielding cumbersomely large data sets. For a study on material cultures in the Luxembourg region’s spaces of remembrance, we developed the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) and Web Cemetery Surveyor (WCA) for Android devices and desktop computers respectively, aiming to streamline diverse data collection methodologies. The multi-platform applications provide varying affordances, benefits and limitations. The android application, operating off-line, allows the association of photographs to grave features directly, while the desktop version, accessed online, allows simultaneous collaboration. This paper describes how the tools responded to a need, their development and design process, the justifications for their operations, strengths, weaknesses, and makes recommendations for future implementations.
Disciplines :
History Earth sciences & physical geography Archaeology
Author, co-author :
STREB, Christoph Klaus ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE)
Médard de Chardon, Cyrille ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Geography and Spatial Planning (DGEO)
KOLNBERGER, Thomas ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Geography and Spatial Planning (DGEO)
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
The Cemetery Surveyor Application: Non-paper data Collection Methods in Luxembourg Burial Grounds
Publication date :
2023
Main work title :
Innovation and implementation. Critical Reflections and New Approaches to Historc Mortuary Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination
FNR8333105 - Material Culture And Spaces Of Remembrance. A Study Of Cemeteries In Luxembourg In The Context Of The Greater Region, 2014 (01/08/2015-31/07/2018) - Sonja Kmec
Discovering England's Burial Spaces (DEBS). N.d. "DEBS Discovering England's Burial Spaces." Retrieved 25 March 2021 from http://debs.ac.uk/index.html.
GitHub. 2020. "WebCemeterySurveyor." Retrieved 25 March 2021 from github.com/serialc/CemeterySurveyor.
Glaser, B. G. 2000. Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Abingdon: Routledge.
Goody, J., and C. Poppi. 1994. "Flowers and Bones: Approaches to the Dead in Anglo-American and Italian Cemeteries." Comparative Studies in Society and History 36(1): 146-175.
Graas, A. 2017. "Spatiality and Materiality of Remembering the Dead. A Methodological Example to Detect and Analyse Patterns of Spatial Association in a MicroScale Environment." Master's thesis. Esch-Belval: University of Luxembourg.
JSON. N.d. "Introducing JSON." Retrieved 25 March 2021 from https://www.json.org/json-en.html.
Kmec, S., A. Reuter, and R. L. Philippart, eds. 2019. Ewige Ruhe? Grabkulturen in Luxemburg und den Nachbarregionen / Concession à perpétuité? Cultures funéraires au Luxembourg et dans les régions voisines. Luxembourg: Capybara Books.
Kolnberger, T. 2012. "Phnom Penh nach der urbanen Katastrophe: 'Alltägliches Geographie-Machen' am Beispiel der Standortentscheidungen von Wirtschaft und Handel in einer südostasiatischen Metropole." MÖGG (Annals of the Austrian Geographical Society) 154: 235-260. https://austriaca.at/?arp=0x002d998c, open access.
Mallios, S., and D. M. Caterino. 2011. "Mortality, Money, and Commemoration: Social and Economic Factors in Southern California Grave-Marker Change During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15(3): 429-460.
Mey, G., and K. Mruck, eds. 2011 Grounded Theory Reader. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Mytum, H. C. 2000. Recording and Analysing Graveyards. York: Council for British Archaeology.
Mytum, H. C. 2009. "Mortality Symbols in Action: Protestant and Catholic Memorials in Early-Eighteenth-Century West Ulster." Historical Archaeology 43(1): 160-182.
Mytum, H. C. 2019. "Recording and Analysing Burial Grounds Advice Documentation, Sections Carrying out a Project, Recording, Identifying Monument Types, Photography and Additional Recording, Making a Plan." Retrieved 20 July 2021 from http://www.debs.ac.uk/.
Pillatt, T., G. Beale, K. Green, D. Maxwell, H. Mytum, K. Niven, J. Richards, and N. Smith. 2020. "Data Paper: The Burial Spaces Research Database." Internet Archaeology 55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.55.3
Schmitt, D., V. Blondeau, S. Kmec, T. Kolnberger, and C. K. Streb. 2018. "Cimetière communal de Walferdange au Luxembourg. Les défunts sous le regard des vivants, vivre l'hétérotopie du cimetière." In Des lieux pour penser: musées, bibliothèques, théâtres. Matériaux pour une discussion, ed. J. Botte, A. Doyen, V. Ferey, and C. Lebat, 264-268. Paris: ICOM-ICOFOM (https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01781404, open access).
Streb, C. K. 2020. "The Materiality and Spatiality of Graves and Grave Markers in the Border Region between Luxembourg and Germany." PhD dissertation. Esch-Belval: University of Luxembourg, and Durham: Durham University.
Streb, C. K., T. Kolnberger, and S. Kmec. 2019. "The Material Culture of Burial and Its Microgeography: A Luxembourg Cemetery as a Methodological Example of an Object-Centred Approach to Quantitative Material Culture Studies." Journal of Material Culture 24(2): 1-26. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1359183519840744, open access.
Tarlow, S.. 1999. Bereavement and Commemoration: An Archaeology of Mortality. Oxford: Blackwell.
Transmortality. N.d. Transmortality International: Materiality and Spatiality of Death, Burial and Commemoration. Project RIP. Retrieved 25 March 2021 from https://transmortality.uni.lu/.